Quantum News Nexus

A look at just a few of the many headlines circulating around the quantum sector this week:

After the Trump administration’s Executive Orders on quantum, the US Department of War came out with a pledge to invest $200 million over the next year in quantum sensing technologies. The pledge supports the DoW Defense Innovation Unit ‘s(DIU) launch of “a multi-phase initiative designed to transition mature quantum sensing and timing technologies directly to the Joint Force,” according to a press release. 

The announcement should come as no surprise, given that the Executive Orders announced this week specifically tasked the Pentagon with developing at least three quantum sensing projects within the next 60 days. Every branch of the military has been involved in researching and developing quantum computing and sensing technologies for several years, so it should not be too hard to get a few more projects up and running.

The initiative represents a move away from classical Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) sensors, the DoW said, adding, “By harnessing the unique properties of quantum physics, this project is set to shatter the longstanding “sensitivity-SWaP” (Size, Weight and Power) trade-off, unlocking unprecedented situational awareness for aerial, surface and subsurface missions in electromagnetically contested environments. 

“The United States Department of War must accelerate deployment and commercialization of quantum sensing to maintain superiority of knowledge of the battle space, speed of decision and operational dominance,” said Kyle Norman, who leads DIU’s quantum sensing team.

In another direct follow-up to the Executive Orders, the US National Science Foundation has added five new quantum research teams, each of which will receive $4 million over the next two years to fund their work in five different focus areas. Those include:

Accelerating Fault-Tolerant Quantum Logic
The team will build fault-tolerant quantum computing logic by unifying the design of error-correcting code, hardware and algorithms into a single, cohesive development process.

Attosecond Synchronized Photonic Entanglement Network
The team will design a high-fidelity quantum networking system approximately 100,000 times faster than current quantum networks and able to carry information over distances of about 60 miles.

Distributed-Entanglement Quantum Sensing of Chemical Properties
The team will design new types of sensors, including sensors made of protein-based qubits, that use the quantum properties of entanglement and coherence and can be used inside solid materials or cells. 

Erasure Qubits and Dynamic Circuits for Quantum Advantage
The team will design new error-detection and correction methods for quantum computers using superconducting hardware technology to improve computing efficiency.

Quantum Photonic Integration and Deployment
The team will design chip-based quantum sensor technology that is portable and robust enough to be used in the field, outside the highly controlled laser laboratory environments typically required for such sensors.

BTQ Technologies named Brandt Pasco as U.S. Strategic Advisor for Post-Quantum Cryptography and Security, saying he will help drive BTQ’s engagement with U.S. government stakeholders, public-sector agencies, research institutions, national security organizations, and strategic industry partners. Guessing there will be many similar announcements in the weeks and months to come following the Executive Orders, one of which specifically focused on post-quantum security.

Lockheed Martin this week published a document discussing how GPS constellations and quantum sensing technologies can work together to enable more precise mapping and navigation capabilities.

Quantinuum announced a collaboration with HPE with the intent to integrate quantum computing with high-performance computing and AI infrastructures. This is an obvious enough move that I would have guessed they were already working together. HPE has been pretty aggressive already on the quantum AI front, working with Riverlane, Quantum Machines, and several others in the sector. Qblox also announced a pairing with HPE this week.

STMicro announced a new mobile chip that has a post-quantum cryptography hardware accelerator, which will help future consumer mobile devices to be PQC-enabled.

Image by DC Studio on freepik