Simple interactive activities help non-expert audiences to grasp the core concepts of quantum entanglement and the Nobel Prize-winning experiments that proved how quantum mechanics defies classical physics

Even compared with other fields of cutting-edge research, the underlying principles of quantum mechanics are often deeply complex, and can contradict our everyday intuitions about reality. When communicating these ideas beyond the scientific community, this makes it incredibly challenging for researchers to simplify concepts enough to make them approachable, without sacrificing accuracy.

Through new research published in EPJ Quantum Technology, Valentina De Renzi at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Matteo Paris at the University of Milan, and Maria Bondani at Italy’s Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies present a new approach for introducing the concepts of quantum entanglement, and its experimental proof through the violation of Bell's Inequality – whose experimental demonstration earned the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics.

In-depth analysis shows that co-designing hardware and software is essential for optimising quantum performance.

Over the past few years, advances in quantum computing have pushed it steadily closer to practical, real-world applications. But before this goal can be reached, greater standardisation will be needed across the entire quantum ‘stack’ – from user-facing software, all the way down to the underlying hardware.

In new research published in EPJ Quantum Technology, a team led by Hila Safi at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Regensburg investigates how this full-stack design challenge might be addressed. By systematically exploring the interplay between software hardware, the researchers show that improving quantum performance will depend on carefully co-designing both layers together.

The second of a series of workshops, held in London in April 2024, saw over 250 experts make progress towards a blueprint for a kilometre-long atom interferometer.

Interferometry is a technique that extracts information from the interference patterns of superimposed waves, most typically electromagnetic waves. However, atom interferometry, as its name implies, instead uses atoms that are treated as waves through wave-particle duality. Atom interferometers can make exceptionally precise measurements, for example to test foundational physical principles or detect gravitational waves. This decade, international experts in terrestrial very long baseline atom interferometry (TVLBAI) have met for two workshops; progress reported at the second of these, held in London in April 2024, has recently been published in EPJ Quantum Technology.

A new approach can generate random information with extremely high efficiency through a process involving the emission and subsequent detection of single photons

From simulation to cryptography, randomness is a vital resource in many areas of technology. Ideally, random sequences can be created by measuring nondeterministic processes, whose outcomes are inherently unpredictable. Currently, many systems rely on pseudorandom processes such as thermal noise or chaotic oscillation, which exhibit some unpredictability, but are still fundamentally deterministic.

Through new research published in EPJ Quantum Technology, Jonas Almlöf and colleagues at Ericsson Research and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, show how these challenges can be overcome by exploiting the inherently random principles of quantum mechanics.

Their approach offers a realistic route to generating completely unbiased random sequences of information, and also enables far greater efficiency compared to existing methods.

Quantum technology offers major societal benefits, but its growth depends on the supply of a qualified workforce.

Quantum Technology is based on the engineering of devices that make use of the quantum properties of matter. One of the most prominent avenues of this technology is quantum computing, which may be able to leverage quantum bits (qubits) to perform calculations more efficiently than classical computers. Technology with this “quantum advantage” will also operate in the background of our lives, providing ultra-secure communications and high-precision sensors and clocks.

The applications of quantum technology have led to a boom in investment worldwide; with this technology expected to have a huge societal impact. But to maintain this burgeoning industry, it is crucial that graduates with training in quantum technology enter the workforce. Plus, for the European Union to stay ahead in the quantum tech race, the workforce must assemble on a much shorter timescale than the 3 to 5 years (or more) of a PhD program.

In a new paper in EPJ Quantum Technology, author Simon Goorney, from Aarhus University, Denmark, and his co-authors describe the development of Open Master, a new form of transnational education, that could serve as a means of enhancing accessibility to specialist expertise in quantum technology. The ultimate goal of the pilot scheme, which operated over the academic year of 2021 to 2022, was to use the experience to conceptualise a model for the future of quantum technology education.

Space-based quantum optical links support future networking applications for quantum sensing, quantum communications, and quantum information science. In addition, such links enable new scientific experiments impossible to reach in terrestrial experiments. The Deep Space Quantum Link (DSQL) is a spacecraft mission concept that aims to use extremely long-baseline quantum optical links to test fundamental quantum physics in novel special and general relativistic regimes.

In a new Review article just published in EPJ Quantum Technology, an international author team provide an overview of a two-year long study of how quantum optics in space could be used to conduct new tests of fundamental physics, in compliment to proposed tests utilizing matter or clocks. The manuscript describes the findings of the NASA-funded study, and describes some of the technology requirements and outstanding mission design studies necessary to move forward with the mission.

Quantum devices are a promising technological advance for the future, but this will hinge on the application of quantum optimal control top real-world devices. A new review looks at the status of the field as it stands.

One of the cornerstones of the implementation of quantum technology is the creation and manipulation of the shape of external fields that can optimise the performance of quantum devices. Known as quantum optimal control, this set of methods comprises a field that has rapidly evolved and expanded over recent years.

A new review paper published in EPJ Quantum Technology and authored by Christiane P. Koch, Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems and Fachbereich Physik, Freie Universität Berlin along with colleagues from across Europe assesses recent progress in the understanding of the controllability of quantum systems as well as the application of quantum control to quantum technologies. As such, it lays out a potential roadmap for future technology.

Prof. Dr. Aleksey Fedorov is a Junior Principal Investigator at the Russian Quantum Center, Professor of Physics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and founder of startup companies in quantum technologies. His research is related to quantum information technologies and quantum many-body physics. His paper about world-first quantum-secured blockchain was covered in MIT Technology Review, Business Insider, Forbes and put in the list of "the hottest top 5%" of all research outputs by Altmetrics. Aleksey was selected for ’30-under-30’ for Forbes Russia.

Life in our society is suffused with information technologies. Many of our activities — ranging from online shopping and chatting to operating production environments and management systems — are based on collecting, processing, and transmitting data. One of the key aspects in this regard is security. Surely, the history of the problem of ensuring information security is virtually as long as human history. However, for modern society the issue of information security has become truly vital: unauthorized access to various kinds of information could lead to major losses, including financial losses and loss of reputation, for governments and businesses alike.

Continue reading Aleksey Fedorov’s post here.