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Quantum computers that can break cryptographic algorithms would have major cybersecurity implications. Although they might only emerge in the next 5-10 years, the threat should be addressed long before this, Lorenzo Pupillo, Valtteri Lipiinen and Carolina Polito write.

We are now living through a quantum revolution, with modern technology allowing us to directly manipulate individual quantum systems and fully utilise quantum phenomena.

These breakthroughs are enabling a new class of technologies based on quantum mechanics.

Quantum technologies may drastically change the world as we know it. They are expected to positively impact many sectors, including pharmaceuticals, climate and weather modelling, and financial portfolio management.

They could be used for molecular simulation to upgrade electric vehicle batteries, optimise traffic flows or improve generative models that create datasets to enhance machine learning.

These benefits come from the computational advantages of problem-solving in totally superior ways compared to traditional computers.

At the same time, this new computational power also has a darker side and thats why quantum technologies are relevant to cybersecurity.

While quantum technologies can bolster cybersecurity, they can also break widely used cryptographic algorithms, thus breaking into confidential data.

Since most internet applications rely on cryptography to guarantee confidentiality, authenticity and data integrity, cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) that can break cryptographic algorithms would have major cybersecurity implications.

A quantum computer with just 20 million quantum bits (a mid-range smartphone has hundreds of billions of bits of storage) would be able to break a code in eight hours that would take today's best supercomputers trillions of years to do.

Currently, quantum computers are too small and error-prone to be a threat experts believe that CRQCs will only emerge in the next 5-10 years but only become truly viable in the next 30 years.

That said, the threat should be addressed long before this, for two reasons. First, sensitive encrypted data can be stored and subsequently decrypted with a CRQC (i.e. "hack now, decrypt later"). Second, transitioning to new, more resilient types of cryptography takes a long time.

Furthermore, advanced quantum cryptography may become a game changer for security and privacy, even more so when coupled with powerful AI systems.

This combination would generate "Quantum AI", allowing for the development of quantum machine learning algorithms that can analyse and make predictions based on large datasets.

Quantum computers only boost certain classes of mathematical problems, meaning that its still possible to develop cryptography based on mathematical problems that are resistant to quantum computers.

This is called "quantum-resistant cryptography". Its reassuring that these solutions exist but there are still hurdles to overcome.

Quantum-resistant cryptography is not a drop-in solution; thus, it requires a potentially complicated transition. Standards also need to be developed, both for quantum-resistant cryptography and for the many protocols that use cryptography.

In short, the transition to quantum-resistant cryptography is a lengthy process, requiring careful planning and it must begin well in advance of CRQCs becoming readily available. Cryptographic agility should be considered during the process, to ease the future transition.

As quantum technologies emerge, we need to seize the opportunity to decide how quantum technologies can help us promote better societies and a more sustainable future.

This is going to be complicated not only is quantum evolving at an unprecedented speed, but our current understanding of the technology, its use-cases, and its potential interconnections with other technologies (such as generative AI and large language models) is still quite limited.

Therefore, as quantum technologies develop, its important to promote responsible governance. Some general principles for responsible quantum could include, for instance, safeguarding against risks and engaging stakeholders in the development process.

This includes addressing societal issues, such as equitable access to these solutions, their ethically aligned development, and respect for human rights.

Where does the EU fit in? After China, Europe is a world leader in publicly funding quantum technologies (about 10 billion since 2016), yet its lagging behind countries like the US when it comes to policies favouring migration to quantum-resistant cryptography and quantum vulnerability assessment.

The final report of the CEPS Task Force on Quantum Technologies and Cybersecurity highlights the need to funnel EU funding into quantum-resistant cryptography, best practices for IT system migration, and cryptographic agility.

It also underscores the importance of transitioning to quantum-resistant cryptography early on, considering the complexity and length of the process, and it recommends a hybrid approach during the transition period. It emphasises a coordinated European strategy, alongside international collaboration and standardisation.

Moreover, its imperative to promote awareness of the potential risks and threats posed by quantum technologies, as well as to address the talent gap in the quantum sector, invest in quantum and cybersecurity skills, and modernise enforcement methods, such as dual-use export controls.

In this context the EU can also play a valuable role, through the EU-US Trade and Technology Council it has promoted an ad hoc task force on quantum in facilitating transparency, information exchange and cooperation.

With all this in mind, the key question now is: will EU leaders seize the moment and take up the quantum challenge in front of them?

Lorenzo Pupillo is an Associate Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Cybersecurity @CEPS Initiative. Valtteri Lipiinen is an Associate Research Assistant contributing to the Cybersecurity@CEPS initiative, and Carolina Polito is an Associate Research Assistant at CEPS, in the Global Governance, Regulation, Innovation, Digital Economy Unit.

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Will EU leaders take up the quantum challenge in front of them? - Euronews

Press release

Qubit Pharmaceuticals and Sorbonne University achieve a major scientific breakthrough by simulating quantum calculations at more than 40 qubits on conventional computers

Paris, December 6th, 2023 - Qubit Pharmaceuticals, a deeptech company specializing in the discovery of new drug candidates through molecular simulation and modeling accelerated by hybrid HPC and quantum computing, announces a major scientific breakthrough after achieving quantum computations simulating 40 qubits with its new Hyperion-1 emulator.

This is an exact simulation of 40 logic qubits carried out at very high velocity, which is an unprecedented achievement in the application of quantum computation, in particular to quantum chemistry , confirms Jean-Philip Piquemal, Professor at Sorbonne University and Director of the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory (Sorbonne University/CNRS), co-founder and Scientific Director of Qubit Pharmaceuticals, and head of the team that developed Hyperion-1.

Such a level of performance places Qubit Pharmaceuticals among the world's leading actors in quantum computing, all the more so as it was achieved without approximation and with the highest level of fidelity, i.e. without error (or "noise", to use the prevailing expression in quantum physics) and in a very short time, close to what one would expect from a true quantum computer. This performance was achieved in partnership with Sorbonne University's Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, and the calculations were carried out in just a few hours on GENCIs Jean Zay HPC/IA converged supercomputer on 16 computing nodes (128 GPUs(1) A100 NVIDIA) hosted and operated by IDRIS computing center (CNRS), on which the Hyperion-1 emulator was developed.

The ultimate objective: select a drug candidate in half time

This achievement reinforces Qubit Pharmaceuticals' ambition to become the industry reference in molecular modeling-based drug discovery. The result of academic research carried out by internationally renowned scientists2 in France and the United States, Qubit Pharmaceuticals models molecules and simulates their interactions to identify more effective and safer drug candidates. The aim is to halve the time needed to select and optimize a candidate of interest, and more than 10-fold the investment required. This process requires immense computing capacities, available today with supercomputers and multiplied tomorrow with quantum computers.

Key benefits of Hyperion-1, the new emulator from Qubit Pharmaceuticals

The Hyperion-1 quantum emulation opens up new perspectives on the technology of tomorrow In the ever-evolving landscape of quantum computing, a critical gap persists between machines with a limited number of perfect qubits and those with a large number of qubits but laden with error (noise and instability). Hyperion-1, with the velocity and accuracy of its calculations, is a testament to the immense possibilities that lie ahead. Its capabilities demonstrate what will be possible in the wider landscape of quantum emulation and quantum computing. Qubit Pharmaceuticals is proud of Hyperion-1's potential, not only as a proprietary tool, but also as a symbol of perfect emulation, fostering a new era of technological innovation with far-reaching implications for sectors such as pharmaceuticals, finance, encryption, and many others.

Robert Marino, CEO Qubit Pharmaceuticals, states: These quantum chemistry calculations on 40 exact qubits far exceed the performance achieved to date in Europe, and place Qubit Pharmaceuticals on the same footing as some of the top American tech giants. This breakthrough enables us to carry out in a few hours calculations that traditionally take several months.

Jean-Philip Piquemal, Professor at Sorbonne University and Director of the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory (Sorbonne University/CNRS), co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Qubit Pharmaceuticals, states: Hyperion-1 allows quantum state simulation while benefiting from the stability of classical computers, thus avoiding the errors inherent in today's quantum computers. Thanks to the GPUs in our machines and GENCI's infrastructure, we are able to develop and validate new quantum algorithms applied to drug discovery - a field of research with real public utility.

lisabeth Angel-Perez, Vice President of Research and Innovation at Sorbonne University: "Sorbonne University is a community of talent, and it's also a commitment: a commitment to supporting innovation stemming from French research. And it's because we've given ourselves the necessary resources to develop an ecosystem for the transfer of expertise and innovation that we've been able to accompany and support genuine nuggets such as Qubit Pharmaceuticals. Science must be at the service of society and its well-being. That's the dynamic we're supporting alongside the researchers who make Sorbonne University so rich.

(1) GPU= Graphics Processing Unit (2) Louis Lagardre (Sorbonne University and CNRS), Matthieu Montes (CNAM), Jean-Philip Piquemal (Sorbonne University and CNRS), Jay Ponder (Washington University in St Louis), Pengyu Ren (University of Texas at Austin).

About Qubit Pharmaceuticals

Qubit Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2020 with the vision of co-developing novel, more effective and safer drugs in partnership with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. A spin-off from the research work of five internationally renowned scientists - Louis Lagardre (Sorbonne University and CNRS), Matthieu Montes (CNAM), Jean-Philip Piquemal (Sorbonne University and CNRS), Jay Ponder (Washington University in St Louis), Pengyu Ren (University of Texas at Austin) - Qubit Pharmaceuticals leverages its Atlas platform to discover new small molecule drugs through simulation and molecular modeling accelerated by hybrid HPC and quantum computing. The multidisciplinary team, led by CEO Robert Marino, and the founders are based in France at the Paris Sant Cochin incubator and in the USA in Boston. For more information, or to join an ambitious team, visit http://www.qubit-pharmaceuticals.com

About Sorbonne University

Sorbonne University is a multidisciplinary, research-intensive university covering the humanities, health, science and engineering. Anchored in the heart of Paris and with a regional presence, Sorbonne University has 55,000 students, 3,300 teaching and research staff, 4,000 national researchers and over a hundred laboratories. Alongside its partners in the Sorbonne University Alliance, and via its institutes and multidisciplinary initiatives, it conducts research and educational activities to strengthen its contribution to the challenges of three major transitions: a global approach to health (One Health), resources for a sustainable planet (One Earth), and changing societies, languages and cultures (One Humanity). Sorbonne University is also a member of Alliance 4EU+, an innovative model for European universities that develops strategic international partnerships and promotes the openness of its community to the rest of the world. https://www.sorbonne-universite.fr

About GENCI

Created by the public authorities in 2007, GENCI is a major research infrastructure. This public operator aims to democratize the use of digital simulation through high performance computing associated with the use of artificial intelligence, and now quantum computing, to support French scientific and industrial competitiveness.

GENCI is in charge of three missions:

GENCI is a civil company, of which is owned 49% by the French government, represented by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, 20% by the CEA, 20% by the CNRS, 10% by Universities represented by France Universite and 1% by Inria.

Media contacts

Qubit Pharmaceuticals Nicolas Daniels ndaniels@ulysse-communication.com +33 (0)6.66.59.22.63 Charles Courbet ccourbet@ulysse-communication.com - + 33 (0)6.28.93.03.06

Sorbonne University Katherine Tyrka, international communications manager katherine.tyrka@sorbonne-universite.fr - +33 (0)1 44 27 51 05

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Qubit Pharmaceuticals and Sorbonne University achieve a major scientific breakthrough by simulating quantum ... - GlobeNewswire

Dutch startup QuantaMap has secured 1.4 million in funding to improve the production of quantum computer chips, using a special microscope, the company said in a press release.

Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that are impossible with current technologies, such as accelerating drug development and optimising logistics processes on an unprecedented scale.

But quantum chips are complex and difficult to produce. If they dont work as well as they should (and they often dont), there is no way to figure out why, which part failed and how to improve production processes. This is one of the biggest obstacles to scaling up quantum chips.

Quandela takes the quantum computer from lab to fab for first time

Quandela, the French pioneer of the photonic quantum computer, inaugurated the first factory for quantum computers in Europe.

QuantaMap has developed a new microscope that allows quantum researchers and chip manufacturers to accurately inspect each chip to ensure and improve quality. Imagine if every quantum researcher and chip manufacturer had a finely tuned compass to navigate the unknown quantum landscape of their chips; that is what we are creating, explains QuantaMaps CEO Johannes Jobst.

Others in this sector offer traditional measurement solutions, but QuantaMap stands out for its combination of a cryogenic microscope technology (scanning a fine needle over the surface of the chip at extremely low temperatures) with quantum sensors, both of which are specifically tailored for quantum applications.

The technology is fine-tuned to the specific problems affecting the performance and production yield of quantum chips, particularly around identifying the origin of electrical losses and impurities at the nanometre scale. This is done by imaging local temperature rise, electric currents and magnetic fields. This is all done at low temperatures to ensure that conditions under which the chip functions properly are maintained during inspection.

Competing technologies are all unsuitable for quantum chips; either because they interfere with the qubits while measuring, or because they have a high chance of damaging the chip during the imaging process.

Our unique sensors, intellectual property and advanced, quantum-centric approach give us years ahead of emerging competing technologies, says Jobst.

QuantaMap was founded in November 2022 by Johannes Jobst, Kaveh Lahabi, Milan Allan and Jimi de Haan. At Leiden University, Lahabi and his research team invented the quantum sensor at the heart of QuantaMaps products. As there was a clear need for diagnostic tools for quantum computing, the team moved quickly to fill this gap in the market. QuantaMap aims to become the backbone of chip research and development and quality control in the quantum computing industry.

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QuantaMap raises 1.4 million to overcome hurdle in quantum - Innovation Origins

IBM has bolstered its supercomputing capabilities with the latest iteration of the companys quantum computer, Quantum System Two. Its the companys first modular quantum computer, and represents the cornerstone of IBMs quantum-centric supercomputing architecture.

The first IBM Quantum System Two, located in Yorktown Heights, New York, has begun operations with three IBM Heron processors and supporting control electronics.

We are firmly within the era in which quantum computers are being used as a tool to explore new frontiers of science, said Dario Gil, IBM senior vice-president and director of research. As we continue to advance how quantum systems can scale and deliver value through modular architectures, we will further increase the quality of a utility-scale quantum technology stack and put it into the hands of our users and partners, who will push the boundaries of more complex problems.

Following the companys quantum computing roadmap, IBM also unveiled Condor, a 1,121 superconducting qubit quantum processor based on what IBM calls cross-resonance gate technology.

According to IBM, Condor offers a 50% increase in qubit density and advances in qubit fabrication and laminate size, as well as over a mile of high-density cryogenic flex input/output wiring within a single dilution refrigerator. The new design is said to solve scale, and will be used to inform IBM on future hardware design.

Along with the new hardware, IBM unveiled an extension of its IBM Quantum Development Roadmap to 2033, where it plans to significantly advance the quality of gate operations. If it achieves its roadmap objectives, IBM said it will be able to increase the size of quantum circuits that can be run, which paves the way to realising the full potential of quantum computing at scale.

In a blog post giving an update on IBMs quantum computing plans, Jay Gambetta, vice-president of IBM Quantum, discussed experiments that demonstrate how quantum computers could run circuits beyond the reach of brute-force classical simulations. Quantum is now a computational tool, and what makes me most excited is that we can start to advance science in fields beyond quantum computing itself, he said.

But in the computational architecture Gambetta described, quantum technology will not run standalone. From these large-scale experiments, it has become clear that we must go beyond the traditional circuit model and take advantage of parallelism, concurrent classical computing and dynamic circuits, he said.

We have ample evidence that, with tools such as circuit knitting, we can enhance the reach of quantum computation, and new quantum algorithms are emerging that make use of multiple quantum circuits, potentially in parallel and with concurrent classical operations, said Gambetta. Its clear that a heterogeneous computing architecture consisting of scalable and parallel circuit execution and advanced classical computation is required.

This, he said, is IBMs vision for future high-performance systems, which he described as quantum-centric supercomputing.

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Quantum supercomputing: IBM plots roadmap beyond Condor - ComputerWeekly.com

IBM has revealed a new utility scale quantum processor, a landmark modular quantum computer, and teased the coming release of Qiskit 1.0 a significantly improved open source software development kit to build powerful quantum computing qubit circuits with comparative ease.

Extending its quantum computing roadmap out to 2033 meanwhile, Big Blue pledged to release a Blue Jay, a system capable of executing 1 billion gates across 2,000 qubits by 2033 a nine order-of-magnitude increase in performed gates since we put our first device on the cloud in 2016.

The trio of releases, made at the annual IBM Quantum Summit in New York, come six months after the company said it successfully worked around the quantum noise that introduces errors in calculations, to get reliable results at a scale beyond brute-force classical computation detailing that progress in a paper published in the journal Nature.

The techniques that enabled this represent a foundational tool for the realization of near-term quantum applications IBM said in June 2023.

Classical computing deploys bits that use the 0 and 1 vocabulary of binary code. Quantum computers use qubits that draw on two-state quantum-mechanical systems the ability of quantum particles to be in superposition; two different states at the same time.

As IBM Researchs Edwin Pednault puts it: A qubit can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously in fact, in weighted combinations; for example, 37%-0, 63%-1. Three qubits can represent 2^3, or eight values simultaneously: 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111; 50 qubits can represent over one quadrillion values simultaneously.

Whilst classical computing circuits use ANDs and ORs and NOTs and XORs (binary gates) on which users build up higher level instructions, then support for languages like Java, Python, etc., quantum computers use different kinds of gates like CNOTs and Hadamards.

For quantum computing to work effectively, calculations need to keep going in superposition for the duration of the computational cycle.But they can easily be thrown off by noise ( the central obstacle to building large-scale quantum computers) which could stem from diverse sources including disturbances in Earths magnetic field, local radiation, cosmic rays, or the influence that qubits exert on each other by proximity.

This is in part tackled physically: signals for configuring and programming a quantum computer come from outside the machines, travel down coaxial cables where they are amplified and filtered, and eventually reach the quantum device with its qubits at ~0.015K (-273.135 degrees C) and noise tackled by minimising the exposure of the chips and cables to heat and electromagnetic radiation in all its forms, by minimizing device defects, by constantly improving the performance of the electronics, and by using all sorts of novel mathematical schemes to compensate for noise.

The Stack reviewed the three new releases and associated academic papers for our readers to distil precisely what IBM has/aims to achieve, as Dario Gil, IBM SVP and Director of Research pledged on December 4 to further increase the quality of a utility-scale quantum technology stack.

At the heart of its IBM Quantum System Two, a new modular quantum computer and cornerstone of IBM's quantum-centric supercomputing architecture is the new Quantum Heron 133-qubit processor.(This summers quantum achievements highlighted above were made on IBMs previous generation of semiconductor, its Quantum Eagle.)

The Quantum Heron offers a five-times improvement over the previous records set by IBM Eagle when it comes to reducing errors, IBM said. It is making the new chips available for users today via the cloud with more of the chips to join a utility-scale fleet of systems over the next year.

Featuring 133 fixed-frequency qubits with tunable couplers, Heron yields a 3-5x improvement in device performance over its 127-qubit Eagle processors, and virtually eliminates cross-talk IBMs Gil said, adding we have developed a qubit and the gate technology that were confident will form the foundation of our hardware roadmap going forward.

(A coupler helps determine the performance of a superconducting quantum computer. Tunable couplers link qubits and perform quantum computations by turning on and off the coupling between them.)

The chip is built with whats known as a heavy-hex processor architecture in which each unit cell of the lattice consists of a hexagonal arrangement of qubits, with an additional qubit on each edge.

As analyst Paul Smith-Goodson notes: The Herons modular architectureis different from previous quantum processor architecture.

The new architecture connects quantum processors to a common control infrastructure so that data can flow classically and in real time between the QPU and other chips in a multi-chip environment.

It also uses a new multi-qubit gate scheme that is both faster and provides higher fidelity. The Heron is the first IBM chip to use the new architecture that allows multiple processors to be linked using classical couplers to permit classical parallelization he added.

The new modular IBM Quantum System Two meanwhile combines what Big Blue described as scalable cryogenic infrastructure and classical runtime servers with modular qubit control electronics. As the building block for IBM's quantum computing roadmap, it will house IBM's future generations of quantum processors and be accessible via the cloud.

The system gets updated middleware too and after six years of development, IBM is gearing up for the release of Qiskit 1.0 early in Q1 2024. (Qiskit is an open-source SDK with extensive documentation for both the hardware and software layer and for working with quantum computers at the level of circuits, pulses, and algorithms that ships with has several domain specific application APIs on top of its core module.)

IBM touted what it described as a stable Qiskit focused on programming with Patterns, plus new set of tools using AI to help write and optimize Qiskit and QASM3 code the beta release of Quantum Serverless on the IBM Quantum Platform, to facilitate run remote execution Qiksit Patterns, in a quantum function style lets unpack this quantum verbiage!

A stable Qiskit is self-explanatory: After six years as a core SDK Qiskit has become what IBM describes as the lingua franca of quantum computing allowing programmers to write circuits, then execute them on hardware from more than eight different hardware manufacturers.

The 1.0 release adds stability, major improvements in memory footprint of circuits a claimed 55% decrease in memory usage compared to summer 2022s Qiskit 0.39 for example, and other improvements.

Qiskit patterns meanwhile are a collection of tools to simply map classical problems, optimize them to quantum circuits using Qiskit, executing those circuits using Qiskit Runtime, and then postprocess the results the release of a serverless execution option means users wont have to sit and wait over a stable network whilst a job is queued and executed but punt it out for managed execution, leave, and come back when the results are ready for you; combined, IBM thinks that these will democratise access to quantum computing and mean end-users do not [need to] be fluent in quantum circuits toutilize quantum computing.

Quantum computing, of course, is not immune to the allure of LLMs and IBM is also shipping a generative AI code assistant called Qiskit Code Assistant, based on the IBM Granite 20-billion-parameter Code Qiskit model, which was trained with about 370 million text tokens, based on a large collection of Qiskit examples and designed to remove some of the heavy lifting for programmers as they explore the suite of new tools.

Qubits, meanwhile, remain some distance from being the go-to solution for traditional computational problems, but IBM has and continues to be a genuine trail-blazer in the quantum computing space and as this summer's research showed, is making significant progress. A tipping point will arrive and then, the world will likely change. Those interested in exploring the shape of things to come could do worse than start with Qiskit.

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New quantum chip, modular computer and SDK revealed by IBM - The Stack