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Just log in to see the flaws of the internet today. 39, mainly the ease with which it is easy to steal or intercept data. A future solution to these problems could consist of an upgrade based on the latest advances in the science of subatomic particles: a quantum Internet
Just last week again, three scientists from the QuTech's famous center of the University of Technology of Delft
(TU Delft) revealed a roadmap on how this quantum Internet should develop. They also plan to connect four cities with a quantum link by 2020, reports the MIT Tech Review. And today, scientists from the University of Chicago have announced their intention to set up a quantum link over a distance of 30 miles. Scientists really take this idea of the quantum internet seriously.
"I think it's useful to have a vision if you want to put something in the real world," Stephanie Wehner, professor of quantum information at TU Delft and co-roadmap author, has declared to Gizmodo. "We were hoping to offer guidance to people wanting to implement these networks in the real world."
A quantum internet is not a clbadic internet upgrade, but an addendum. According to the Roadmap published in Science, "the vision of a quantum Internet is to provide a fundamentally new Internet technology by enabling quantum communication between two points of the Earth." As is generally the case with emerging technology, all uses of a quantum Internet would be for the moment. But there are already some ideas. Perhaps it will offer more cybersecurity, help to better synchronize clocks, improve telescope networks like those hoping to image the central dark hole of the Milky Way, improve sensor technology or will it allow access to the power of a quantum processor via the cloud. Such a network differs from a conventional network at its heart. The Internet transmits the translated data into fundamental units called bits, always equal to zero or one. A quantum Internet could transmit qubits, which are superimposed on zero and one, which means that they can have partially null and partially equal values. Some hope that qubits will allow more powerful computations with richer subcomponents. But they also offer advantages in terms of communication. You can entangle qubits, which means that they are treated mathematically as single units, regardless of their separation. Qubits can not be copied. Any attempt in this direction would be detected. Qubits automatically change to zero or one as soon as they are measured (based on a probability encoded in the qubit value).
Quantum communication could allow you to perform calculations on the quantum cloud without the quantum computer knowing what computation it has performed. Or you could tangle a qubit over a long distance – if measured, the two entangled qubits could take the same random response when measured, impossible to predetermine and impossible for a third party to know.
The document by Wehner and his colleagues presents a roadmap for realizing the dream of the quantum internet. Such a project would require a quantum channel or physical link to transmit qubits; it would require quantum repeaters that would allow two qubits to entangle over great distances; Finally, it would require quantum end nodes that can be simple, such as devices measuring qubit values or quantum processors at full scale.
The first step would be a repeater network, where the points connected to the repeater can receive quantum cipher keys (but the quantum information can not be transmitted). The second step would be a network where any node can send one qubit to another. The third step allows entanglement between any two nodes. The fourth step allows the nodes to store the quantum state. The last two steps are actually to connect and connect quantum processors to allow calculations on the link.
The document is an important work; a "manifesto for the quantum internet," said Gizmodo Ciaran Lee, a research fellow at University College London. "The benefit of how these steps were defined is that, thanks to the enhancement of our technological capabilities and that we move from one stage to another, totally new applications become available, which was not possible before. "Each step offers a benefit that was lacking in the previous one.
Of course, there are challenges ahead. We are in the first phase, although some experiments are already working on more advanced elements of the network. But all the challenges of quantum computing, such as the ease with which qubits break down into regular bits, apply here. Wehner thought that the biggest limitation today is that, in short, it takes too much time to generate entanglement.
Experiments are underway to improve the state of these quantum networks, including the quantum network planned for 2020 in the Netherlands. to a satellite, Micius, used for quantum experiments, although qubit values can not be stored or manipulated at nodes (they are always measured as zero or one, instead of returning a manipulable quantum state). Although Wehner noted that the United States had already been somewhat silent about support for research on the quantum internet, the situation is intensifying. The recently announced project, funded by the US Department of Energy and led by researchers from the University of Chicago, is currently testing entanglement over a distance of 30 miles on a link to the United States. previously dormant optical fibers.
relatively small. "We need to train a generation of students who will be the future users of this technology," said David Awschalom, professor of quantum information at the University of Chicago in Gizmodo. "A good thing about creating a quantum platform like ours is that it will provide a huge educational platform."
Will the Quantum Internet Be There? actually realized? Who knows – but at least there is a plan.
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