The race to create a quantum Internet

Europe is pushing to create new, more secure network infrastructure based on quantum physics, helping to prevent hackers from stealing information.

Europe, China and the US are investing in the development of quantum computers and the Internet. Photo: metamorworks

In May 2023, Dr. Benjamin Lanyon at the University of Innsbruck in Austria took an important step forward in creating a new type of Internet. He transmitted information along a 50 km fiber optic cable, using principles of quantum physics. Information in quantum physics is different from the binary digit data unit stored and processed by computers, the core of today's World Wide Web. The world of quantum physics focuses on the properties and interactions of molecules, atoms and even smaller particles such as electrons and photons. Quantum bits or qubits offer the potential for more precise information transmission, helping to prevent information theft over networks.

Lanyon said his research will make quantum internet possible inside cities, the goal then being inter-city distances. His breakthrough is part of a European Union (EU) research project to get closer to a quantum Internet. Called the Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA), the project brings together many research institutes and companies across Europe. QIA receives funding of 25.5 million USD from the EU for 3.5 years, until the end of March 2026, according to Phys.org .

"The quantum Internet will not replace the regular Internet, but will combine with each other," said Stephanie Wehner, professor of quantum information at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and QIA coordinator. .

An important concept in quantum physics is quantum entanglement. If two particles are entangled, no matter how far away they are in space, they still possess similar properties. For example, both have the same "spin", which represents the direction of an elementary particle's intrinsic angular momentum. The spin state of the particle is unclear until observed. Before that, they were in many states called superposition. But once observed, the states of both particles are clearly defined.

This is very useful in communication security. Those who surreptitiously obtain quantum transmission data leave clear traces by causing changes in the state of the observed particle. "We can use the properties of quantum entanglement to achieve a secure communication even if the attacker has a quantum computer," Wehner explains.

The secure communication capabilities achieved by the quantum Internet can open up a much wider range of applications than the traditional Internet. For example, in medicine, quantum entanglement allows clock synchronization, improving remote surgery. For astronomy, telescopes conducting distant observations could "use quantum internet to create entanglement effects between sensors, providing much better quality images of the sky," said Wehner. said.

The challenge now is to scale up the quantum Internet to use many particles over long distances. Lanyon and his colleagues also demonstrated communication not only between individual particles but also beams of particles (in this case photons of light), promoting entanglement rates between quantum nodes. The ultimate goal is to expand the quantum node over a larger range, perhaps 500 km, creating a type of quantum Internet that can connect remote cities, similar to the traditional Internet.

In addition to Europe, China and the US have also made many advances in quantum computing and Internet in recent years. Europe is going further in developing integrated space and ground infrastructure for secure communications, a core part of the quantum internet.