Behold, The Quantum Compass

via an Impact Lab post, in which, the astounding science of Imperial College London and Glasgow, Scotland, UK based M Squared combine for the possibility that we may soon possess the capability to arrive at our desired waypoints and caches through the utilization of a Quantum Compass - without the need for a satellite based positioning-system to enlighten our in-built curiosity for knowledge-of-place.

Are the days of GLONASS and GPS over? Is this merely an appropriation of geolocation processing with the assistance of a quantum accelerometer channeling data elements to a fundamentally stranger - in the quantum vernacular - platform - not subject to the vagaries of nation or space-borne detritus and political machinations? You be the judge.

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"When the atoms are ultra-cold we have to use quantum mechanics to describe how they move, and this allows us to make what we call an atom interferometer", said Dr Joseph Cotter, a member of the Research Staff at The Centre for Cold Matter at Imperial College, London, UK.

Quantum Recommendation Problem Obsoleted →

via Kevin Hartnett, writing for Simon's Foundation Quanta Magazine, notes - An 18 year old man from Texas (in the fall, Ewin will attend the University of Washington graduate program in Computer Science) has obsoleted the so-called quantum 'recommendation problem'. Eighteen year old Ewin Tang has published a paper entitled 'A Quantum-Inspired Classical Algorithm for Recommendation Systems' detailing the problems obsolescence (and is today's selection for a Must Read recommendation).

Well Done, Mr. Tang, Well Done.

Quantum of Saturday →

via Philip Ball writing at Quanta Magazine - the web-based publication of the Simons Foundation - comes this superb piece on the current state of quantum computation, and the - apparently - rather long road ahead. Certainly, a Saturday Must Read!

Quantum Computation Breaks Crypto? Unlikely... →

Mark H. Kim, a contributing writer at Quanta Magazine illuminates a recent paper published at the IACR, and contributed by Daniel J. Bernstein, Nadia Heninger, Paul Lou and Luke Valenta, postulate in their paper 'Post-quantum RSA' that in fact, the RSA algorithm might very well not be broken by the use of a quantum computational devices when aprpriately manipulated.

'The authors of the paper estimate that attacking a terabyte-size key using Shor’s algorithm would require around 2100 operations on a quantum computer, an enormous number comparable to the total number of bacterial cells on Earth.' - via Mark H. Kim, writing at Quanta Magazine, and from his article 'Why Quantum Computers Might Not Break Cryptography

The paper's content abstract:

'Abstract. This paper proposes RSA parameters for which (1) key gen- eration, encryption, decryption, signing, and verification are feasible on today’s computers while (2) all known attacks are infeasible, even as- suming highly scalable quantum computers. As part of the performance analysis, this paper introduces a new algorithm to generate a batch of primes. As part of the attack analysis, this paper introduces a new quan- tum factorization algorithm that is often much faster than Shor’s algo- rithm and much faster than pre-quantum factorization algorithms. Initial pqRSA implementation results are provided.' Excerpt from Post-quantum RSA published via the IACR, and authored by Daniel J. Bernstein, Nadia Heninger, Paul Lou and Luke Valenta.

Quantum Systems, The Embiggenment →

via the clearly motivated John Timmer, writing at the equally hard working Ars Technica organization, comes this quantum sciences focused prose, detailing the embiggenment of same. Todays MustRead in Quantum Science.

Bob and Alice Meet The Ultimate Firewall →

Not the Alice and Bob we know running and frolicking along and about various and sundry paths to Security Nirvana, oh no me prtetties, but the Alice and Bob of mathematics, blackholes, paradoxes and whatnot... Examine - if you will - what happens when the pair meet the ultimate firewall - Today's Must Read.

50 Qubits →

An astounding image (some might call it a percolator of the multiverse), and announcement via IBM (NYSE: IBM) of the company's newly minted 50 Qubit Processor. Today's Must Read.

"The first IBM Q systems available online to clients will have a 20 qubit processor, featuring improvements in superconducting qubit design, connectivity and packaging. Coherence times (the amount of time available to perform quantum computations) lead the field with an average value of 90 microseconds, and allow high-fidelity quantum operations. IBM has also successfully built and measured an operational prototype 50 qubit processor with similar performance metrics. This new processor expands upon the 20 qubit architecture and will be made available in the next generation IBM Q systems." - via

The Uncovering →

Via Chris Lee - writing at Ars Technica, comes news of the 'uncovering' of the Higgs Boson particle via the utilization (in the machine-learning realm) of a D-Wave Quantum Computational Device.

'The discovery of Higgs-boson decays in a background of standard-model processes was assisted by machine learning methods 1, 2. The classifiers used to separate signals such as these from background are trained using highly unerring but not completely perfect simulations of the physical processes involved, often resulting in incorrect labelling of background processes or signals (label noise) and systematic errors.' - via Nature 550, 375–379 (19 October 2017) doi:10.1038/nature24047

La Recherche

Quanta Magazine (an independent publication of the Simons Foundation) writer Stephen Ornes, regales us with the search for questions best suited for quantum computation. Phenomenal.

Quantum Computation Enters Mainstream →

Fascinating story, detailing the market entry of quantum computation - via the wunderkind of IBM. Written by GizMags' Colin Jeffrey, amd deemed this weeks Must Read. Execute your own experimentation regimen against your (temporarily) very own quantum bits.

Deux Étape, L'Internet Quantum →

Welcome, my friends, to the show that (evidently) never ends... Of course, I am writing about our beloved interwebs, and in this case, L'internet Quantum.

"The future quantum Internet will need a network of satellites and ground stations, similar to that of the Global Positioning System, in order to exchange quantum keys instantaneously." - via Alexander Hellemans writing at IEEE Spectrum Magazine

Encryption, The Trick →

Quite likely one of the best articles on the problematic world of quantum encryption, written by Natalie Wolchover (published in Quanta Magazine) managed to bubble up through the jetsam of our collective interwebs yesterday. Today's Must Read.

Google Creates Quantum Chip →

News, via Wired's Robert McMillan, of trouble in paradise. In this case, an error prone computational quantum platform the search leviathan Google Inc. (NasdqGS: GOOG) is running, down yonder in Mountain View...

"The crux of the problem is a phenomenon called bit-flipping. This happens when some kind of interference—cosmic rays, for example—causes the bits stored in memory to “switch state”—to jump from a 0 to a 1 or vice versa. On a PC or a server, error correction is relatively easy." - via Wired's Robert McMillan

• Image depicts a D-WAVE branded quantum computational device

Distribution, Quantum Key, that is...

via Nature [Toshihiko Sasaki, Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Masato Koashi) and reported by Wired's Chris Lee comes this fascinating tale of the tribulations enveloping quantum key distribution [QKD]. The proof, as they say in the vernacular, resides within the experiment...