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In the past half decade, quantum computing has attracted enormous media attention. Why?
After all, we already have computers, which have been around since the 1940s. Does the interest stem from the use cases? Better AI? Faster and more accurate pricing for financial services and hedge funds? Better medicine if quantum computers become a thousand times bigger?
Making currently intractable problems—problems that aren’t impossible to solve, but just not yet solvable with today’s technology—is fundamental to why we care about quantum.
We expect quantum computers to be in the cloud and at the edge over time. Their use will be invisible to most users, but the value they provide will benefit many.
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The fascination of the “quantum realm”
I think the word “quantum” is a big part of the appeal of this new kind of computing. Some of you may remember the TV show Quantum Leap starring Scott Bakula from around 1990. Twenty-five years later, we got the first one Ant man movie starring Paul Rudd. These stories introduced us to the “quantum realm.” All fiction, but fun.
It’s no surprise, then, that talk of “superimposition,” “entanglement,” and “spooky action” is attracting attention. Quantum computing is based on quantum mechanics, one of the weirdest and most surprising aspects of physics, if not all of science. Talking about ‘quantum’ attracts people and they want to learn more. It almost sells itself.
If computers were all we could do with this quantum business, it would be worth it, but there are many more areas where it comes into play. You, for example. Quantum mechanics describes the behavior of the smallest particles of matter, including atoms, electrons and photons. Quantum rules much of everything in and around you.
If you’ve ever had a knee or shoulder injury, you may have gotten an MRI so medical staff could pinpoint the exact problem. MRI stands for “magnetic resonance imaging” and works by detecting energy released by hydrogen atoms under the influence of strong magnetic fields and radio waves. Fortunately, the human body has a lot of hydrogen atoms in water and fat, so MRI can produce high-resolution images of the problem areas. This is a quantum process and its application dates back to the work of Felix Bloch and others from the 1940s.
Note my use of ‘high resolution’. Because quantum science deals with the tiniest of things, we can get fine-grained information and detail if we put it to good use. In some cases, this may be the best way to measure.
A sea change in positioning
Here’s another example, although it’s not quantum to begin with. In the old days of wooden ships, pinpointing your location at sea was a challenge. Latitude was relatively easy to find because of the position of stars and planets, but the Earth’s rotation made longitude much trickier. Remember, when you look at a globe, the longitudinal lines go north and south, and the latitudes go east and west.
One way to find and navigate your position was dead reckoning. Let’s say you accurately erase your original location. Then you started moving in a certain direction and speed. That is, you sailed at a certain speed. After a certain time you can calculate your new position.
In this simple model, we assume that your direction has not changed. This assumption is somewhat suspect as the wind blew you along, but let’s just get on with it. Your compass can determine your direction and changes in it.
Speed and elapsed time were more complex. One way to measure your speed was to throw a log on a rope into the water from the front of the ship and then measure how long it took you to get to the back. Because you knew the length of the ship, you could calculate your speed. Aside from the measurement coarseness of watching a log move in the water, accurate timekeeping was critical to accuracy.
From clocks to GPS
It was only the 18the century that John Harrison invented a clock so accurate that sailors could measure their position just enough to avoid accidentally hitting rocks or going hundreds of miles off course. The story of the development of this “marine chronometer” is well told in the book Longitude by Dava Sobel. It is not only a story about technology, but also about intrigue, politics and questionable competitive behavior.
Time appeared in two places in dead reckoning: once to measure speed, then again to measure the elapsed time of a travel segment. In practice, each voyage included many segments as the ship tacked and jibed back and forth.
This development was not only convenient; it saved lives and revolutionized sea travel.
Now we have GPS, so the problem is solved.
Not quite.
GPS: a panacea?
GPS, or the Global Positioning System, is a system of Lake than 30 satellites that send signals to devices like your smartphone. If your phone picks up four or more of these signals, it can pinpoint your position within a few meters or yards. You may be familiar with “triangulation” or the more appropriate term “trilateration” to calculate location. Instead of needing three sources, we need four or more for accuracy due to the curvature and elevation of the Earth.
GPS works well with mapping software, although the GPS signals can be affected by weather and other atmospheric conditions. Bigger problems, especially for those concerned with security, are “GPS jamming” or “denial”, where a signal is converted to noise, or “GPS spoofing”, where a valid signal is replaced by a stronger but wrong signal . You don’t want to be on a plane thinking it’s hundreds of miles or miles away from its actual location.
An internet search will help you find examples of each used in war zones or by homeland security forces. GPS denial or spoofing in a large city can hamper a great deal of transportation, impacting security and commerce.
In addition to positioning and navigation, GPS has another important function: time.
GPS and time synchronization
If you’ve been to an ATM recently, check your receipt. The timestamp probably comes from data from GPS. Have you listened to a weather report and wondered how accurate the forecast is? The synchronization of the times at the scattered weather stations probably came from GPS.
Financial transactions over networks are often timestamped by GPS. Accuracy is essential in fast-paced financial applications to know the exact sequence of transactions.
Mobile base stations can use GPS to synchronize their times to use the broadband spectrum more accurately. You may have known you used GPS on your phone to drive to the pizza place for pickup, but GPS was also involved when you called them to place your order. If GPS goes down while you’re out and about, several of your phone’s features may stop working until they’re re-synchronized with the satellites.
Power networks today are complicated, with multiple power sources and often bidirectional power. GPS time synchronization is used in some networks to optimize and balance electricity distribution.
Humans lived for thousands of years without GPS and accurate timekeeping, but we have become dependent on both in our modern lives. As a thought experiment, what would your day look like without GPS?
Quantum clocks, sensors, gyroscopes and more
As it turns out, we can and probably will migrate to quantum-based solutions for PNT – positioning, navigation and timing. The military and defense may use these solutions initially, but as with GPS, companies can commercialize them and we can use them in our daily lives.
Quantum atomic clocks are used in GPS satellites today and will eventually become ubiquitous as they get smaller and cheaper. They will appear in our networks, cloud data centers, cell phone towers, planes and ships, as well as in our cars and phones. Not only will they work independently or in ensembles and be highly accurate, they will maintain that accuracy for weeks or months before syncing again.
Quantum sensors will measure our speed and any variations with extraordinary precision, eventually replacing the cheap but not very accurate accelerometers in our phones and other devices. Quantum gyroscopes will finely determine all changes in our angular motion in three dimensions: yaw, roll, and pitch.
Fascinating opportunities await
Remember that ship tacking and jibing with the wind? The computer in a self-driving car or truck takes into account the direction, slope and height differences of the roads. Anticipating that overboard log from hundreds of years ago, we will soon be able to measure all of these changes hundreds of times per second.
We can even measure gravitational fluctuations with a quantum gravimeter. This could determine changes in Earth’s density and help discover new resources. Other uses include safety and recovery operations, such as finding cavities in collapsed buildings. We can even get early warnings for natural disasters like landslides and sinkholes.
Like MRI, all of these quantum applications have extraordinarily better resolution than the technologies they replace. MRI is often safer than earlier technologies, such as X-rays. We have mentioned several cases where these newer quantum measuring devices will also increase our security.
Quantum computing is coming and promises to make some currently intractable problems solvable. Quantum sensing and timekeeping are here today. As we reduce the cost and footprint of these devices, they will invade our daily lives, opening up fascinating and new essential services for all of us.
Bob Sutor is VP and chief quantum advocate for Infleqtion
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