Tag: QUANTUM

Introduction There is tremendous amount of hype about quantum computing recently. Governments, corporations, and academic institutions are pouring increasing resources into this field, recognizing its potential to address a wide array of critical scientific and societal challenges. While the technology has begun to impact specific areas, such as the design of efficient batteries for electric vehicles, precision drilling in the oil and gas industry, sophisticated financial analyses, medical research advancements, and improvements in weather prediction models, these applications remain quite narrow. Broader commercial uses hinges on the development of fault-tolerant quantum computing, a goal that still faces many challenges as...

According to a recent MIT article, IBM aims to build a 100,000 qubit quantum computer within a decade. Google is aiming even higher, aspiring to release a million qubit computer by by the end of the decade. We witness a continuous push towards larger quantum processors with increasing numbers of qubits. IBM is expected to release a 1,000-qubit processor sometime this year. Quantum computing is on the brink of revolutionizing complex problem-solving. However, the practical implementation of quantum algorithms faces significant challenges due to the error-prone nature and hardware limitations of near-term quantum devices. Focusing solely on the number of...

Advances in quantum computing promise a new era in computing leading to signifiant breakthroughs in solving many scientific challenges or tackling major societal challenges such as the climate change. No, really. However, this advancement also brings the risk of a “quantum apocalypse,” as the quantum computer’s potential to exponentially speed up the factoring of large numbers threatens to weaken various forms of modern cryptography and break public key encryption systems that secure the internet, online banking, secure messaging, military systems, and much more. Such capabilities could lead to the day ominously known as “Q-Day,” when cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQC)...

When we discuss quantum computing, we most often refer to Universal Quantum Computing, also known as Gate-Based Quantum Computing. This is the familiar model of quantum computing which uses quantum gates to perform operations on qubits in a similar way classical computers manipulate classical bits. This flavor of quantum computing is known as “universal” because, in theory, it can perform any computation that a classical computer can, but potentially much faster for certain types of problems. That’s not the only model of quantum computing, however. But let’s start from the beginning. Factorization and Classical Computers The integer factorization problem reduces an integer...

Since the early 2000s, the field of quantum computing has seen significant advancements, both in technological development and in commercialization efforts. The experimental demonstration of Shor's algorithm in 2001 proved to be one of the key catalyzing events, spurring increased interest and investment from both the public and private sectors.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) represents a radical advancement in secure communication, utilizing principles from quantum mechanics to distribute cryptographic keys with guaranteed security.Unlike classical encryption, whose security often relies on the computational difficulty of certain mathematical problems, QKD's security is based on the laws of physics, which are, as far as we know, unbreakable.

Recently, in the science journal Nature, Google claimed ‘quantum supremacy’ saying that its quantum computer is the first to perform a calculation that would be practically impossible for a classical machine. This quantum computing breakthrough brings us closer to the arrival of functional quantum systems which will have a profound effect on today's security infrastructure. How will quantum computing affect the security of 5G technologies currently being developed and deployed? Last spring we suggested that the emergence of quantum internet connectivity and computation, expected sometime in the next decade, poses numerous new cryptography and cybersecurity challenges for 5G security. MIT offers...