Quantum News Briefs June 1: US seeks to curb investment in Chinese chips, AI and quantum computing, China Telecom invests $434M to establish China Telecom Quantum Technology Group Co., NSF-Sponsored study exploits quantum physics for superior wireless device security + MORE.
US seeks to curb investment in Chinese chips, AI and quantum computing
Paul Rosen, who oversees investment security at Treasury, told Senate Banking Committee members officials are working on curbing investment from the U.S. that “comes with know-how and expertise to certain specific sectors and subsectors such as advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing,” citing China and its military in particular.
China hawks in Washington blame U.S. investors for transferring capital and valuable know-how to Chinese tech companies that could help advance Beijing’s military.
In 2022, 5,064 export and re-export license applications were reviewed and about 26% were denied or returned without action, Kendler said in written testimony ahead of the Senate Banking Committee hearing. Click here to read article in-entirety.
China Telecom invests $434M to establish China Telecom Quantum Technology Group Co.
The new entity, to be based in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui, will focus on developing quantum technology, stepping up the pace of quantum product updates and promoting the industry nationwide, the statement said.
The investment marks the latest move by a Chinese telecommunications giant to try to tap into quantum technology and reflects Beijing’s ambition to pull ahead in the global race to harness the power of quantum computing.
“[This] is a practical action to thoroughly study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on the development of quantum technology,” China Telecom said in its statement.
China Telecom’s move comes after China Mobile, the world’s largest telecom carrier with 900 million mobile subscribers, last December signed a deal with Chinese startup Origin Quantum looking to use quantum computing to overcome computational bottlenecks facing 5G and 6G technologies.
NSF-Sponsored study exploits quantum physics for superior wireless device security
The engineers, led by Pai-Yen Chen, used a theory from quantum physics in math-based experiments to identify a “divergent exceptional point.”
Quantum physics describes systems for which precise measurement is difficult or impossible; a quantum state describes a parameter space or range of possible measurements. Within these states, exceptional points exist where the uncertainty of the system is at its maximum. These points are promising for cryptography — the more uncertain the system, the more secure.
Chen’s group created new RFID lock-and-tag devices that use the exceptional point algorithm to create a secure signal. Since every piece of hardware is slightly different due to small variations during the fabrication process, each RFID device produces its own unique digital fingerprint using the maximized uncertainty at the exceptional point.
Like everyone’s voice — which is heard via analog sound waves — the key cryptography structure makes the signal from each device unique, Chen said. Click here to read the complete announcement on NSF.gov
QuTech makes quantum breakthrough, enhances Andreev spin qubit for more stable quantum computing
Unlike the world of conventional computers, wherein bits are based on very well established and reliable technologies, the perfect qubit has not been invented yet. Will the quantum computer of the future contain qubits that are based on superconducting transmon qubits, spin qubits in silicon, NV centers in diamond, or perhaps some other quantum phenomenon? Each type of qubit has their own advantages—and disadvantages. One is more stable, the second has a higher fidelity, and others are more easily mass-produced. The perfect qubit does not exist. Yet.
Marta Pita-Vidal, co-first author, explained, “Two of the most promising types are spin qubits in semiconductors and transmon qubits in superconducting circuits. However, each type has its own challenges.”
”For example,” Pita-Vidal continued, “spin qubits are small and compatible with current industrial technology, but they struggle with interacting over long distances. On the other hand, transmon qubits can be controlled and read out efficiently over long distances, but they have a built-in speed limit for operations and are relatively large. The researchers in this study aim to harness the advantages of both types of qubits by developing a hybrid architecture that combines them.”
Principal investigator Christian Andersen stated: “The current Andreev spin qubit is not perfect yet. It still needs to demonstrate multi-qubit operations, which is needed for universal quantum computers. The coherence time is also sub-optimal. That can be improved by using another material. Fortunately, the scalability of the qubits is on par with semiconductor qubits, raising the hope that we can get to the point where making the quantum algorithms becomes the limiting factor and not the quantum hardware.” Click here for announcement in-entirety.
