Quantum News

11 Mar 2024: Tuta Mail has announced TutaCrypt, a new post-quantum encryption protocol to secure communications from powerful and anticipated decryption attacks. TutaCrypt combines CRYSTALS-Kyber (Also used in QRL Zond) for post-quantum key encapsulation and X25519 for the Elliptic-Curve-Diffie-Hellmann key exchange.

04 Mar 2024: Google and the XPRIZE Foundation are launching a three-year competition to encourage researchers to develop new quantum algorithms that could have practical real-world applications. While current quantum computers excel at certain abstract mathematical problems, this challenge aims to bridge the gap between these theoretical advancements and their practical utility, focusing on potential applications like improving battery storage capacity without necessarily requiring a working solution.

27 Feb 2024: Apple has implemented a new post-quantum cryptographic protocol, PQ3, to iMessage, aiming to protect against potential quantum computing threats that could break current encryption methods. This protocol, which combines with the existing Elliptic Curve Cryptography, introduces a hybrid model to ensure robust protection against both current and future quantum attacks. PQ3 features innovations like periodic rekeying to enhance security further, making it one of the most secure at-scale messaging protocols available.

26 Feb 2024: Google DeepMind taps the power of its AI to accelerate quantum computers In new research, Google DeepMind has demonstrated that its AI can help accelerate the development of quantum computers — taking one step further in combining two of the most disruptive technologies. DeepMind worked together with UK-based Quantinuum to solve a key challenge in fault-tolerant quantum computers: reducing the number of T gates.

24 Feb 2024: Russian scientists have successfully developed a 20-qubit quantum computer and aim to increase this number to between 50 and 100 qubits by the end of 2024. This development signifies a significant advancement in Russia’s quantum computing capabilities, surpassing their previous 16-qubit ion-based quantum computer. The initiative is part of a broader, ambitious roadmap to enhance their quantum computing technology, with potential applications ranging from drug discovery to logistics optimization

18 Feb 2024: NVIDIA and Australia’s Pawsey Supercomputing Centre are collaborating to accelerate quantum computing research. This collaboration will leverage NVIDIA’s cutting-edge technology, including the CUDA Quantum platform and Grace Hopper Superchips, to conduct research in this field. The goal of this collaboration is to achieve breakthroughs in quantum computing, which has the potential to revolutionize many industries.

13 Feb 2024: The recent study highlights a breakthrough in quantum photonics, demonstrating significant progress in integrating single-photon sources on-chip at room temperature, which is crucial for advancing quantum computing, cryptography, and sensing. By employing a hybrid metal–dielectric bullseye antenna for exceptional photon directionality, the research showcases a method for efficient photon back-excitation and coupling, using either colloidal quantum dots or nanodiamonds as single-photon emitters. Achieving front collection efficiencies of about 70% with low numerical aperture optics, this innovation simplifies the integration of quantum light sources into practical quantum systems, promising to accelerate the development of quantum photonic devices.

13 Feb 2024: The paper presents an optimization for reducing the number of qubits required in quantum factoring, specifically targeting Shor’s algorithm. By employing a combination of techniques, including May and Schlieper’s truncation and the Ekerå-Håstad variant, the authors achieve a significant reduction in qubit requirement to factor an RSA-2048 instance, potentially using less than 1700 qubits

05 Feb 2024: QuEra Computing, a Boston-based company, aims to revolutionize computing with quantum technology. They plan to launch a 10,000 qubit quantum computer by 2026, surpassing the capabilities of today’s fastest supercomputers. QuEra’s roadmap includes launching a quantum computer with 256 physical qubits and 10 logical qubits this year, followed by a 3,000-qubit quantum computer in 2025. by 2026, QuEra wants to unleash the 10,000 physical qubits quantum computer with 100 logical qubits.

29 Jan 2024: Researchers, led by Jeff Thompson at Princeton University, have developed a novel method to detect and correct errors in quantum computers in real time, potentially making them up to ten times easier to correct. This advancement, detailed in a recent paper in Nature, focuses on identifying errors more easily than previous methods, which primarily aimed to reduce error probabilities. By utilizing a different set of energy levels within atoms to store qubits, the team can monitor qubits during computations and detect errors without destroying the qubits.