Tag: quantum computing

Quantum teleportation between photons from two distant light sources achieved

Everyday life on the internet is insecure. Hackers can break into bank accounts or steal digital identities. Driven by AI, attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Quantum cryptography promises more effective protection. It makes communication secure against eavesdropping by relying on the laws of quantum physics. However, the path toward a quantum internet is still fraught with technical hurdles.

Researchers at the Institute of Semiconductor Optics and Functional Interfaces (IHFG) at the University of Stuttgart have now made a decisive breakthrough in one of the most technically challenging components, the quantum repeater. They report their results in Nature Communications.

Nanometer-sized semiconductor islands for information transfer

“For the first time worldwide, we have succeeded in transferring quantum information among photons originating from two different quantum dots,” says Prof. Peter Michler, head of the IHFG and deputy spokesperson for the Quantenrepeater.Net (QR.N) research project.

What is the background? Whether WhatsApp or video stream, every digital message consists of zeros and ones. Similarly, this also applies to quantum communication, in which individual light particles serve as carriers of information.

Zero or one is then encoded in two different directions of polarization of the photons (i.e., their orientation in the horizontal and vertical directions or in a superposition of both states). Because photons follow the laws of quantum mechanics, their polarization cannot always be completely read out without leaving traces. Any attempt to intercept the transmission would inevitably be detected.

Making the quantum internet ready for the fiber-optic infrastructure

Another challenge: An affordable quantum internet would use optical fibers—just like today’s internet. However, light has only a limited range. Conventional light signals, therefore, need to be renewed approximately every 50 kilometers using an optical amplifier.

Because quantum information cannot simply be amplified or copied and forwarded, this does not work in the quantum internet. However, quantum physics allows information to be transferred from one photon to another as long as the information stays unknown. This process is referred to as quantum teleportation.

Keep reading

Has El Salvador Made Its Bitcoin Holdings Quantum-Proof?

El Salvador says its bitcoin reserve is safer from quantum threats — but the reality behind the claim is less sweeping than it sounds.

What to know:

  • El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office announced changes Friday to how the country secures its reserve.
  • Officials framed the move as “quantum risk mitigation” and “future-proofing.”
  • Bitcoin OG Adam Back said the shift reflects sound bitcoin custody practice.

El Salvador has overhauled how it stores the nation’s bitcoin, saying the change both strengthens security today and prepares for technological risks that could emerge in the future.

In an announcement on Friday, the Bitcoin Office said the country’s entire reserve has been moved out of a single wallet and spread across many new ones. Each wallet will hold no more than 500 BTC, a limit meant to reduce the potential damage if any one of them were ever compromised.

Officials described the new setup as following established industry practices while also anticipating advances in quantum computing. Quantum machines, they noted, could one day break the cryptographic math that secures bitcoin, as well as everyday systems like banking, email and online communications.

The concern arises when coins are spent. To move bitcoin, the digital signature protecting those funds must be revealed on the blockchain. Today, that’s safe, but in theory, a future quantum computer could exploit the exposed information to calculate the private key and steal the coins before the transaction is confirmed.

By shifting coins into many unused wallets, El Salvador reduces the chance that its reserve is left with too many exposed keys at once. Most of its holdings remain locked behind information that cannot currently be attacked, and capping the size of each wallet means even a breach would not put the entire reserve at risk.

The government also admitted that its earlier setup — keeping everything in a single address for the sake of transparency — created unnecessary exposure. That address was used repeatedly, which meant its keys were visible on the blockchain almost continuously. In the new model, a public dashboard allows anyone to track the reserve across multiple wallets, preserving accountability without repeatedly reusing the same address.

In plain terms, the shift is like moving money out of one giant vault and into a series of smaller safes. The locks on those safes stay hidden until they are opened, and no single safe holds too much cash.

Beyond the quantum angle, this also lines up with basic bitcoin housekeeping. Experienced users often warn against reusing the same wallet over and over, since it weakens privacy and security. They also recommend breaking large balances into smaller chunks, which limits the fallout if something goes wrong.

That’s why Adam Back, one of bitcoin’s earliest pioneers and the CEO of Blockstream, praised the change. Writing on X, he said it’s “generally a good practice” to split funds into many pieces — called UTXOs in bitcoin jargon — rather than piling them into one place and reusing the same address.

Keep reading

Israel and US to forge $200m tech hub for AI and quantum science development

Israel and the US are advancing a strategic initiative to create a joint science center for artificial intelligence and quantum innovation at an investment of $200 million. The center will serve as a hub to promote technology-driven cooperation and diplomacy with Gulf countries in the realms of AI and quantum science and challenge China in the global race for supremacy of next-generation technologies.

The initiative led by Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, the director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and Dr. Smadar Itzkovich, founder and CEO of AI & Quantum Sovereignty Lab (AIQ-Lab), is expected to be implemented either through a presidential executive order signed by US President Donald Trump or a legislative process.

“This is a strategic initiative that aims to reshape the Middle East through US-Israel scientific and technological collaboration in AI and quantum,” Itzkovich told The Times of Israel. “Israel is a powerhouse for physics and quantum technology, and by using our advantage, we can translate it to unbelievable achievements for economic growth and prosperity and for stability and security to create regional sovereignty in the areas of AI and quantum science.”

As part of the proposed initiative for the science center, each nation will contribute $20 million annually, starting in 2026 and through 2030, to support research and development projects at dual headquarters in Tel Aviv and Arlington, Virginia. The technology collaboration will focus on shared, urgent regional challenges, including cybersecurity, medicine and genetics, and water and food security in arid environments.

The initiative comes at a pivotal point, as concern has been growing that Israel could be missing out on a regional boom of investments into the next wave of technologies. In May, Trump and United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the joint launch of the largest AI campus outside the US. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia aims to become a global center for AI and reportedly has plans to create a $40 billion fund to invest in AI.

Keep reading

Scientists Achieve the “Impossible,” Unlocking Room-Temperature Quantum Circuits Using Magnetic Graphene

Scientists have just taken a significant step toward a long-awaited dream by creating ultra-thin, magnetically-controlled quantum devices that don’t need bulky magnets to function. 

In a groundbreaking study, a research team led by physicists at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has experimentally confirmed the elusive quantum spin Hall effect (QSH) in magnetic graphene, eliminating the need for an external magnetic field. This study represents a significant advancement in our understanding of quantum physics, opening up new possibilities for future technologies.

This first-of-its-kind achievement means future quantum circuitry could be smaller, faster, and far more practical than ever imagined.

“Spin is a quantum mechanical property of electrons, which is like a tiny magnet carried by the electrons, pointing up or down,”  lead author and researcher at TU Delft and Harvard University, Dr. Talieh S. Ghiasi, explained in a statement. “We can leverage the spin of electrons to transfer and process information in so-called spintronics devices.”

“Such circuits hold promise for next-generation technologies, including faster and more energy-efficient electronics, quantum computing, and advanced memory devices.” This breakthrough not only validates theoretical predictions but also propels us into a future of advanced and efficient technologies.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, detail how the team successfully induced a quantum spin Hall state in graphene by layering it on top of a van der Waals antiferromagnetic material called CrPS₄. 

This layered structure fundamentally alters the band structure of graphene, introducing spin-orbit and exchange interactions that are strong enough to give rise to exotic, topologically protected edge states. These special states allow electrons to move along the edges of the material without resistance and with their spins locked in opposite directions—a hallmark of QSH behavior.

For years, scientists have sought to harness spin—an intrinsic property of electrons—in place of charge to create next-generation “spintronic” devices. However, achieving long-distance, coherent spin transport —a state in which the spins of electrons remain in a fixed relationship over a long distance —has been notoriously difficult. Conventional methods required strong magnetic fields to split electron spins and create the necessary quantum edge states.

This study demonstrates that magnetism can originate from within. By carefully choosing a magnetic partner material for graphene—specifically, CrPS₄—the researchers induced both magnetism and spin-orbit coupling within the graphene itself. As a result, they achieved spin-polarized, helical edge states that persisted even at room temperature.

“The detection of the QSH states at zero external magnetic fields, together with the AH [anomalous Hall] signal that persists up to room temperature, opens the route for practical applications of magnetic graphene in quantum spintronic circuitries,” the researchers wrote in the study. This breakthrough paves the way for a new era of practical and efficient quantum technologies.

The experimental setup involved layering monolayer graphene on a flake of CrPS₄ and encapsulating it with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). CrPS₄ is an air-stable magnetic semiconductor with a Néel temperature of around 38 K and strong interlayer antiferromagnetic coupling.

Using advanced electrical transport measurements, the team demonstrated that this configuration induces staggered potential and spin-orbit interactions within the graphene. These alterations open a topological gap in the graphene’s bulk, allowing gapless “helical” edge states to form—essentially creating a quantum spin Hall insulator.

Key evidence was obtained by measuring the conductance of the device near the charge neutrality point at zero magnetic fields. The conductance plateaued at precisely 2e²/h—matching theoretical predictions for QSH states where two spin-polarized channels counter-propagate along opposite edges of the device without dissipation.

The researchers confirmed these observations across various device geometries and probing configurations, ruling out conventional transport mechanisms. They also observed a large anomalous Hall (AH) effect—a separate spin-related quantum phenomenon—which persisted even at room temperature, further validating the presence of induced magnetic and spin-orbit interactions in the system.

Keep reading

Smarter, Colder, Faster: Quantum Amplifier Breakthrough Makes Quantum Computing Up to 10x More Efficient

As quantum computing systems scale toward thousands—if not millions—of qubits, the role of the often overlooked quantum amplifier that listens to each qubit becomes increasingly critical. Researchers in Sweden have reported that the development of a smarter, ultra-low-power quantum amplifier could significantly alleviate one of quantum computing‘s major engineering challenges. 

Researchers in Sweden say they’ve engineered a smarter, ultra-low-power quantum amplifier that could dramatically ease one of quantum computing’s biggest engineering headaches.

A new study from Chalmers University of Technology, in collaboration with Low Noise Factory AB, unveils a cryogenic amplifier that switches on only when needed. This reduces energy consumption and thermal noise that threaten the fragile state of quantum bits or qubits. 

The breakthrough, detailed in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, has the potential to pave the way for the realization of truly large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, marking a significant advancement in the field.

“This is the most sensitive amplifier that can be built today using transistors,” lead author and doctoral student at Chalmers​​, Yin Zeng, said in the Chalmers press release. “We’ve now managed to reduce its power consumption to just one-tenth of that required by today’s best amplifiers – without compromising performance. We hope and believe that this breakthrough will enable more accurate readout of qubits in the future.”

Keep reading

Breakthrough as Oxford scientists say they’ve achieved teleportation

Scientist claim they achieved a massive breakthrough in teleportation by beaming data between quantum computers.

Researchers at the University of Oxford successfully teleported logical gates – the basic components of a computer algorithm – between two quantum processors separated by more than six feet.

Using particles of light (or photons), the scientists were able to form a shared quantum link between the two separate devices. 

This allowed two processors to work remotely, sharing the same algorithm to complete their computing tasks.

The breakthrough may solve the ‘scalability problem’ that has plagued the construction of usable quantum computers.

Currently, however, a single computer capable of processing millions of qubits would need to be gigantic in size – making them impossible for most people to have. 

Qubits (or quantum bits) replace the traditional bits of a standard computer. 

The new breakthrough changes all that, allowing scientists to move data between a series of smaller devices – instead of building one enormous machine.

The team explains that any quantum device powerful enough to be a game-changing innovation in computer science would need to be able to process millions of qubits. 

Keep reading

Google says its new quantum chip indicates that multiple universes exist

Google on Monday announced Willow, its latest, greatest quantum computing chip. The speed and reliability performance claims Google’s made about this chip were newsworthy in themselves, but what really caught the tech industry’s attention was an even wilder claim tucked into the blog post about the chip.

Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote in his blog post that this chip was so mind-boggling fast that it must have borrowed computational power from other universes.

Ergo the chip’s performance indicates that parallel universes exist and “we live in a multiverse.”

Here’s the passage:

Willow’s performance on this benchmark is astonishing: It performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 1025 or 10 septillion years. If you want to write it out, it’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe. It lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse, a prediction first made by David Deutsch.

This drop-the-mic moment on the nature of reality was met with skepticism by some, but, surprisingly, others on the internet who profess to understand these things argued that Nevan’s conclusions were more than plausible. The multiverse, while stuff of science fiction, is also an area of serious study by the founders of quantum physics.

The skeptics, however, point out that the performance claims are based on the benchmark that Google itself created some years ago to measure quantum performance. That alone doesn’t prove that parallel versions of you aren’t running around in other universes — just where the underlying measuring stick came from.

Unlike classic digital computers that calculate based on whether a bit is a 0 or 1 (on or off), quantum computers rely on incredibly tiny qubits. These can be on/off or both (somewhere in between) and they can also tap into quantum entanglement — a mysterious connection at the tiniest levels of the universe between two or more particles where their states are linked, no matter the distance that separates them.

Quantum computers use such quantum mechanics to calculate highly complex problems that cannot currently be addressed with classic computers.

Keep reading

U.S. Advocates Urge White House Support for ‘RISE’ Initiative to Keep U.S. Ahead in ‘Edge Science’

A coalition of scientists and former intelligence officials is urging White House support for an initiative to advance U.S. research in ‘edge science’ and controversial fields like quantum computing and consciousness studies, The Debrief has learned.

As American advancements in technology and science rapidly evolve amid global competition, officials from the Executive Office of the President at the White House in Washington, D.C. recently met with a group of scientists and former intelligence officials advocating for a groundbreaking new initiative, Research and Innovation at the Scientific Edge (RISE), which aims to push the boundaries of scientific exploration.

RISE seeks support for projects dedicated to unconventional or cutting-edge research areas, such as quantum computing, consciousness studies, remote viewing, micro-psychokinesis (PK), time-agnostic cryptography, evidence-based tools informed by Indigenous knowledge, and potential applications for the study of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). RISE advocates argue that pursuing these fields is essential to maintain America’s competitive edge against rapidly advancing nations like China.

The initiative’s proponents further argue that the U.S. can overcome obstacles and stigma surrounding unconventional research with Chief Executive support, allowing the U.S. to develop game-changing advantages related to everything from national security to human resilience.

The organization consists of heavy hitters from not only the science community, but former internal government officials with a diversity of agency insights, including Neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge, Ph.D.; Chitra Sivanandam from the National Security Institute; Daniel “Rags” Rasgdale, Ph.D., Former Assistant Director for Cyber in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Research & Technology); and Carmen Medina, a retired Senior Federal Executive with more than three decades in the Intelligence Community, including work with the CIA.

“During my more than 30 years in national security, too many times we were surprised by things that others claimed could never happen,” Medina said in a recent statement announcing the initiative. “The best way to prevent that in the future in the science and technology domains is to have a dedicated program to scan the horizon for new discoveries.”

Discussions about foreign adversaries gaining a technological edge have recently intensified, with reports suggesting that China is investing significantly in fields like quantum computing, photonics, and brain-machine interfaces.

In July, the Chinese government announced an ambitious goal to set a new world standard for brain-machine interfaces. Parallel to these efforts, China has already invested $15.3 billion in quantum technology compared to the U.S.’s $3.7 billion, an investment gap that highlights the urgent need for the U.S. to prioritize advanced research.

Along similar lines, a February 2022 RAND Corporation report comparing the U.S. and Chinese industrial bases with relation to advancements in quantum technology emphasized that Chinese efforts are primarily concentrated in government-funded laboratories, some of which have made rapid progress.

Given such concerning advancements by adversary nations, a related area of focus for RISE also involves problems associated with over-classification within the U.S. intelligence community, which even U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has said potentially “undermines critical democratic objectives” by limiting access to information that could help advance U.S. capabilities.

“Over-classification is a considerable burden,” said neuroscientist Julia Mossbridge, Ph.D., in an email to The Debrief. “Even just bureaucratically, it weighs down government functioning. But beyond that, it has a dampening effect on science and technology ecosystems, any form of exploration, and democracy itself.”

Mossbridge told The Debrief that problems like over-classification are paralleled by separate issues that include stigmas that have long hampered serious studies into unconventional research topics.

Keep reading

IBM opens its quantum-computing stack to third parties

As we described earlier this year, operating a quantum computer will require a significant investment in classical computing resources, given the amount of measurements and control operations that need to be executed and interpreted. That means that operating a quantum computer will also require a software stack to control and interpret the flow of information from the quantum side.

But software also gets involved well before anything gets executed. While it’s possible to execute algorithms on quantum hardware by defining the full set of commands sent to the hardware, most users are going to want to focus on algorithm development, rather than the details of controlling any single piece of quantum hardware. “If everyone’s got to get down and know what the noise is, [use] performance management tools, they’ve got to know how to compile a quantum circuit through hardware, you’ve got to become an expert in too much to be able to do the algorithm discovery,” said IBM’s Jay Gambetta. So, part of the software stack that companies are developing to control their quantum hardware includes software that converts abstract representations of quantum algorithms into the series of commands needed to execute them.

IBM’s version of this software is called Qiskit (although it was made open source and has since been adopted by other companies). Recently, IBM made a couple of announcements regarding Qiskit, both benchmarking it in comparison to other software stacks and opening it up to third-party modules. We’ll take a look at what software stacks do before getting into the details of what’s new.

Keep reading

US, UK accelerate quantum computing programs after China breakthrough

Scientists and lawmakers in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union are ramping up efforts to advance quantum computing in the West after scientists in China observed what appears to be the world’s first room-temperature time crystals.

A team of physicists hailing primarily from Tsinghua University in China, with contributions from scientists in Denmark and Austria, published peer-reviewed research on July 2 detailing the creation and observation of room-temperature time crystals.

In the month since the paper was published, quantum research labs in the West have announced numerous initiatives to extend existing efforts in the field of quantum computing and to create new research partnerships.

Room-temperature time crystals

Time crystals are a unique state of matter originally proposed by physicist Frank Wilczek in 2012. They work similarly to other crystals, such as snowflakes or diamonds, which are created when specific molecules form lattice-like bonds that repeat through space.

In time crystals, however, the molecules bond in time. Instead of locking into a crystalline structure that repeats, a time crystal’s molecules flicker back and forth between different configurations like a GIF on a loop. 

Back in 2021, an international team of scientists working with Google’s quantum computing lab simulated time crystals using a quantum computer. This breakthrough demonstrated the potential for quantum computers to explore exotic states of matter and set the stage for the convergence of quantum tech and time crystals.

Now, in July 2024, the Tsinghua team appears to have created time crystals at room temperature. This, theoretically, allows time crystal technology to be employed in non-laboratory equipment and could serve as a massive accelerator for the development of useful quantum computers.

Keep reading