News Releases:
EU launches pioneering project for cryogenic quantum computing technologies
Key highlights:
- 36 partners from 11 countries collaborating to establish a European supply chain for cryogenic quantum technologies
- Focus on overcoming constraints in upscaling quantum computers
- Development of new materials, fabrication processes, and simulation approaches
- Testing of new designs for traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) to improve quantum computer efficiency
Amongst other milestones, the ARCTIC project will test new designs of the traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPA), a critical component in superconducting quantum computers used for readout measurement. To make quantum computers more compact and cost-effective, Alice & Bob will test the performance of the new quantum-specific TWPAs in their cryostats against commercially available TWPAs.
This project could significantly accelerate the development of full-scale quantum computers and enable breakthroughs in computational chemistry, life sciences, and cybersecurity.
NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory advances with first five pilot projects
The U.S. National Science Foundation announced the initial $5 million investment across five pilot projects taking the first steps toward creating the NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL), a first-of-its-kind national resource to enable faster discovery and development of use-inspired quantum technologies as per the NSF August 9 news release.
With initial 12-month timelines, the five new pilot projects — funded at $1 million each — are led by quantum experts and others with diverse backgrounds spanning academia, industry, national labs and government. Five more pilot projects are expected to be announced later this year. The pilot project teams will be invited to compete for larger awards anticipated to fund NQVL’s design and development as a federated resource, bringing together assets that will enable a diversity of quantum-focused research and development.
The first five NQVL pilot projects are:
Wide-Area Quantum Network to Demonstrate Quantum Advantage (SCY-QNet)
Quantum Advantage-Class Trapped Ion system (QACTI)
Deep Learning on Programmable Quantum Computers (DLPQC)
Quantum Sensing and Imaging Lab (Q-SAIL)
Quantum Computing Applications of Photonics (QCAP)
NQVL will broaden access to specialized research infrastructure by functioning as a geographically distributed national resource. NQVL will grow and adapt to seize emerging opportunities and accelerate the translation of fundamental science and engineering into practical applications codesigned by a broad and diverse user community that spans computing, networking and sensing.
In Other News:
Stockhead reports “Senetas steps up to protect global systems against quantum threat”
Nations including the UK, France, Spain, and the Netherlands have enacted bans on exporting quantum computers that surpass specific capabilities, reflecting the technology’s potential to compromise existing cybersecurity measures and the chaos this could cause in the hands of bad actors.
Amidst this backdrop of uncertainty and rapid technological evolution, Senetas (ASX:SEN), a sovereign Australian cybersecurity company, has positioned itself as a pioneer in adapting to the looming quantum era. Its network encryption security products already offer quantum-safe capabilities.
Senetas, in collaboration with its global cybersecurity partner Thales, has been proactively engaging with stakeholders across Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, discussing strategies to fortify cybersecurity in anticipation of the arrival of quantum computers. The key concern for these countries is that today’s long-life data remain secure in a quantum-enabled world. The company’s recent initiatives extend beyond APAC, too. Senetas has recently secured significant contracts in the Middle East,
SciTechDaily reports “First-ever quantum memory for X-Rays achieved”
Researchers have developed a groundbreaking quantum memory for X-rays, allowing extended memory times and paving the way for advanced quantum optics applications, advanced quantum optics applications, including photon entanglement as per the August 11 SciTechDaily.
An international team of researchers including Dr. Olga Kocharovskaya, a distinguished professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University, has demonstrated a novel way of storing and releasing X-ray pulses at the single photon level — a concept first proposed in earlier theoretical work by Kocharovskaya’s group — that could apply to future X-ray quantum technologies.
The team’s work, led by Helmholtz Institute Jena Professor Dr. Ralf Röhlsberger and performed using the synchrotron sources PETRA III at the German Electron Synchroton (DESY) in Hamburg and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, resulted in the first realization of quantum memory in the hard X-ray range. Their findings are published in the journal Science Advances.
“Quantum memory is an indispensable element of the quantum network, providing storage and retrieval of quantum information,” said Kocharovskaya, a member of the Texas A&M Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering. “Photons are fast and robust carriers of quantum information, but it is difficult to hold them stationary in case this information is needed at a later time. A convenient way of doing this is by imprinting this information into a quasi-stationary medium in the form of polarization or spin wave with a long coherence time and releasing it back via re-emission of the original photons.”