📋 Tender Overview
Successful ground-breaking UK research that opens the door to unhackable secure communications has been announced in a journal of the American Physical Society.The research involves a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement which is a key to securing future communications and data against hackers.Quantum entanglement is when 2 particles such as photons of light remain connected even when separated by vast distances.But the phenomenon is highly sensitive to bad weather background noise and signal loss.Surviving under extreme conditionsHeriot-Watt University physicists at the Institute of Photonic and Quantum Sciences working with colleagues at the University of Geneva Switzerland have developed a way for quantum entanglement to survive under even extreme conditions of noise and loss.The results are published in Physical Review X a journal of the American Physical Society.The project was part-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC in a collaboration with other international funding agencies.In 1 test researchers were able to steer entangled photons through loss and noise conditions over a distance equivalent to 79km of fibre optic cable with 36 of white noise. A sort that could come from sunlight leaking in.An artists impression of high-dimensional entanglement being robust against noise. Credit Vatshal SrivastavTolerating noise and lossMehul Malik Professor of Physics at Heriot-Watts School of Engineering and Physical Sciences explainsEven the best optical fibers in the world will have a certain amount of loss per kilometer so this is a big hurdle in making this form of quantum communication possible.This is the first time its been shown that quantum entanglement can tolerate both noise and loss and still survive in a strong form known as quantum steering.Professor Malik and his research team at the Beyond Binary Quantum Information Lab improved the robustness of entanglement by using photons entangled in multiple dimensions qudits compared to the standard two-dimensional quantum units qubits.An important further finding was that increasing the number of dimensions in quantum entanglement reduces the time it takes to measure the results.Flow of informationProfessor Malik saysThe efficient and trusted flow of information lies at the heart of modern society today. In the future quantum networks will provide a way to have ultra-secure high-capacity communication.To build such a quantum internet we need to be able to send quantum entanglement across real-world distances. And the only way you can do that is by tolerating noise and loss.Quantum technology involves harnessing the physics of sub-atomic particles to develop ultra-high performance applications including more powerful computing more secure communications and more reliable navigation systems.Professor Malik addsQuantum technology is very much an emerging area thats being advanced by both academia and industry and I think our research is incredibly relevant to both.In academia it can help advance fundamental research and in industry it could help future quantum networks operate over global distances.Truly secure communicationsDr Liam Blackwell Deputy Director for Quantum Technologies at EPSRC saidIt is great to see this world leading advance by a UK research group in the understanding of quantum entanglement taking us towards truly secure communications.It is a great example of how the excellent quantum technologies researchers EPSRC supports are driving forward the science and technology that will deliver a quantum-enabled nation.The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics was won for a breakthrough in quantum entanglement by 3 researchers in France the US and Austria.Further informationQuantum technology is a priority area for EPSRC. New quantum technologies which exploit understanding and control of the sub-atomic have moved from being an opportunity to an issue of national competitiveness and security. Quantum now sits at the heart of government ambitions to cement the UK as a science superpower.EPSRC set up 4 academic hubs catalysed to work with industry the National Quantum Computing Centre 2 centres for doctoral training and many fellowships and research projects. It sustains the flow of science and engineering needed to create a quantum ready economy.UK National Quantum Technologies ProgrammeThe UK National Quantum Technologies Programme NQTP aims to ensure the successful transition of quantum technologies from laboratory to industry.
