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In its National Quantum Strategy, which includes 2.5bn of funding, as well as plans for research zones and skills training, the government announced it will establish a regulatory framework that supports innovation and the ethical use of quantum technologies. This needs to be stable, agile, simple and ethical while also protecting UK capabilities and national security. One expert told Tech Monitor the focus should be on legislating for post-quantum cryptography before the UK is left behind.

Quantum computing is a potentially transformative technology, once fully realised it has the potential to change our understanding of the universe, the human brain and tackle problems like climate change. But it also comes with risk, including the potential to easily crack encryption and change warfare.

Governments around the world are investing heavily in quantum technology with China leading the world in terms of direct national-level funding followed by the EU and now the UK. Billions of dollars worth of venture capital, private investment and university research funding are also being put into the technology.

Last year Stanford Universitys Professor Mauritz Kop declared that we need to learn from our mistakes made around the regulation of AI before its too late and said quantum computing has the potential to be more dangerous than artificial intelligence without sufficient regulation.

In its National Quantum Strategy the government says it is important to engage early in the debates that will shape the future regulation of quantum technology. Early work will help to identify potential risks with the use of the new technology and develop new shared taxonomies, languages and principles to guide development.

Eventually new standards, benchmarking and assurance frameworks will increase in importance to facilitate technological development as use cases become more evident, helping to set requirements for interoperability and to measure performance within key sectors, the strategy says.

It includes a commitment to put innovation, business growth and the ethical use of quantum technologies at the heart of the UK economy while also trialing technologies within the UK through regulatory testbeds and sandboxes, as well as working with likeminded partners around the world to shape norms and standards as the technology evolves and becomes more mainstream.

A lot of the commitment is outward facing, with the strategy calling for the UK to play a role in the World Trade Organisation, the World Economic Forum, the G7, the G20, OECD, NATO, the Council of Europe, the Commonwealth and the UN, including utilising the UK seat on the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to ensure that quantum regulation supports UK business and innovation, that the UKs wider prosperity, security and defence interests are represented and that we continue to uphold the UKs values including those on human rights.

The government also outlined proposals to ensure the economy and national security are protected including working with likeminded allies to monitor and review current and future controls including through export regimes, security goals and IP protection.

The plan is also to ensure the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) continues to publish guidance on the transition to quantum-safe cryptography. "In terms of Government's own preparedness, mitigations have already been put in place for critical information and services," the report declares with specific recommendations to follow the US NIST process.

There will also be work on technical standards, including through quantum safe cryptography in partnership with the ISO, IEC and ITU and efforts on building assurance frameworks for the use of these technologies as they mature. Much of this is following the pattern set out for regulation of artificial intelligence, including sandboxes, standards and regulator-led guidelines.

"The Chancellor bolstered the UK technology strategy with the 2.5bn 'Plan for Quantum', but the writing is on the wall: the extraordinary processing power of quantum computers will have a catastrophic impact on digital systems unless we begin a cryptographic transition now, Tim Callan, chief experience officer at digital identity and security company Sectigo told Tech Monitor.

IT leaders need to start paying attention today to the upcoming threat of quantum computing and preparing their organisations to upgrade to new post quantum cryptography in order to head off, or at least mitigate, the damage.

As well as the promise of investment in research, promotion of greater compute power and regulation, the National Quantum Strategy also promises 15m of direct funding to enable government to act as an intelligent, early customer of quantum technologies, which James Sanders, principal analyst for cloud and infrastructure at CCS Insight said needs greater articulation as currently there are unlikely to be many circumstances where a quantum computer can be used by the government to find efficiency or optimisation that couldnt be done with a classical machine

In terms of regulation, Sanders says it falls under two different priorities: export restriction and intellectual property protection. The first is similar to the approach seen with the export of precision semiconductor manufacturing technology as well as export of advanced GPUs for AI model training, which he says are two aspects prioritised today by the US government.

Ben Packman, head of strategy at UK post-quantum cryptography company, PQShield, says quantum technology is developing at speed around the world, and that more up-front funding will be required for the UK to maintain its leadership position in the sector. Any delays could leave the door open for others to overtake us, which is a real problem if youre thinking about the UKs adversaries developing a quantum computer intended for malicious purposes, he says.

Private and public partnerships are required to protect against this, and other risks associated with the technology, including the adoption of legislative and policy updates. The US has the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act but, in the UK, this new strategy is light when it comes to mitigating the risks associated with quantum, says Packman.

He said that while regulators are already engaging with industry and academics across the quantum value chain to build a regulatory framework, the UK is behind when it comes to cryptography legislation. The US has already actively legislated for quantum-safe cryptography, and where the US National Security Agency (NSA) has issued a very specific set of guidance and timelines in its CNSA 2.0 framework," he says. "Wed like to see the UK match and even go beyond this if it is to become a true quantum superpower.

Many British companies, including PQShield, are contributing to the cryptographic standards considered as part of the NIST review. The outcome of this will set the global standard for post-quantum cryptography, including algorithms used across industry and government.

Wed like to see the UKs quantum achievements shouted about from the very top, Packman adds. The government also needs to align all its departments on the same path, including bodies like GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and MI5s newly-created National Protective Security Authority (NPSA).

"The strategy doesnt mention the DRCF or Digital Catapult and how they can support the wider quantum strategy. It seems to me that both schemes could play a relevant role, so it would be good to see the dots being connected at a strategic level.

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How will the UK develop quantum computer regulation? - Tech Monitor

Practical carbon capture technologies are still in the early stages of development, with the most promising involving a class of compounds called amines that can chemically bind with carbon dioxide. In AVS Quantum Science, researchers deploy an algorithm to study amine reactions through quantum computing. An existing quantum computer cab run the algorithm to find useful amine compounds for carbon capture more quickly, analyzing larger molecules and more complex reactions than a traditional computer can.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases daily with no sign of stopping or slowing. Too much of civilization depends on the burning of fossil fuels, and even if we can develop a replacement energy source, much of the damage has already been done. Without removal, the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere will continue to wreak havoc for centuries.

Atmospheric carbon capture is a potential remedy to this problem. It would pull carbon dioxide out of the air and store it permanently to reverse the effects of climate change. Practical carbon capture technologies are still in the early stages of development, with the most promising involving a class of compounds called amines that can chemically bind with carbon dioxide. Efficiency is paramount in these designs, and identifying even slightly better compounds could lead to the capture of billions of tons of additional carbon dioxide.

In AVS Quantum Science, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the National Energy Technology Laboratory and the University of Kentucky deployed an algorithm to study amine reactions through quantum computing. The algorithm can be run on an existing quantum computer to find useful amine compounds for carbon capture more quickly.

"We are not satisfied with the current amine molecules that we use for this [carbon capture] process," said author Qing Shao. "We can try to find a new molecule to do it, but if we want to test it using classical computing resources, it will be a very expensive calculation. Our hope is to have a fast algorithm that can screen thousands of new molecules and structures."

Any computer algorithm that simulates a chemical reaction needs to account for the interactions between every pair of atoms involved. Even a simple three-atom molecule like carbon dioxide bonding with the simplest amine, ammonia, which has four atoms, results in hundreds of atomic interactions. This problem vexes traditional computers but is exactly the sort of question at which quantum computers excel.

However, quantum computers are still a developing technology and are not powerful enough to handle these kinds of simulations directly. This is where the group's algorithm comes in: It allows existing quantum computers to analyze larger molecules and more complex reactions, which is vital for practical applications in fields like carbon capture.

"We are trying to use the current quantum computing technology to solve a practical environmental problem," said author Yuhua Duan.

See more here:
Cleaning up the atmosphere with quantum computing: A quantum ... - Science Daily

May 17, 2023 The Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program in the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science is organizing a workshop to identify priority research directions in quantum computing and networking to better position ASCR to realize the potential of quantum technologies in advancing DOE science applications.

Key deadlines:

DOE point of contact: Tom Wong (Thomas.Wong@science.doe.gov)

The mission of the ASCR is to advance applied mathematics and computer science research; deliver the most sophisticated computational scientific applications in partnership with disciplinary science; advance computing and networking capabilities; and develop future generations of computing hardware and software tools in partnership with the research community, including U.S. industry. ASCR supports computer science and applied mathematics activities that provide the foundation for increasing the capability of the national high-performance computing ecosystem and scientific data infrastructure. ASCR encourages focus on long-term research to develop intelligent software, algorithms, and methods that anticipate future hardware challenges and opportunities as well as science needs (http://science.energy.gov/ascr/research/).

ASCR has been investing in quantum information science (QIS) since 2017. ASCRs QIS investments span a broad scope of research in quantum computing and quantum networking with investments in quantum algorithms and mathematical methods; the creation of a suite of traditional software tools and techniques including programming languages, compilers, and debugging; quantum edge computing; and quantum applications such as machine learning. ASCR is also funding quantum hardware research and quantum testbeds: two quantum computing testbeds are available at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to external collaborators, and two quantum internet testbeds are being developed by LBNL and by a collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). More information about ASCR QIS investments can be found here:https://science.osti.gov/Initiatives/QIS.

ASCR research into quantum computing and quantum networking technologies is making rapid progress, and specialized systems are now commercially available. It is important for ASCR to understand the potential of these new and radically different technologies relative to conventional computing systems and for DOE-relevant applications. However, ASCR is not interested in exploring the underlying, specific device technologies at this workshop. This workshop will focus on the following two exploration areas:

The workshop will be structured around a set of breakout sessions, with every attendee expected to participate actively in the discussions. Afterward, workshop attendees from DOE National Laboratories, industry, and academia will produce a report for ASCR that summarizes the findings made during the workshop.

Invitation

We invite community input in the form of two-page position papers that identify and discuss key challenges and opportunities in quantum computing and networking. In addition to providing an avenue for identifying workshop participants, these position papers will be used to shape the workshop agenda, identify panelists, and contribute to the workshop report. Position papers should not describe the authors current or planned research, contain material that should not be disclosed to the public, nor should they recommend specific solutions or discuss narrowly focused research topics. Rather, they should aim to improve the communitys shared understanding of the problem space, identify challenging research directions, and help to stimulate discussion.

One author of each selected submission will be invited to participate in the workshop.

By submitting a position paper, authors consent to have their position paper published publicly.

Authors are not required to have a history of funding by the ASCR Computer Science program.

Submission Guidelines

Position Paper Structure and Format

Position papers should follow the following format:

Each position paper must be no more than two pages including figures and references. The paper may include any number of authors but contact information for a single author who can represent the position paper at the workshop must be provided with the submission. There is no limit to the number of position papers that an individual or group can submit. Authors are strongly encouraged to follow the structure previously outlined. Papers should be submitted in PDF format using the designated page on the workshop website.

Areas of Emphasis

We are seeking submissions aimed at various levels of broadly scoped quantum computing and networking stacks:

While the program committee has identified the above topics as important areas for discussion, we welcome position papers from the community that propose additional topics of interest for discussion at the workshop.

Selection

Submissions will be reviewed by the workshops organizing committee using criteria of overall quality, relevance, likelihood of stimulating constructive discussion, and ability to contribute to an informative workshop report. Unique positions that are well presented and emphasize potentially-transformative research directions will be given preference.

Organizing Committee

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Call for Papers: ASCR Workshop on Quantum Computing and ... - insideHPC

The MATLAB Support Package for Quantum Computing allows users to build, simulate, and run quantum algorithms for prototyping quantum programs. It will allow a user to input a quantum program and then do a local simulation to display the results and includes additional capabilities to plot a histogram, display state formulas, and query possible states. A key feature is that it will also allow a user to run their quantum circuit on one of the several quantum processors or high performance quantum simulators that are available on Amazon Braket for those who have an AWS account with access to Amazon Braket. For more information about this new package, you can view a web page for it here and also a page with instructions on how to set it up and use it here.

March 16, 2023

Read this article:
MathWorks Introduces a MATLAB Support Package for Quantum Computing that Can Run Circuits on Amazon Braket - Quantum Computing Report

Using these sensors, scientists were able to generate a secret key at a rate of 64 megabits per second over 10 km of fibre optic cable. Credit: M. Perrenoud - G. Resta / UNIGE

How can we combat data theft, which is a real issue for society? Quantum physics has the solution. Its theories make it possible to encode information (a qubit) in single particles of light (a photon) and to circulate them in an optical fiber in a highly secure way. However, the widespread use of this telecommunications technology is hampered in particular by the performance of the single-photon detectors.

A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), together with the company ID Quantique, has succeeded in increasing their speed by a factor of twenty. This innovation, published in the journal Nature Photonics, makes it possible to achieve unprecedented performances in quantum key distribution.

Buying a train ticket, booking a taxi, getting a meal delivered: these are all transactions carried out daily via mobile applications. These are based on payment systems involving an exchange of secret information between the user and the bank. To do this, the bank generates a public key, which is transmitted to their customer, and a private key, which it keeps secret. With the public key, the user can modify the information, make it unreadable and send it to the bank. With the private key, the bank can decipher it.

This system is now threatened by the power of quantum computers. To resolve this, quantum cryptographyor quantum key distribution (QKD)is the best option. It allows two parties to generate shared secret keys and transmit them via optical fibers in a highly secure way. This is because the laws of quantum mechanics state that a measurement affects the state of the system being measured. Thus, if a spy tries to measure the photons to steal the key, the information will be instantly altered and the interception revealed.

One limitation to the application of this system is the speed of the single-photon detectors used to receive the information. In fact, after each detection, the detectors must recover for about 30 nanoseconds, which limits the throughput of the secret keys to about 10 megabits per second. A UNIGE team led by Hugo Zbinden, associate professor in the Department of Applied Physics at the UNIGE Faculty of Science, has succeeded in overcoming this limit by developing a detector with better performance. This work was carried out in collaboration with the team of Flix Bussires from the company ID Quantique, a spin-off of the university.

"Currently, the fastest detectors for our application are superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors," explains Fadri Grnenfelder, a former doctoral student in the Department of Applied Physics at the UNIGE Faculty of Science and first author of the study. "These devices contain a tiny superconducting wire cooled to -272C. If a single photon hits it, it heats up and ceases to be superconducting for a short time, thus generating a detectable electrical signal. When the wire becomes cold again, another photon can be detected."

By integrating not one but fourteen nanowires into their detector, the researchers were able to achieve record detection rates. "Our detectors can count twenty times faster than a single-wire device," explains Hugo Zbinden. "If two photons arrive within a short time in these new detectors, they can touch different wires and both be detected. With a single wire this is impossible." The nanowires used are also shorter, which helps to decrease their recovery time.

Using these sensors, scientists were able to generate a secret key at a rate of 64 megabits per second over 10 km of fiber optic cable. This rate is high enough to secure, for example, a videoconference with several participants. This is five times the performance of current technology over this distance. As a bonus, these new detectors are no more complex to produce than the current devices available on the market.

These results open up new perspectives for ultra-secure data transfer, which is crucial for banks, health care systems, governments and the military. They can also be applied in many other fields where light detection is a key element, such as astronomy and medical imaging.

More information: Fadri Grnenfelder et al, Fast single-photon detectors and real-time key distillation enable high secret-key-rate quantum key distribution systems, Nature Photonics (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-023-01168-2

Journal information: Nature Photonics

The rest is here:
High-performance photon detectors to combat spies in the quantum computing age - Phys.org