All posts tagged: quantum computing

EuroHPC Federation Platform launched to simplify European supercomputing access

EuroHPC Federation Platform launched to simplify European supercomputing access

Published by skeptic

Designed as a unified gateway, the platform changes how researchers, businesses, and public sector organisations interact with EuroHPC systems, removing long-standing barriers to entry and collaboration. At its core, the EuroHPC Federation Platform introduces a single access point for multiple operational EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) systems. Users can now log in through a harmonised authentication and authorisation infrastructure, replacing the need to navigate separate credentials and processes across different supercomputing centres. Anders Jensen, Executive Director of the EuroHPC JU, commented: “The first release of the platform marks the beginning of the journey toward a more connected and integrated European supercomputing ecosystem, empowering Europe’s scientific, industrial, and academic communities and strengthening Europe’s capacity for innovation.” Tackling fragmentation across Europe’s HPC landscape Europe’s supercomputing infrastructure is made up of world-class systems distributed across various centres, each with its own tools and procedures. These differences extend to critical functions such as authentication, resource allocation, job scheduling, and software provisioning. While this diversity reflects regional expertise, it has historically complicated access and limited seamless collaboration across borders. The EuroHPC …

EuroHPC JU launches €8.5m “Lucy” photonic quantum computer

EuroHPC JU launches €8.5m “Lucy” photonic quantum computer

Published by skeptic

Europe has taken another step in the global race for advanced computing with the launch of a new photonic quantum computer near Paris. The system, named Lucy, reflects a broader strategy to strengthen technological sovereignty while accelerating research across science and industry. The machine has been deployed under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), a pan-European effort to build cutting-edge supercomputing and quantum infrastructure. Its arrival signals both technical progress and political intent: Europe wants to compete at the highest level in next-generation computing. A strategic launch at France’s leading supercomputing hub The inauguration ceremony took place at the Très Grand Centre de Calcul (TGCC) in Bruyères-le-Châtel, one of France’s primary high-performance computing (HPC) centres. The event was hosted by CEA in collaboration with GENCI. Senior policymakers and European officials attended, underlining the project’s significance. Among them were Anne Le Hénanff, Kilian Gross, and Anders Jensen. Their presence reflects how quantum computing has moved beyond research labs into the realm of strategic infrastructure. © Quandela EuroHPC JU’s Executive Director Anders Jensen highlighted Lucy’s transformative potential: …

Quantum computers could usher in a crisis worse than Y2K

Quantum computers could usher in a crisis worse than Y2K

Published by skeptic

The moment where quantum computers break encryption appears to be getting closer dem10/Getty Images Quantum computers could cause a global security crisis that makes the once-feared millennium bug, or Y2K, look quaint. This infamous computer risk was averted through the persistent behind-the-scenes work of engineers across the world, but whether the new threat will be tackled similarly is an urgent yet unresolved question. Most digital communications and transactions are protected by cryptography based on mathematical problems that are unsolvable by conventional computers but are solvable by a sufficiently capable quantum computer. Researchers have understood this since the late 1990s, but the day when this capable-enough quantum computer comes online – or Q-Day – was thought to be very far in the future. Much has changed since. Working quantum computers are now a reality, and recent leaps in how to use them are bringing Q-Day ever closer. Since the beginning of 2026, several studies have found that the two most common encryption methods, RSA-2048 and ECDLP-256, could be broken by quantum computers projected to exist by …

How quantum science is shaping our future

How quantum science is shaping our future

Published by skeptic

Today, April 14, marks World Quantum Day – a global moment to step back and consider a branch of science that is both deeply counterintuitive and quietly essential to modern life. Across universities, labs, museums, and online platforms, people are coming together to explore quantum physics – not as an abstract curiosity, but as a field that already underpins the technologies we depend on and is set to reshape the decades ahead. Why April 14? The date itself is a nod to Planck’s constant – the number 4.14 reflecting its first digits (4.1356677×10⁻¹⁵ eV·s). This constant is foundational to quantum theory, defining the smallest units of energy and marking the point where classical physics gives way to something far stranger. It’s also surprisingly practical. Planck’s constant is now used to define the kilogram, tying our system of measurement directly to the laws of nature rather than physical artifacts. That shift captures the broader story of quantum science: once theoretical, now embedded in real-world systems. ©Shutterstock/RAJ0297 A global, open-ended celebration World Quantum Day is still relatively …

We urgently need to prepare for quantum computers breaking encryption

We urgently need to prepare for quantum computers breaking encryption

Published by skeptic

Dragon Claws/Getty Images Something very bad is going to happen in the near future unless we change course. Researchers know what will cause it and roughly when it will happen, and have ideas to mitigate it. Yet policy-makers may not do enough to avert it in time. This could be describing climate change, or perhaps the early days of the covid-19 pandemic. Now, it also applies to something more esoteric:quantum computers. As we report here, two separate papers, including one from Google, have discovered that the threshold for a quantum computer to threaten the encryption that keeps our data safe is far lower than expected. The knowledge that quantum computers will one day be able to quickly solve the maths problems that underpin our security isn’t new – it is perhaps one of thefew well-grounded applications of these exotic machines. What is new is that this moment, labelled Q-Day by some, may be far closer than anyone expected. Should it arrive unbidden, the results will be catastrophic: emails hacked, bank accounts emptied and secrets spilled. …

German quantum repeater project advances quantum internet

German quantum repeater project advances quantum internet

Published by skeptic

A new German research initiative is targeting one of the most critical bottlenecks in next-generation secure communications: the quantum repeater. Backed by nearly €12.4m in federal funding, the project brings together leading academic institutions to accelerate development of technologies needed for scalable quantum networks and, ultimately, a functional quantum internet. The project, titled Technologien und Demonstratoren für Quantenrepeater (TD.QR), began in January 2026 and is scheduled to run for 14 months. Its core objective is to refine and validate key components that enable quantum signals to travel long distances without degradation, an essential requirement for any practical quantum communication infrastructure. Quantum repeater as a strategic technology Quantum communication has become a focal point in advanced cybersecurity research due to its potential to enable theoretically secure data transmission. Unlike classical systems, quantum networks rely on entanglement and quantum states, which are highly sensitive to loss and noise. This makes long-distance transmission a major technical challenge. The quantum repeater addresses this limitation by extending the range of quantum signals across fibre-optic networks. It does so by enabling entanglement …

New optical trick pulls hidden quantum signals out of background noise

New optical trick pulls hidden quantum signals out of background noise

Published by Jenni Sidey

Bright background light can do more than clutter a quantum experiment. It can wash out the very features that make quantum systems useful in the first place. That is the problem a team at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, or INRS, set out to tackle. Working with light particles called photons, the researchers built a way to sift out meaningful quantum signals even when those signals are buried under heavy optical noise. Their results, published in Science Advances, point to a simpler and more energy-efficient route for keeping quantum information intact in messy, real-world conditions. The work came from the group of Professor José Azaña, in collaboration with Professor Roberto Morandotti’s team. It was carried out by Benjamin Crockett during his PhD at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre. Crockett has since moved to the University of British Columbia as a Banting postdoctoral fellow. Quantum technologies depend on detecting the properties carried by single photons. That sounds manageable in a carefully controlled lab. It becomes much harder when the photon you care …

The first quantum computer to break encryption is now shockingly close

The first quantum computer to break encryption is now shockingly close

Published by skeptic

Google’s Willow quantum computer Google Quantum AI A quantum computer capable of breaking the encryption that secures the internet now seems to be just around the corner. Stunning revelations from two research teams outline how it could happen, with one suggesting that the current largest quantum machine is already more than halfway towards the size needed. The two studies concern an encryption technique built around the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP). The particulars of how this mathematical problem is solved made it a good candidate for encrypting data and led to its widespread adoption for securing lots of internet communication, including bank transactions, and nearly every major cryptocurrency, including bitcoin. It is extremely difficult for conventional computers to crack elliptic curve-based encryption, but since the 1990s researchers have known that quantum computers wouldn’t have the same trouble. Building a quantum computer large enough, however, was an engineering impossibility, so seemed a distant worry. In recent years, both theory and engineering have advanced with staggering speed, greatly squeezing the timeline. On the theory front, researchers …

Scientists unlock scalable entanglement for next-generation quantum computing

Scientists unlock scalable entanglement for next-generation quantum computing

Published by Jenni Sidey

Light moving through a tiny silicon structure does not look dramatic. It slips down narrow waveguides etched onto a chip, guided by geometry too small to see with the naked eye. Yet in those channels, researchers at the University of Central Florida say they have found a way to build more complex quantum states of light without making the system itself more cumbersome. Their study, published in Science, centers on a problem that has lingered in quantum photonics. Entangled states of light can help power quantum computing and quantum sensing, but making those states both scalable and resistant to imperfections has been difficult. Andrea Blanco-Redondo, an optics and photonics professor at CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics, said her group has now shown a method for entangling multiple topologically protected modes of light in silicon photonic superlattices. CREOL doctoral student Javad Zakeri while performing the photonic quantum experiments at UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics. (CREDIT: UCF) Where the robustness comes from Topological modes are unusual because they depend on the overall structure of …

You can now buy a DIY quantum computer

You can now buy a DIY quantum computer

Published by skeptic

Two engineers work on one of Qilimanjaro’s quantum computers Qilimanjaro Quantum computers once seemed like fanciful machines of the future. Now, a DIY kit means that anyone with enough money and engineering skills can have one of their own. Barcelona-based quantum computing company Qilimanjaro created EduQit by taking a “flatpack furniture” approach – gathering all the parts and giving customers the job of putting them together. EduQit includes a chip made from tiny superconducting circuits, which is the heart of the quantum computer. There is also a special refrigerator that the chip is installed and wired into, along with a set of electronic devices that use radio waves and microwaves for controlling the chip and reading the results of its computations. All of this is combined with a smattering of racks, power cables and other devices that help complete the quantum computer. Putting it all together isn’t a trivial task, but EduQit does come with instructions. Marta Estarellas at Qilimanjaro says the team offers training from its researchers and support throughout the building process. The …