It may all sound like science fiction, but the reality is that building quantum networks has become a key ambition for many countries around the world. For example, in the middle of last year, the United States Department of Defense published the first plan of its kind, establishing a progressive strategy to make possible the idea of having a quantum Internet , at least in a preliminary way, in the coming years. .
Thus, for the first time, researchers in the Netherlands have successfully connected a total of three separate quantum processors in what has effectively become the world’s first multi-node quantum network , paving the way for an Internet. large-scale quantum science, which scientists and governments alike have been dreaming of for decades.
QuTech , a quantum research institute based in Delft, has recently published a new work in which a total of three nodes capable of storing and processing quantum bits (also known under the name of qubits ) have been linked. In this way, and always according to scientists, it would be the world’s first rudimentary quantum network.
The truth is that connecting different quantum devices is not new. Many researchers around the world are currently working on similar networks. But, until now, they had only managed to connect two quantum processors, so establishing a multi-node connection becomes an essential step in expanding the size of the network considerably .
The goal that researchers have been pursuing for years is the creation of a quantum Internet that can spread across the entire surface of the planet, exploiting the strange laws of quantum mechanics in order to allow quantum devices to communicate with each other, and that would also unlock a series of applications that cannot be executed with existing conventional means.
For example, the quantum Internet could offer the possibility of linking small quantum devices with the aim of creating a large quantum cluster, with greater computing power than more sophisticated conventional supercomputers.
What exactly is the quantum Internet and what uses would it have?
The so-called quantum Internet consists of a network that will allow quantum devices to exchange certain information in an environment capable of exploiting the laws of quantum mechanics .
In theory, this would provide the quantum Internet with unprecedented capabilities, impossible to achieve with existing web applications today, paving the way for a host of new applications, ranging from cloud computing with complete user privacy to a communication that could not be that easy to hack, going through high precision time measurement.
Furthermore, as experts agree, as happened with the Internet 40 years ago, there are possibly many applications that cannot be predicted at this time.
