Lifeboat Foundation

PRESS RELEASE — Toshiba Europe Ltd. and Single Quantum B.V. have collaborated to test and validate long-distance deployments of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology. Following extended validation testing of Toshiba’s QKD technology and Single Quantum’s superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs), both companies are pleased to announce a solution that substantially extends the transmission range for QKD deployment over fibre connections, up to and beyond 300km.

QKD uses the quantum properties of light to generate quantum secure keys that are immune to decryption by both high performance conventional and quantum computers. Toshiba’s QKD is deployed over fibre networks, either coexisting with conventional data transmissions on deployed ‘lit’ fibres, or on dedicated quantum fibres.

Toshiba’s unique QKD technology can deliver quantum secure keys in a single fibre optic link at distances of up to 150km using standard integrated semiconductor devices. Achieving longer distance QKD fibre transmission is challenging due to the attenuation of the quantum signals along the fibre length, (the optical loss of the fibre link). To provide extended QKD transmission, operators typically concatenate fibre links together with trusted nodes along the fibre route which house QKD systems that relay the secret keys.

By modifying a refrigerator commonly used in both research and industry, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have drastically reduced the time and energy required to cool materials to within a few degrees above absolute zero.

Researchers at Tohoku University and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have developed fundamental experiments and theories to manipulate the geometry of the “electron universe,” which describes the structure of electronic quantum states in a manner mathematically similar to the actual universe, within a magnetic material under ambient conditions.

A team of computer engineers from quantum computer maker Quantinuum, working with computer scientists from Microsoft, has found a way to greatly reduce errors when running experiments on a quantum computer. The combined group has published a paper describing their work and results on the arXiv preprint server.

Computer scientists have been working for several years to build a truly useful quantum computer that could achieve quantum supremacy. Research has come a long way, most of which has involved adding more qubits.

But such research has been held up by one main problem—quantum computers make a lot of errors. To overcome this problem, researchers have been looking for ways to reduce the number of errors or to correct those that are made before results are produced.

Using thin layers of chiral nematic liquid crystals, researchers have observed the formation dynamics of skyrmions.

A skyrmion is a topologically stable, vortex-like field configuration that cannot be smoothly morphed to a uniform state [1]. First proposed by physicist Tony Skyrme in 1961 as a model of the nucleon [2], the concept has since been studied in condensed-matter physics and adjacent fields [3]. In particular, skyrmions have cropped up in studies of magnetism [4], Bose-Einstein condensates [5], quantum Hall systems [6], liquid crystals [7], and in other contexts (see, for example, Viewpoint: Water Can Host Topological Waves and Synopsis: Skyrmions Made from Sound Waves). Skyrmions exhibit fascinating properties such as small size, stability, and controllability, which give them great potential for applications in spintronics, data storage, and quantum computing.

Dense ensembles of laser-cooled molecules allow the observation of molecular collisions—a result that could lead to applications of cold molecular gases in quantum simulation and fundamental physics tests.

Quantum physics requires high-precision sensing techniques to delve deeper into the microscopic properties of materials. From the analog quantum processors that have emerged recently, quantum-gas microscopes have proven to be powerful tools for understanding quantum systems at the atomic level. These devices produce images of quantum gases with very high resolution: They allow individual atoms to be detected.

I found this on NewsBreak: Quantum computers take major step forward thanks to simplified laser beam trick.

I found this on NewsBreak: Steering toward quantum simulation at scale.

Researchers simulated a key quantum state at one of the largest scales reported, with support from the Quantum Computing User Program, or QCUP, at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.