La aplicaci\u00f3n de la f\u00edsica cu\u00e1ntica a las computadoras y a la comunicaci\u00f3n de datos es una realidad que avanza d\u00eda a d\u00eda. El Laboratorio Nacional Argonne del Departamento de Energ\u00eda y la Universidad de Chicago anunciaron recientemente que completaron pruebas exitosas de lo que llaman un “loop cu\u00e1ntico”, que sirve como precursor de lo que alg\u00fan d\u00eda podr\u00eda ser una internet cu\u00e1ntica nacional. Esta tecnolog\u00eda hace que la comunicaci\u00f3n sea totalmente segura.<\/p>\n
In a major step forward for quantum technology, the Department of Energy\u2019s Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago recently announced they had completed successful tests on what they call a \u201cquantum loop,\u201d which serves as a precursor for what may one day be a national quantum internet.<\/p>\n
While most are familiar with the zeroes and ones required for digital computing, quantum technology is the manipulation of neutrons, photons, electrons and protons to perform tasks. Scientists say the technology will have major implications across the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think this is the next wave,\u201d said Paul Dabbar, undersecretary for science at the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n
Quantum technologies offer the United States three major potential applications, he said during a phone call with reporters. Those include computing, communications and sensing. All will be particularly meaningful for security.<\/p>\n
During the quantum loop experiment, Argonne and the University of Chicago \u2014 working alongside an industry partner called Qubitekk \u2014 built a single photon source of entangled particles that was shot out into an existing fiber network in the Chicago suburbs on separate paths 26 miles in length, said David Awschalom, Argonne\u2019s senior scientist who also serves as the quantum information science group leader at the University of Chicago and director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange.<\/p>\n
Once the photons returned, scientists studied their measurements to see how robustly they were entangled, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that those two photons are still entangled,\u201d he said. \u201cWe measure how carefully they are [entangled] and we\u2019re going to extend this from platform-to-platform as the basis for a national network.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experiment was funded by the Energy Department\u2019s office of science.<\/p>\n
The quantum loop effort is partially modeled on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET \u2014 which eventually led to the creation of the internet, Dabbar said.<\/p>\n
The Defense Department in 1969 funded the initial four nodes of ARPANET, primarily in California. Over the next two decades, node by node, the internet was created, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, we\u2019re looking to start building nodes first around Chicago and then around New York and then elsewhere adding universities, labs and the commercial sector \u2026 somewhat similar to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While ARPANET grew in an ad hoc, grassroots manner, leaders of the initiative are being very deliberate about how a future quantum network can be created, Dabbar said.<\/p>\n
The Energy Department\u2019s \u201c17 national labs that are literally coast-to-coast and border-to-border have a need from a science point-of-view to build these quantum networks, \u2026 exchanging quantum data,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a long-term vision. It may take a decade or more. But we certainly hope it takes less than the 20 years that the internet took from the beginning to becoming national.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Kearns, laboratory director at Argonne, said the quantum loop experiment was a major step forward because it took research from the lab and moved it into the real world with the underground testbed the group created.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really allows us to understand the temperature variations and how that might affect communications,\u201d he said. \u201cIt also allows us to understand the vibrations as we go under the interstate \u2026 at our expressway or a train track.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next step is to create a two-way quantum link network from Argonne \u2014 which is located in Lemont, Illinois \u2014 to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, which will add another 30 miles or so to the network, going from 52 miles to 82 miles, Kearns added. That is expected to occur in April.<\/p>\n
The Chicago area is an ideal location for the exchange because there is seamless interaction between local companies, the national labs and regional universities where all interested parties can leverage each other\u2019s strengths, Awschalom said.<\/p>\n
Dabbar noted that the Department of Energy doesn\u2019t want the quantum loop to be restricted to only the 17 national labs that fall under its purview.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big footprint, but there\u2019s lot more to America than that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The department recently held a quantum internet blueprint session in New York City, which included senior researchers from a variety of universities including MIT, Yale and Caltech, Dabbar said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the quantum loop is a good way for the nation to lay the groundwork for a quantum workforce, Awschalom said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a workforce of designers and engineers and researchers that will understand, from a very intuitive way, quantum science and technology in ways that some of us still \u2026 [are grappling] with right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll need thousands of these people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kearns added: \u201cI\u2019ve heard this described as an IQ gap in terms of our understanding of quantum physics and quantum technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now is the time for universities, in partnership with national labs and industry, to train not only students but current employees so they can pivot quickly toward quantum opportunities, Awschalom said.<\/p>\n
Advancements in the quantum loop could create an extremely secure network that is far beyond anything the nation has right now, Dabbar said. That could \u201celiminate a lot of challenges around internet security that I think everyone is quite up to speed on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Awschalom noted that while the quantum loop team was able to announce successful large-scale entanglement, even more opportunities lie ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe shortly we will have large-scale teleportation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hope this will attract some of the brightest students in the country to work in this discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n