Quantum News Briefs January 20: Qunnect’s quantum networking testbed, GothamQ, enters the Manhattan Borough; WEF urges attention to “Global Quantum Divide”; An enhanced cooling method for the quantum world + MORE
Quantum News Briefs January 20: Qunnect’s quantum networking testbed, GothamQ, enters the Manhattan Borough; WEF urges attention to “Global Quantum Divide”; An enhanced cooling method for the quantum world + MORE.
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Qunnect’s quantum networking testbed, GothamQ, enters the Manhattan Borough
Qunnect, an industry leader in quantum-secure networking technology designed for scalable deployment on existing telecom fiber infrastructure, announced on January 17 the construction of a new fiber loop that expands its quantum networking testbed, GothamQ, from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Quantum News Briefs summarizes the announcement.
Connecting New York University (NYU) to the Navy Yard, Qunnect is poised to unlock quantum internet capabilities for customers in financial services, critical infrastructure, and telecom in the New York metropolitan area.
“Only several months after our Series A announcement, we are thrilled to be expanding our state-of-the-art testbed in the US, bringing our quantum internet product suite to new and prospective customers as they begin to test our technologies right in the backyard of one of the largest corporate and financial epicenters in the world,” explains CEO Dr. Noel Goddard. “Through this partnership with the Center for Quantum Information Physics (CQIP) at New York University Arts & Science (NYU), we are very proud to be collaborating with the university, and integral educational partners like SandboxAQ, to help enrich the understanding of quantum communication networks on our collective mission to stimulate industrial innovation.”
Related: Qunnect a Platinum Sponsor for IQT The Hague Conference and Exhibition
In collaboration with CQIP, Qunnect and SandboxAQ will develop a Quantum Information Science (QIS) curriculum and dedicated lab, built to utilize the GothamQ testbed and designed with a mission to spark a leading quantum workforce in New York City. Click here to read complete news announcement.
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WEF urges attention to “Global Quantum Divide”
As of January 2021, 17 countries have a national initiative or strategy to support quantum technology research and development; 3 have strategies under development while 12 other countries have significant government-funded or -endorsed initiatives. But more than 150 countries do not yet have a quantum strategy. Quantum News Briefs summarizes the recent report.
The planned global public spend in 2022 on developing quantum technology is estimated to exceed $30 billion, with China alone accounting for roughly half of that total and the European Union making up almost another quarter. The remaining quarter is distributed primarily among nine countries, led by the US, Canada, Japan and the UK. In terms of private investment, the US and EU dominate, with 59 and 53 quantum computing startups respectively. That number stands in stark contrast to just two startups in all of South America and none in Africa.
Disparities in access to existing technologies have already created a digital divide: 2.9 billion people are still offline and do not benefit from the digital economy. Unequal access to quantum technology has negative geopolitical implications, putting those countries whose quantum programs are less developed in danger of falling further behind.
To avoid a quantum divide developing further, countries with more developed quantum programs must make a commitment to inclusivity in quantum education.
The National Quantum Blueprint initiative, guided by the Quantum Computing Governance Principles of the Forum, will provide a roadmap to build a quantum ecosystem, driving positive outcomes for society. By working together with national government and regional economic associations, we aim to close the divide before the quantum industry takes off even further. Click here to read entire WEF report.
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An enhanced cooling method for the quantum world
A team led by Innsbruck physicist Gerhard Kirchmair has now demonstrated a new method in the laboratory that could make the quantum properties of macroscopic objects more accessible than before. With the method, the researchers were able to increase the efficiency of an established cooling method by an order of a magnitude. Quantum News Briefs summarizes below.
In the experiment, the Innsbruck researchers couple the mechanical object—in their case a vibrating beam—to the superconducting circuit via a magnetic field. To do this, they attached a magnet to the beam, which is about 100 micrometers long. When the magnet moves, it changes the magnetic flux through the circuit, the heart of which is a so-called SQUID, a superconducting quantum interference device. Its resonant frequency changes depending on the magnetic flux, which is measured using microwave signals. In this way, the micromechanical oscillator can be cooled to near the quantum mechanical ground state.
David Zöpfl from Gerhard Kirchmair’s team says, “The change in the resonant frequency of the SQUID circuit as a function of microwave power is not linear. As a consequence, we can cool the massive object by an order of magnitude more for the same power.”
This new, simple method is particularly interesting for cooling more massive mechanical objects. Zöpfl and Kirchmair are confident that this could be the foundation for the search of quantum properties in larger macroscopic objects. Click here to read Phys.org article about this research in-entirety.
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Megaport and Qrypt demonstrate first of its kind global quantum secure data transmissions
Qrypt and Megaport debuted the ability to transmit data using quantum-secure methods powered by Qrypt quantum key generation technology on January 15. Quantum News Briefs summarizes the announcement below.
Using Megaport’s industry-leading Network as a Service (NaaS) platform, file-sharing applications were launched across several global data centers, including AWS in San Francisco, Azure US East in Virginia, and Google Cloud in Tokyo. The data shared between each location was protected using first-of-its-kind quantum-secure cryptography, ensuring privacy and security both now and into the future.
Megaport provides network connectivity across hundreds of public clouds and data centers worldwide, allowing for affordable and easy-to-manage network connectivity on a global scale. Megaport ONE enables users to deploy applications to cloud service providers in a matter of minutes. The ability to utilize Qrypt technology within Megaport ONE provides quantum-proof security and privacy for all data transmissions. Configuring applications deployed using Megaport ONE to use quantum-encrypted REST requests and responses can be configured with minimal support. Quantum-secure data transmission is available on all major cloud providers across the globe, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
“Demonstrating quantum-secure connectivity across regions and services is just another example of how Megaport is the best place to network for the most sensitive workloads in the cloud,” said Jim Brinksma, CTO of Megaport. Click here to read complete announcement.
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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.
