Quantum Information

In the last several days, headlines have been plastered all over the internet regarding Chinese researchers using D-Wave quantum computers to hack RSA, AES, and "military-grade encryption." This is true and not true.

A quantum internet could one day allow quantum computers to team up and tackle some gigantic problems. Researchers at Toshiba are a step closer, demonstrating quantum communications sent over a record-breaking 600 km (373 miles) of optic fiber.

There’s no such thing as random in classical physics – for true randomization you need to turn to quantum physics. Now scientists have done just that, creating secure encryption keys based on the genuine randomness of quantum vibrations of diamond.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced and detailed a blueprint for a national quantum internet that would be super-fast and nigh on unhackable. The document describes four priority research areas, and five major milestones on the path.

In a new distance record, researchers have sent a photon, entangled with an ion, down a 50-km (31-mi) long optical fiber.

Fiber optics allows for ultra-fast communication systems, and more data can be crammed in by "twisting" the light. Now, Australian researchers have developed a device to decode beams that’s small enough to fit over the end of a fiber optic cable.

In a quantum network, information is passed instantly between nodes that have been entangled, and are unhackable since any unauthorized observation of the data will scramble it. Delft scientists have now overcome a hurdle to that technology, by generating quantum links faster than they deteriorate.

Quantum encryption can make data breaches literally impossible, and in a new demonstration of that kind of security, scientists have now used the Chinese satellite Micius to send quantum-encrypted data between China and Austria. That brings the world another step closer to a global quantum internet.

Researchers at Caltech have developed a computer chip that can store quantum information in the form of light, at the nanoscale. The breakthrough is the latest step towards quantum computers and networks, which would allow information to be processed and transmitted faster and with smaller devices.

Quantum encryption could make for much less hackable communication networks. But for it to really take off it needs to work out in the real world, among other signals and natural air turbulence. Now, researchers have successfully sent a message with 4D quantum encryption between two rooftops.

Chinese scientists claim to have launched the world's first quantum communications satellite with which they intend to experiment with quantum communication and teleportation from space, in the hope of one day producing an entire global network of quantum communication systems.

Scientists have successfully trialled a quantum "data bus" – a system that transfers quantum information from one place to another, which had previously only been theorized. They accomplished this feat with a technique called perfect state transfer.