Quantum News Briefs May 5: Air Force reaches out to industry to apply quantum computing and communications to C4ISR applications; planqc awarded EUR 29 million contract from the DLR to build and install scalable neutral-atom quantum computer; IonQ & Fidelity Center for Applied Technology unveil scalable quantum prep for Monte Carlo Algorithms + MORE

Quantum News Briefs May 5: Air Force reaches out to industry to apply quantum computing and communications to C4ISR applications; planqc awarded EUR 29 million contract from the DLR to build and install scalable neutral-atom quantum computer; IonQ & Fidelity Center for Applied Technology unveil scalable quantum prep for Monte Carlo Algorithms + MORE.

Air Force reaches out to industry to apply quantum computing and communications to C4ISR applications

U.S. Air Force researchers are asking industry to develop quantum computing technology for next-generation command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) applications.
Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate in Rome, N.Y., issued a broad agency announcement (FA8750-23-S-7001) last week for the Quantum Information Sciences project to apply quantum information and communications technologies to C4ISR systems.
The Quantum Information Sciences project seeks to develop quantum computing algorithms, and to investigate entanglement distribution across a heterogeneous quantum network for military C4ISR.
Research will include quantum algorithms and computing, memory-node-based quantum networking, quantum information processing, heterogeneous quantum platforms, and quantum information sciences.
The Quantum Information Sciences project has five thrusts: quantum algorithm and computation; quantum information processing; memory-node-based quantum networking; heterogeneous quantum platforms; and quantum information science.
Companies interested should email white papers to the Air Force’s Jon Maggiolino no later than 30 Sept. 2023 at Jon.Maggiolino@us.af.mil. Those submitting promising white papers will be invited to submit full proposals. Companies interested also may email white papers until 30 September 2026.
Email questions or concerns to the Air Force’s Amber Buckley at Amber.Buckley@us.af.mil. More information is online at https://sam.gov/opp/03e6c9dbc79f439aac57fef0cece28f9/view.

planqc awarded EUR 29 million contract from the DLR to build and install scalable neutral-atom quantum computer

planqc has been selected by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to develop a digital neutral-atom-based quantum computing hardware and software platform that is scalable and can demonstrate quantum algorithms for real-world problems according to May 5 news announcement.
The award is valued at 29 million EUR. planqc teams up with Menlo Systems and ParityQC who will provide critical components for the laser systems, software, and architecture. This is the first sale of a digital quantum computer based on neutral atoms in Europe. The award comes at a time of impressive growth for the company and follows the appointment of Hermann Hauser as board advisor. The start-up planqc was founded in April 2022 in Garching near Munich (Germany). The founding team builds on decades of groundbreaking research and technology development at Munich’s Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ).
“We are very proud that DLR relies on planqc as the technology leader in the field of neutral atoms to build a quantum computer. This order is an important milestone in our commercialization and growth strategy, which envisages expanding into other key industries and opening up global markets as a next step.” Says Alexander Glätzle, CEO and Co-Founder of planqc. Click here to read complete announcement with contacts.

IonQ & Fidelity Center for Applied Technology unveil scalable quantum prep for Monte Carlo Algorithms

IonQ in collaboration with the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) has announced an efficient and reliable design as a critical first step in the application of quantum computing to Monte Carlo methods. The first-of-its-kind state preparation technique is scalable and has been demonstrated on IonQ hardware for up to 20 qubits. The achievement may not only benefit financial institutions in tasks like portfolio management, but also other industries including science and engineering, where Monte Carlo algorithms are used. A research paper outlining the new technique is available here for viewing.
State preparation is a necessary component of many quantum algorithms and is fundamental in expediting Monte Carlo methods, which use randomness to simulate outcomes of complex problems. Financial institutions use Monte Carlo algorithms to understand the relationship between an outcome and multiple variables in complex systems, but their precision is frequently limited by the length of time needed to run the same algorithm repeatedly with different values of the variables. IonQ and FCAT believe that when run on large and accurate quantum computers, this state preparation technique will help these institutions achieve faster results.
“The Fidelity Center for Applied Technology team were early believers in the power of quantum to reshape the field of finance, and we are pleased to announce the development of a first-of-its-kind state preparation technique with them,” said Peter Chapman, CEO, IonQ. “In finance, accuracy and speed can mean the difference between profit or loss. We believe this technique can provide financial institutions a tool they need to integrate quantum into their workflow and explore novel ways to inform portfolio engineering, retirement planning, and risk management in even the most complex of scenarios.”
The May 4 announcement is an extension of IonQ’s project with the FCAT team, during which the two groups issued a paper describing how certain generative quantum machine learning algorithms may provide an advantage over their classical counterparts.  Click here to read the complete announcement.

International research offers an intricate understanding of how quantum systems change fluctuations over time

A team of physicists scientists from New York Univesity, TU Wien (Vienna), ETH Zurich, Free University of Berlin, and the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, has illuminated certain properties of quantum systems by observing how their fluctuations spread over time. The research offers an intricate understanding of a complex phenomenon that is foundational to quantum computing—a method that can perform certain calculations significantly more efficiently than conventional computing. One researchers such precise characterization could also lead to better quantum sensors. Quantum News Briefs summarizes the findings from the NYU site.
“In an era of quantum computing it’s vital to generate a precise characterization of the systems we are building,” explains Dries Sels, an assistant professor in New York University’s Department of Physics and an author of the paper, which appears in the journal Nature Physics. “This work reconstructs the full state of a quantum liquid, consistent with the predictions of a quantum field theory—similar to those that describe the fundamental particles in our universe.”
Sels adds that the breakthrough offers promise for technological advancement.
“Quantum computing relies on the ability to generate entanglement between different subsystems, and that’s exactly what we can probe with our method,” he notes. “The ability to do such precise characterization could also lead to better quantum sensors—another application area of quantum technologies.”
The research team, which included scientists from TU Wien (Vienna), ETH Zurich, Free University of Berlin, and the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, calculated quantum information measures of a quantum system via a tomography procedure—the reconstruction of a specific quantum state with the aim of seeking experimental evidence of a theory.  Click here to read complete article on NYU website.

Sandra K. Helsel, Ph.D. has been researching and reporting on frontier technologies since 1990.  She has her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona