NSF Engineering Research Center for Quantum Networks (CQN)

量子网络（CQN）工程研究中心（ERC）将承担21世纪世纪最大的工程挑战之一：奠定量子互联网的技术和社会基础。量子互联网将超越当今互联网的能力，因为纠缠的独特优势，量子态作为计算比特的粒子的协调，在经典物理学领域中不存在。量子纠缠将至少在两个重要方面改善互联网。首先，它将使基于物理的通信安全性不会受到任何计算能力的影响。其次，量子互联网将创建一个由量子计算机、处理器和传感器组成的全球网络，从根本上说，它比当今的技术更强大。这将为分布式计算带来前所未有的进步，并使公众能够安全地访问量子计算机。由于ARPANET的架构师无法理解现代互联网的全部应用，CQN ERC的影响可能同样深刻和多方面。量子互联网可以帮助彻底改变国家安全，数据隐私，药物发现，新材料设计，并通过超灵敏的望远镜集团与纠缠联系在一起来推动科学的前沿。除了技术创新，CQN还将努力确保社会为广泛、负担得起和公平地访问量子互联网及其经济做好充分准备。CQN ERC将积极研究这一新兴技术的社会和政策影响，并将为不同的社区带来对量子技术的基本理解。在大学层面，CQN将为一个新学科的发展做出贡献-量子信息科学与工程（QISE）。CQN还将开发其他课程创新，帮助培养多样化的量子工程师队伍，他们能够以对社会负责的方式直观地了解量子信息科学的全新应用。在量子信息科学家，量子工程师和技术政策专家的独特领导下，亚利桑那大学领导的ERC高度跨学科，来自核心合作机构哈佛，麻省理工学院和耶鲁大学-沿着成员机构马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校，俄勒冈州大学，北方亚利桑那大学，霍华德大学，芝加哥大学和杨百翰大学。CQN还得到了强大的行业联盟和领先的国际合作伙伴在推进量子互联网技术方面的支持。CQN ERC将有助于支持2020年白宫关于美国量子网络的备忘录中提出的战略愿景。CQN ERC的技术目标是开发世界上第一个由容错量子中继器支持的长距离量子通信网络之一，该网络由量子中继器和交换机组成的网络骨干支持。这些量子中继器是特殊用途的量子处理器，可以实现量子比特（0和1叠加的量子比特）的长距离高速通信。量子中继器及其关键子组件将配备由金刚石中的空位缺陷中心构建的量子存储器，以及将其连接到现代电信基础设施的自旋光子接口，将在两个测试平台（图森和波士顿）进行测试，验证和改进。一个由计算机科学家和网络工程师组成的团队将与物理学家和材料科学家合作，为与经典互联网无缝互操作的量子互联网设计架构和协议。工程研发将与安全和隐私法的社会科学研究，量子网络驱动的应用程序中的意外偏见以及开源量子云访问的影响进行协调。作为学术界、工业基地、领先的国际合作伙伴、国家实验室和股权合作伙伴的公私合作伙伴关系，CQN ERC将作为推进量子互联网发展的国家中心，并绘制其预期应用和社会影响的路线图。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过利用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。

The Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Quantum Networks (CQN) will take on one of the great engineering challenges of the 21st century: to lay the technical and social foundations of the quantum internet. The quantum internet will surpass the capabilities of today's internet because of the unique advantages of entanglement, a coordination of the quantum states of particles serving as computational bits that is not present in the realms of classical physics. Quantum entanglement will improve the internet in at least two important ways. First, it will enable physics-based communication security that cannot be compromised by any amount of computational power. Second, the quantum internet will create a global network of quantum computers, processors, and sensors that are fundamentally more powerful than today's technology. This will bring unprecedented advances in distributed computing and enable secure access to quantum computers for the public. As the architects of the ARPANET could not fathom the full range of applications of the modern internet, the impact of the CQN ERC may be similarly profound and multifaceted. The quantum internet can help revolutionize national security, data privacy, drug discovery, novel material design, and push the frontiers of science with ultra-sensitive telescope conglomerates tied together with entanglement. In addition to the technical innovation, CQN will work to ensure that society is well prepared for broad, affordable, and equitable access to the quantum internet and its economy. CQN ERC will proactively study the social and policy implications of this budding technology and will bring a basic understanding of quantum technology to diverse communities. At the university level, CQN will contribute to development of a new discipline--Quantum Information Science and Engineering (QISE). CQN will also develop other curricular innovations that help train a diverse workforce of quantum engineers who can intuit radically new applications of quantum information science in socially responsible ways. Under the unique leadership of a quantum information scientist, a quantum engineer, and a technology policy expert, this highly interdisciplinary University of Arizona led ERC draws from core partner institutions Harvard, MIT, and Yale - along with member institutions UMass Amherst, University of Oregon, Northern Arizona University, Howard University, University of Chicago, and Brigham Young University. CQN also enjoys the support of a strong industry consortium and the leading international partners in advancing quantum internet technology. The CQN ERC will help to support the strategic vision that is laid out in a 2020 White House memorandum on America's Quantum Networks. The technical goal of CQN ERC is to develop one of the world's first long-distance quantum communications networks enabled by fault-tolerant quantum repeaters, supported on a network backbone of quantum repeaters and switches. These quantum repeaters are special-purpose quantum processors that will enable high-speed communication of qubits (quantum bits that live in a superposition of 0 and 1) over a long distance. Equipped with quantum memories built with vacancy defect centers in diamond, and spin-photon interfaces to connect them to the modern telecommunications infrastructure, the quantum repeater and its key subcomponents will be tested, validated and improved in two testbeds (in Tucson and Boston). A team of computer scientists and network engineers will work with physicists and material scientists to design architectures and protocols for a quantum internet that seamlessly interoperates with the classical internet. Engineering R&D will coordinate with social science research on security and privacy laws, unintended biases in quantum-network-driven applications, and implications of open-source quantum cloud access. As a public-private partnership of academia, the industrial base, leading international partners, national labs and equity partners, the CQN ERC will serve as a national hub for advancing the development of the quantum internet and road mapping its anticipated applications and societal impacts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.