1st Edition
Schrödinger’s Web Race to Build the Quantum Internet
As the race to build the world’s first quantum computer is coming to an end, the race to build the quantum internet has just started. This book leverages the author’s unique insights into both the Chinese and American quantum programs. It begins with the physics and history of the quantum internet and ends with the latest results in quantum computing and quantum networks.
- The Chinese quantum Sputnik moment.
- The U.S. National Quantum Initiative.
- What’s up with Quantum Computing Supremacy?
- The Race to Build the Quantum Internet.
- Where will Quantum Technology be Tomorrow?
Written by a renowned quantum physicist, this book is for everyone who is interested in the rapidly advancing field of Quantum Technology — The Second Quantum Revolution. The 2016 launch of the Chinese quantum satellite Mozi was a quantum Sputnik moment. The United States went from thinking it was ten years ahead of the Chinese to the realization that it was ten years behind them. This quantum gap led to the U.S. National Quantum Initiative, launched in 2018. Since then, the race to build the quantum internet has taken off at breakneck speed.
Contents
Preface, xiii
Foreword, xv
Author, xxi
CHAPTER 1 ■ Many Hands Make Light Work 1
THE DARKENED ROOM 2
NEWTON’S BULLETS 5
WAVES OF HUYGENS’ – PTOOEY! 11
OUT – DAMNED SPOT! 12
THE JOURNEY STONE 20
FRANKLIN, FROGS, AND FRANKENSTEIN 22
ØRSTED UNLODES 23
ELECTRIC BOY REWINDS 26
ALL’S WELL THAT’S MAXWELL 31
FIAT LUX! 34
WATT IS LOVE? DON’T HERTZ ME, NO MORSE! 38
MARCONI AND CHUTZPAH 39
MAXWELL’S RAINBOW 40
CHAPTER 2 ■ What Light Through Yonder Window –
Breaks? 43
THE END OF PHYSICS? 44
PLANCKING FOR BEGINNERS 51
ONE PHOTON, INDIVISIBLE, WITH QUANTA OF
ENERGY, IN BALLS 56
IT’S A WAVE! IT’S A PARTICLE! IT’S – WHAT THE HECK
IS IT!? 60
QUANTUM NONDEMOLITION DERBY 68
VAIDMAN – DUDE’S THE BOMB! 73
THE UNDETECTABLE QUANTUM TRIPWIRE 76
EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE
MADNESS OF CLOUDS 79
TO COMPUTE OR NOT TO COMPUTE – WHAT IS
THE QUESTION? 82
EINSTEIN’S BUBBLE – TOIL AND TROUBLE 83
PARTICULARS OF POLARIZED PHOTONS 87
CHAPTER 3 ■ It Takes Two to Tangle 91
SCHRÖDINGER’S CURSE 92
EINSTEIN’S BANE 94
VON NEUMANN’S BLUNDER 99
BOHM’S BOMBSHELL 101
BELL GETS TESTY 103
BERTLMANN’S SOCKS 108
CLAUSER’S NO-BELL PRIZE 108
CLOSING THE LOOPHOLES 112
TWO’S COMPANY – BUT THREE’S A CLOUD 115
SPEAKING THE UNSPEAKABLE 118
CHAPTER 4 ■ Quantum Networks: The Building Blocks 121
SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS 122
QUANTUM-DOT SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS 122
SORT-OF-SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS AND MAGIC CHINESE
CRYSTALS 125
PSEUDO-SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS 129
ENTANGLED-PHOTON GUNS 132
QUANTUM-DOT ENTANGLED-PHOTON GUNS 132
ENTANGLED SORT-OF-PHOTON GUNS AND MAGIC
CHINESE CRYSTALS 134
I SPY, WITH MY LITTLE EYE 138
E. T. PHONE HOME 141
POLARIZE! LET NO PHOTON EVADE YOUR EYES! 146
RARE AS A TWO-DOLLAR BELL 149
CHAPTER 5 ■ The Second Quantum Revolution 151
WHAT IS QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY? 152
QUANTUM RANDOM-NUMBER GENERATORS 154
CRYPTOGRAPHY 158
CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY – RSA PUBLIC-KEY
ENCRYPTION 159
CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY – ONE-TIME-PAD
PRIVATE-KEY ENCRYPTION 162
QUANTUM MONEY – WIESNER’S UNPUBLISHABLE
PAPER 172
QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY – THE BENNETT AND
BRASSARD 1984 PROTOCOL 175
QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY – THE EKERT 1991
PROTOCOL 182
POST-QUANTUM-CRYPTOGRAPHY – OFF-RAMP
ON THE QUANTUM INTERNET 185
QUANTUM TELEPORTATION 187
ENTANGLEMENT SWAPPING 194
QUANTUM MEMORIES 196
CLASSICAL REPEATERS 198
QUANTUM REPEATERS 201
QUANTUM TRANSPONDERS 205
CHAPTER 6 ■ Quantum Networks 207
THE QUANTUM INTERNET – WHY NOW? 208
WHAT’S UP WITH QUANTUM COMPUTERS
THESE DAYS? 210
QUANTUM SUPREMACY 213
DOUBLE-BUBBLE – TOIL AND TROUBLE! 215
A CHINESE QUANTUM-SPUTNIK MOMENT 219
NATIONAL QUANTUM INITIATIVE ACT 222
QUANTUM INTERNET 1.0 – ALL THAT IT’S CRACKED
UP TO BE? 228
QUANTUM INTERNET 2.0 – RAGE OF ENTANGLEMENT 230
QUANTUM INTERNET 3.0 – RISE OF THE UBIQUITOUS
QUANTUM REPEATERS 238
I HAVE A CODE IN MY NODE! 245
TELEPORTATION AND DISTRIBUTED QUANTUM
COMPUTING 247
CLASSICAL COMMUNICATION OVER THE QUANTUM
NETWORK 251
CHAPTER 7 ■ Networks of Quantum Sensors 255
QUANTUM SENSORS 256
COHERENT SENSOR ARRAYS 261
CLOCKS IN SPACE 270
DISTRIBUTED QUANTUM SENSORS 273
EPILOGUE, 281
INDEX, 285
Biography
Jonathan Dowling earned a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics from the
University of Colorado. He has worked at the United States Army
Aviation and Missile Command, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
and then at the Louisiana State University. Dr. Dowling is one of the
founders of the U.S. Government program in quantum computing and
quantum cryptography.
"As theoretical physicist Jonathan Dowling makes clear in Schrödinger’s Web, early versions of the quantum internet are here already — for example, quantum communication has been taking place between Beijing and Shanghai via fiber-optic cables since 2016 — and more are coming fast. So now is the perfect time to read up. Dowling, who helped found the U.S. government’s quantum computing program in the 1990s, is the perfect guide. Armed with a seemingly endless supply of outrageous anecdotes, memorable analogies, puns and quips, he makes the thorny theoretical details of the quantum internet both entertaining and accessible. …
Like Dowling’s 2013 book on quantum computers, Schrödinger’s Killer App, Schrödinger’s Web hammers home the nonintuitive truths at the heart of quantum mechanics. … Dowling died unexpectedly in June at age 65, before he could see this future come to fruition. Once when I interviewed him, he invoked Arthur C. Clarke’s first law to justify why he thought another esteemed scientist was wrong. "The first law is that if a distinguished, elderly scientist tells you something is possible, he’s very likely right," he said. "If he tells you something is impossible, he’s very likely wrong." Dowling died too soon to be considered elderly, but he was distinguished, and Schrödinger’s Web lays out a powerful case for the possibility of a quantum internet."
—Dan Garisto in Science News, September 2020
