China Is Pulling Ahead In Global Quantum Race, New Studies Suggest (scientificamerican.com) 49
An anonymous reader writes: When a team of Chinese scientists beamed entangled photons from the nation's Micius satellite to conduct the world's first quantum-secured video call in 2017, experts declared that China had taken the lead in quantum communications. New research suggests that lead has extended to quantum computing as well. In three preprint papers posted on arXiv.org last month, physicists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) reported critical advances in both quantum communication and quantum computing. In one of the studies, researchers used nanometer-scale semiconductors called quantum dots to reliably transmit single photons -- an essential resource for any quantum network -- over 300 kilometers of fiber, well over 100 times farther than previous attempts. In another, scientists improved their photonic quantum computer from 76 detected photons to 113, a dramatic upgrade to its "quantum advantage," or how much faster it is than classical computers at one specific task. The third paper introduced Zuchongzhi, made of 66 superconducting qubits, and performed a problem with 56 of them -- a figure similar to the 53 qubits used in Google's quantum computer Sycamore, which set a performance record in 2019.
All three achievements are world-leading, but Zuchongzhi in particular has scientists talking because it is the first corroboration of Google's landmark 2019 result. "I'm very pleased that someone has reproduced the experiment and shown that it works properly," says John Martinis, a former Google researcher who led the effort to build Sycamore. "That's really good for the field, that superconducting qubits are a stable platform where you can really build these machines." Quantum computers and quantum communication are nascent technologies. None of this research is likely to be of practical use for many years to come. But the geopolitical stakes of quantum technology are high: full-fledged quantum networks could provide unhackable channels of communication, and a powerful quantum computer could theoretically break much of the encryption currently used to secure e-mails and Internet transactions.
All three achievements are world-leading, but Zuchongzhi in particular has scientists talking because it is the first corroboration of Google's landmark 2019 result. "I'm very pleased that someone has reproduced the experiment and shown that it works properly," says John Martinis, a former Google researcher who led the effort to build Sycamore. "That's really good for the field, that superconducting qubits are a stable platform where you can really build these machines." Quantum computers and quantum communication are nascent technologies. None of this research is likely to be of practical use for many years to come. But the geopolitical stakes of quantum technology are high: full-fledged quantum networks could provide unhackable channels of communication, and a powerful quantum computer could theoretically break much of the encryption currently used to secure e-mails and Internet transactions.
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75? Welcome to Slashdot, Donald.
Re: Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
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The country is spending precious time and financial resources on totally unproductive activities and no one in DC or academy seems to care.
there are always people care. they just cannot speak out because they would be criticized to outcast.
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Oh, poor snowflake! Show us on the doll where the mean librul touched you!
Here in the real world, US tech keeps flying ahead, and China still tries to send as many students here every year as they can to take as much of the new tech back home as they can.
When China stops sending its best and brightest to the US, then you should worry. Until then, don't worry, we're still crushing it. But you'd know that if you turned off Fox News and engaged with reality. Here's a tip: If you are hearing someone rant about
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Nobody cares that you don't care.
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AC stalkers are such a frelling waste of electrons.
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They put a rover on Mars, they are not far from "you"
Quantum AI blockchain IOT deep serverless cloud (Score:1)
How did their other Chase Fad initiatives go?
Re:Quantum AI blockchain IOT deep serverless cloud (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I've at least got my company ready to offer the US Government my services to defeat China's quantum dominance.
My plan is to measure very, very precisely the velocity of the Chinese quantum research, so they will be unable to determine where it is.
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Voted funniest comment in this topic
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China is pulling ahead (Score:1)
if Chinese researchers aren't lying, they've had trouble with that in the past.
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Got any proof it happens more often on a per-capita basis than in other countries?
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Here you are:
https://qz.com/978037/china-pu... [qz.com]
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To be fair it used to prior to the current administration, and well, the crack down on corruption has been firm and widespread, no on is safe, no matter how rich and in fact richer and more of a law enforcement bullseye on you for corruption.
As China has opened up, so creativity is being rewarded rather than being suppressed and they are really taking off. In the tech field, definitely the place to be, to be at the real pointy end of tech development.
In the USA tech development has reverted to ruthless e
Re:China is pulling ahead (Score:4, Insightful)
Lying about Quantum computing successes seems to be endemic to that particular research community in all countries.
What I mean is, the press often vastly over-hypes what has been achieved. If China achieves it, then great! The world will finally have quantum computers.
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particular research community
You misspelled physics.
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Steve Jobs: "You just observed it wrong."
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I'm old enough to remember when the Soviet Union had the world's largest navy and were getting ready to invade.
I also consider the $1 billion in annual profit the US company I work for makes in China.
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A scientific race seems more productive than an arms race anyway. Combine it with a good old fashioned space race and we might get some cool stuff out of it. It's too bad that's what it takes, but we as an entire species do seem to need some kind of kick in the pants.
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Basically all "Quantum Computing" researchers are lying. Hence "pulling ahead" may just mean the Chinese ones are lying better. That could actually be the case.
That's great and all (Score:5, Funny)
...but how many genders do they have?
Re:That's great and all (Score:4, Funny)
...but how many genders do they have?
Depends on how they spin it. Bottom or top? Strange or charming?
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you keep adding more until conservatives shit their panties
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With 1/4 of the world's population they probably have more than anyone else.
Stop trying to make China as a superpower happen. (Score:1, Troll)
It's not going to happen.
China is pulling ahead in Global Quantum Race? (Score:4, Funny)
How can you tell? You might have changed the outcome by measuring it.
solution looking for a problem (Score:4, Insightful)
*if you don't send individual photons then they can be intercepted and their polarity discerned. If you are sending individual photons through the vacuum of space, well you can see if some is between you and the destination, but ignoring that you would need a trusted third party to tell you who to create the quantum channel with and if you have a trusted third party you can just use a regular quantum resistant key exchange and then use the third party to validate that you exchanged keys with the correct entity.
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Quantum communications isn't totally useless. You could transmit one time pads, for example, discarding any that have been eavesdropped.
It is pretty niche though.
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Quantum communication is important for key distribution. At the moment public key crypto is used but it can be attacked, and quantum computers will open up new avenues to break it. With quantum key distribution only the symmetric stream cypher needs to be resistant to cracking, and we know how to build those so that even quantum computers can't defeat them.
While it may be of little interest to individuals (at least for the time being) I'm sure the Chinese government recognizes the importance of having key d
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It is actually completely worthless for key distribution. You need a dedicated link for it. No switching. And systems doing it so far have been broken multiple times. And classical key distribution, works securely. And much cheaper.
This stuff has no real-world advantages, but tons of disadvantages.
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Often the taps are made to long cables away from where anyone will notice them, e.g. undersea. Well now they can't do that without it being noticed, at least up to 300km. The paper speculates that they should be able to double that distance with work. They can also have trusted relay stations.
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Cable taps are _not_ a problem that requires moving away from classical key exchanges. In fact, classical crypto addresses this issue just fine. You need to do it, of course. Sorry, but the idea is complete bullshit.
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Indeed. This is a curiosity, nothing else. It has no practical worth. Also, most implementations so far have been broken, because as it turns out there is a rather large difference between theory and practice.
As to quantum computers: There is not a single, actually working one. If we ever get working ones, they will not scale. They will never overtake pocket calculators in power except in some bizarre, basically meaningless calculations. This has been obvious for a very, very long time.
perhaps they are (Score:1)
my personal study suggest (Score:1)
No, they are not (Score:2)
There is no "Quantum race". There is just lots of scientific fraudsters that promise things they will not be able to deliver.
Catching up to google in 2019 = pulling ahead? (Score:2)