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Qubits are a basic building block for quantum computers, but theyre also notoriously fragiletricky to observe without erasing their information in the process. Now, new research from CUBoulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may be a leap forward for handling qubits with a light touch.

In the study, a team of physicists demonstrated that it could read out the signals from a type of qubit called a superconducting qubit using laser lightand without destroying the qubit at the same time.

Artist's depiction of an electro-optic transducer, an ultra-thin devicethat can capture and transform the signals coming from a superconducting qubit. (Credit: Steven Burrows/JILA)

The groups results could be a major step toward building a quantum internet, the researchers say. Such a network would link up dozens or even hundreds of quantum chips, allowing engineers to solve problems that are beyond the reach of even the fastest supercomputers around today. They could also, theoretically, use a similar set of tools to send unbreakable codes over long distances.

The study, published June 15 in the journal Nature, was led by JILA, a joint research institute between CU Boulder and NIST.

Currently, theres no way to send quantum signals between distant superconducting processors like we send signals between two classical computers, said Robert Delaney, lead author of the study and a former graduate student at JILA.

Quantum computers, which run on qubits,get their power by tapping into the properties of quantum physics, or the physics governing very small things. Delaney explained the traditional bits that run your laptop are pretty limited: They can only take on a value of zero or one, the numbers that underly most computer programming to date. Qubits, in contrast, can be zeros, ones or, through a property called superposition, exist as zeros and ones at the same time.

But working with qubits is also a bit like trying to catch a snowflake in your warm hand. Even the tiniest disturbance can collapse that superposition, causing them to look like normal bits.

In the new study, Delaney and his colleagues showed they could get around that fragility. The team uses a wafer-thin piece of silicon and nitrogen to transform the signal coming out of a superconducting qubit into visible lightthe same sort of light that already carries digital signals from city to city through fiberoptic cables.

Researchers have done experiments to extract optical light from a qubit, but not disrupting the qubit in the process is a challenge, said study co-author Cindy Regal, JILA fellow and associate professor of physics at CU Boulder.

There are a lot of different ways to make a qubit, she added.

Some scientists have assembled qubits by trapping an atom in laser light. Others have experimented with embedding qubits into diamonds and other crystals. Companies like IBM and Google have begun designing quantum computer chips using qubits made from superconductors.

A quantum computer chip designed by IBM that includes four superconducting qubits. (Credit: npj Quantum Information,2017)

Superconductors are materials that electrons can speed around without resistance. Under the right circumstances, superconductors will emit quantum signals in the form of tiny particles of light, or photons, that oscillate at microwave frequencies.

And thats where the problem starts, Delaney said.

To send those kinds of quantum signals over long distances, researchers would first need to convert microwave photons into visible light, or optical, photonswhich can whiz in relative safety through networks fiberoptic cables across town or even between cities. But when it comes to quantum computers, achieving that transformation is tricky, said study co-author Konrad Lehnert.

In part, thats because one of the main tools you need to turn microwave photons into optical photons is laser light, and lasers are the nemesis of superconducting qubits. If even one stray photon from a laser beam hits your qubit, it will erase completely.

The fragility of qubits and the essential incompatibility between superconductors and laser light makes usually prevents this kind of readout, said Lehnert, a NIST and JILA fellow.

To get around that obstacle, the team turned to a go-between: a thin piece of material called an electro-optic transducer.

Delaney explained the team begins by zapping that wafer, which is too small to see without a microscope, with laser light. When microwave photons from a qubit bump into the device, it wobbles and spits out more photonsbut these ones now oscillate at a completely different frequency. Microwave light goes in, and visible light comes out

In the latest study, the researchers tested their transducer using a real superconducting qubit. They discovered the thin material could achieve this switcheroo while also effectively keeping those mortal enemies, qubits and lasers, isolated from each other. In other words, none of the photons from the laser light leaked back to disrupt the superconductor.

Our electro-optic transducer does not have much effect on the qubit, Delaney said.

The team hasnt gotten to the point where it can transmit actual quantum information through its microscopic telephone booth. Among other issues, the device isnt particularly efficient yet. It takes about 500 microwave photons, on average, to produce a single visible light photon.

The researchers are currently working to improve that rate. Once they do, new possibilities may emerge in the quantum realm. Scientists could, theoretically, use a similar set of tools to send quantum signals over cables that would automatically erase their information when someone was trying to listen in. Mission Impossible made real, in other words, and all thanks to the sensitive qubit.

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What quantum information and snowflakes have in common, and what we can do about it - CU Boulder Today

SEATTLE The tech giants are locked in a race.

It might not end for another decade, and there might not be just one winner. But, at the finish line, the prize they promise is a speedy machine, a quantum computer, that will crack in minutes problems that can't be solved at all today. Builders describe revolutionary increases in computing power that will accelerate the development of artificial intelligence, help design new drugs and offer new solutions to help fight climate change.

Ready. Set. Quantum.

Relying on principles of physics and computer science, researchers are working to build a quantum computer, a machine that will go beyond the capabilities of the computers we use today by moving through information faster. Unlike the laptop screen we're used to, quantum computers display all their inner organs. Often cylindrical, the computers are an intimidating network of coils, plates, wires and bolts. And they're huge.

"We're talking about computing devices which are just unimaginable in terms of their power in what they can do," said Peter Chapman, president and CEO of IonQ, a startup in the race alongside tech giants Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, Intel and Honeywell.

The companies are riding a swell of interest that could grow to $9.1 billion in revenue by 2030, according to Tractica, a market intelligence firm that studies new technologies and how humans interact with tech advancements.

Right now, each company is deciding how to structure the building blocks needed to create a quantum computer. Some rely on semiconductors, others on light. Still others, including Microsoft, have pinned their ambitions on previously unproven theories in physics.

"Bottom line, we are in very heavy experimentation mode in quantum computing, and it's fairly early days," said Chirag Dekate, who studies the industry for research firm Gartner. "We are in the 1950s state of classical computer hardware."

There's not likely to be a single moment when quantum computers start making the world-changing calculations technologists are looking forward to, said Peter McMahon, an engineering professor at Cornell University. Rather, "there's going to be a succession of milestones."

At each one, the company leading the race could change.

In October 2019, Google said it had reached "quantum supremacy," a milestone where one of its machines completed a calculation that would have taken today's most advanced computers 10,000 years. In October last year, startup IonQ went public with an initial public offering that valued the company at $2 billion. In November, IBM said it had also created a quantum processor big enough to bypass today's machines.

In March, it was Microsoft's turn.

After a false start that saw Microsoft retract some research, it said this spring it had proved the physics principles it needed to show that its theory for building a quantum computer was, in fact, possible.

"We expect to capitalize on this to do the almost unthinkable," Krysta Svore, an engineer who leads Microsoft's quantum program, said in a company post announcing the discovery. "It's never been done before. ... [Now] here's this ultimate validation that we're on the right path."

As envisioned by designers, a quantum computer uses subatomic particles like electrons instead of the streams of ones and zeros used by computers today. In doing so, a quantum computer can examine an unimaginable number of combinations of ones and zeros at once.

A quantum computer's big selling points are speed and multitasking, enabling it to solve complex problems that would trip up today's technology.

To understand the difference between classical computers (the computers we use today) and quantum computers (the computers researchers are working on), picture a maze.

Using a classical computer, you're inside the maze. You choose a path at random before realizing it's a dead end and circling back.

A quantum computer gives an aerial view of the maze, where the system can see several different paths at once and more quickly reach the exit.

"To solve the maze, maybe you have to go 1,000 times to find the right answer," said IonQ's Chapman. "In quantum computing, you get to test all these paths all at once."

Researchers imagine quantum computers being used by businesses, universities and other researchers, though some industry leaders also talk about quantum computing as a technology that will unlock new ideas our brains can't yet imagine. (It's not likely the average household will have a quantum computer room any time soon.)

Microsoft recently partnered with paints and coatings company AkzoNobel to create a "virtual laboratory" where it will test and develop sustainable products using quantum computing to overcome some of the constraints that jam up a traditional lab setting, like access to raw materials, lack of space and concerns about toxicity.

Goldman Sachs is working to use quantum computing to speed up risk evaluation done by Wall Street traders. Boeing wants to use the advanced tech to model how materials will react to different environments, while ExxonMobil has plans to use it to simulate the chemical properties of hydrogen, hoping to develop new materials that can be used to make renewable energy.

In the long run, companies are aiming for a "fault-tolerant" quantum computer that will keep operating correctly even if components go awry. To get there, researchers are focused on keeping one thing happy: the qubit.

The computers we use today to look up the best restaurants or check the weather rely on bits, a unit of information in the computing world that is usually a zero or a one. Quantum computers rely on qubits, short for quantum bits, a unit of quantum information that can be (confusingly) both zero and one at the same time.

In a classical computer, a bit flips between zero and one. In a quantum computer, a qubit can be in both states at once, allowing it to simultaneously evaluate different possibilities.

It helps to think about qubits like a spinning coin, said Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware for Intel. (Clarke himself is so devoted to qubits he named his German shepherd after them.)

While a coin is spinning, it is briefly both heads and tails, before it lands on one side or the other. The electrons used to make quantum calculations in Intel's machines are mid-spin.

But qubits are easily disturbed by pretty much anything, including light, noise and temperature changes. "Qubits are notoriously fickle," said Chapman from IonQ. "They are the introverts of the world."

If a qubit gets too bothered, it will lose the information it is carrying, making the computer's calculations less reliable.

When computer scientists, physicists and engineers think about their quantum strategy, a lot of the discussion revolves around the best way to keep those qubits comfortable. That discussion then sparks another: What is the best way to build a qubit?

Intel is using semiconductors. Google, IBM and Amazon Web Services are using superconductors. IonQ is taking an approach that puts atoms in a vacuum sealed chamber to create something called "trapped-ion" qubits. Other companies are using light.

Microsoft is aiming to create something new. It's taking a physics-based approach to create what it calls "topological qubits." In March, it said it got one step closer by successfully demonstrating the physics behind its qubit philosophy.

But it has said that before. In 2018, a team of Microsoft-led researchers published a paper that said it had found evidence of the type of physics it was looking to prove. Last year, the group retracted the paper, writing it could "no longer claim the observation."

Since then, the Microsoft team developed a new protocol meant to "screen out false positives," said Svore, who is working on the quantum project at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters. "We are more confident than ever in our approach."

"Just like I can't prove the sun comes up tomorrow," Microsoft can't prove it can create the qubits it is hoping for, she said. But, "We've now demonstrated on multiple devices that the physics is here."

Though a competitive race, there may be more than one prize.

"All the technologies have advantages and disadvantages," said Fred Chong, a computer science professor at the University of Chicago. "A lot of these things are still evolving. Some of the technologies are good for the near-to-medium term, some of them are a little bit more in the future, some of them are very far in the future."

Determining the shortest route to get from Seattle to Portland might best be solved by one approach, while speeding up a chemical reaction might call for something different.

Most of the companies in the race today will develop "fairly credible quantum machines," Chong said, and customers will look for ways to "take advantage of their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses."

In the meantime, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are hosting quantum technology from their competitors, alongside their own, hoping to let customers play around with the tech and come up with uses that haven't yet been imagined. In the same way companies can buy cloud space and digital infrastructure technology from Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud, the tech companies now offer customers pay-as-you-go quantum computing.

"At this stage of the tech, it is important to explore different types of quantum computers," said Nadia Carlsten, former head of product at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing. "It's not clear which computer will be the best of all applicants. It's actually very likely there won't be one that's best."

Dekate, who analyzes the quantum industry for research and consulting firm Gartner, says quantum may have reached the peak of its "hype cycle."

Excitement and funding for the quantum industry has been building he said, pointing to a rising slope on a line graph. Now, it could be at a turning point, he continued, pointing to the spot right before the line graph takes a nosedive.

The hype cycle is a five phase model Gartner uses to analyze new technologies, as a way to help companies and investors decide when to get on board and when to cash out. It takes three to five years to complete the cycle if a new tech makes it through.

Predictive analytics made it to phase five, where users see real-world benefits. Autonomous vehicles are in phase three, where the original excitement wears off and early adopters are running into problems. Quantum computing is in phase two, the peak of expectations, Dekate said.

"For every industry to advance, there needs to be hype. That inspires investment," he said. "What happens in these ecosystems is end-users [like businesses and other enterprises] get carried away by extreme hype."

Some quantum companies are nearing the deadlines they originally set for themselves, while others have already passed theirs. The technology is still at least 10 years away from producing the results businesses are looking for, Dekate estimates. And investors are realizing they won't see profits anytime soon.

In the next phase of the hype cycle, Dekate predicts private investment in quantum computing will go down, public investment will go up in an attempt to make up the difference, and companies that have made promises they can no longer keep will be caught flat-footed. Mergers, consolidation and bankruptcy are likely, he said.

"The kind of macroeconomic dynamics that we're about to enter into, I think means some of these companies might not be able to survive," Dekate said. "The ecosystem is ripe for disruption: way too much fragmentation and companies overpromising and not delivering."

In other words, we could be headed toward a "quantum winter."

But, even during the funding freeze, businesses are increasingly looking for ways to use quantum computing preparing for when the technology is ready, Dekate said. While Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others are developing their quantum computers, companies like BMW, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Boeing are writing their list of problems for the computer to one day solve.

The real changes will come when that loop closes, Dekate said, when the tech is ready and the questions are laid out.

"At some point down the line, the classical [computing] approaches are going to stall, and are going to run into natural limitations," he said. Until then, "quantum computing will elicit excitement and, at the same time, disappointment."

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Microsoft aims to win the race to build a new kind of computer. So does Amazon - Greater Milwaukee Today | GMToday.com

QuantLR Ltd, an Israel-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) company, and MedOne, a leading Israeli data center service provider, have announced the successfuloperationofQuantLRs QKD system with MedOnes Data Centerinfrastructurebetween the cities ofTel Aviv andPetah Tikva.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is the onlyproven technology that provides the ultimate level of security fordata in transit, includingsecurity against any attack or eavesdropping attempts by contemporary, future, classical or quantum-based computers. Another threat that is secured by QKD is a hack now- decrypt later attack where the attacker collects the data now and decrypt in a later stage. This puts a sense of urgency in the implementation of QKD.

This quantum-based technology isespeciallyimportant in a data center environment to secure the information to and from the data center, between data centers, and within the data center itself.

The announcement comes following the recent successful testthat was conducted between the MedOne Tel Aviv and MedOne Petah Tikva facilities, over a distance of more than 35km (21.7 miles). Earlier this year QuantLR managed to exchange keys over longer distances.

The test was led by Dr. Nitzan Livneh, QuantLRs CTO, and Eli Saig, MedOnes CTO.

A single fiber strand was used to carry the quantum information as well as C-band data channels, enabling quantum-safe communication for clients without dark fiber. The system created more than ten 256bit symmetric encryption keys per second, without any flaws.

A QKD solution at an affordable price is critical to solve a major upcoming problem: todays networksecurityrelies on public keycryptographythatishighly vulnerable to cracking. The vast majority of encryption keys in the commercial world are distributed via PKI, but new algorithms and advances in quantum computing will soon provide the capabilities to crack most PKI instances, including RSAand Diffie Hellman methods. This issue is well-known, and Quantum Key Distribution is widely considered the most secure solution for long-term data security, as conventional security solutions approach their end-of-life.

We are delighted to collaborate with a leading data center service provider such as MedOne. Data Centers are a very important use case for QKD and we see an increasing demand from leading players in this market, notesDr. Nitzan Livneh, CTO of QuantLR

Data security has become the most important aspect in a data center offering, and we are planning to be the first data center service provider worldwide that will offer a QKD solution to secure its clients data noted Ronnie Sadeh, CEO of MedOne.

AboutQuantLR:Headquartered in Israel, QuantLRaims to provide versatile cost-effective quantum cryptographic solutions based on quantum key distribution (QKD)technology to protect communicated data. This solution is proven to provide the ultimate level of security against any attack by contemporary, future, classical or quantum-based computers. QuantLRs solutions will be offered to the market as a component embedded within communication hardware vendor products, as well as stand-alone products.

About MedOne:MedOne leads Israels data center market, providing comprehensive hosting services to Israels largest organizations. With several underground data centers spanning over 16,000 square meters (172,000 square feet), MedOne provides hosting, backup and business continuity services with the highest SLA, resiliency and the best standard of security.

QuantLR Contact

Shlomi Cohen, shlomi[at]quantlr.com

Read more here:
QuantLR Partners With MedOne to Test and Validate a QKD Solution to Protect Against Quantum Computer Attacks - StartupHub.ai

With Bitcoin down 30% in the past week, some crypto traders have taken to Telegram to voice their feelings.

In the Bear Market Screaming Therapy Group on Telegram, members are only allowed to post voice notes of themselves screaming. Anything else will result in an instant ban from the group, which currently has about 75 members.

So far, more than a dozen different members have contributed to the group, posting voice notes of themselves screaming, yelling, groaning, and wailing in various pitches and rhythms.

Co-founder of NFT renting protocol Rentable World emiliano.eth shared the group Tuesday morning on Twitter, calling out the "degenerate" community, or crypto obsessives that engage in high-risk trading.

Hey degen, are you stressed? Just let it all out, he wrote, along with a link to join the group.

Matt Hussey, editorial director of NEAR Protocol (and former editor-in-chief of Decrypt) responded to the news of the Telegram group with #meIRL.

The groups featured image is of a Pepe frog yelling, often referred to as the REEEEEEE meme. Pepe the Frog was created back in 2005 by Matt Furie and has since become an internet symbol for meme culture and degen culture.

As the broader market downturn continues, yelling online has become the crypto traders latest coping mechanism after the rise of Goblintown Ethereum NFTs at the end of May and beginning of June, where holders made incoherent groaning sounds and role-played as urine-loving goblin creatures in late-night Twitter Spaces.

While some crypto traders move toward screaming as a coping mechanism, many mental health experts have argued that scream therapy is pseudoscience. Scientific research or no, it obviously feels good.

Developing social channels based on exchanging a single message isnt exactly new, of course. Back in 2014, the Yo app was launched with the sole purpose of enabling users to send each other the greeting Yo.

For crypto enthusiasts, there was the gm app, a self-described meme app which only allowed users to greet each other with gm, or good morning, a common acronym thrown around on Crypto Twitter and Discord. But the gm app was shut down back in September after a hacker reportedly gained access to user data.

With the Bear Market Screaming Therapy Group, weve now transcended language.

Get the biggest crypto news stories + weekly roundups and more!

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There's a Telegram for People to Scream Over the Bitcoin Crash - Decrypt

JBP is the greatest gift to humanity Fairview, Alberta could have ever given us. Courage and wisdom are two of the most important human characteristics, both vanishing rapidly. Dr. Peterson is off-the-charts on both. Highly recommend 12 Rules for Life for all late teens and early 20s. Its antidote to what ails their happy, successful, resilient, grateful emergence into adulthood. If you have a 16-18 yr old who is wobbling and youre concerned, please get him or her that book.

I recently missed out on the chance to see him in person in my city. Im still kicking myself.

Thank you, Doc. (Ive been to Fairview three times, hunting waterfowl in the upper Peace River country. No one would believe you came from there if they saw it for themselves. All the more reason your story is so amazing. But having gotten to know rural people in AB, SK, and MB, it does not surprise me in the least those are your roots).

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The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast on Apple Podcasts