NSF Engineering Research Center for Quantum Networks (CQN)

量子网络(CQN)工程研究中心(ERC)将承担21世纪的重大工程挑战之一：为量子互联网奠定技术和社会基础。量子互联网的能力将超过今天的互联网，因为纠缠的独特优势，纠缠是一种粒子量子态的协调，作为计算比特，这在经典物理领域中是不存在的。量子纠缠将在至少两个重要方面改善互联网。首先，它将实现基于物理的通信安全，而这种通信安全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，这些网络从根本上比当今的技术更强大。这将带来分布式计算的前所未有的进步，并使公众能够安全地访问量子计算机。由于ARPANET的设计者无法洞察现代互联网的所有应用，CQN ERC的影响可能同样深远和多方面。量子互联网可以帮助给国家安全、数据隐私、药物发现、新材料设计带来革命性的变化，并通过用纠缠捆绑在一起的超灵敏望远镜集团推动科学的前沿。除了技术创新，CQN还将努力确保社会为广泛、负担得起和公平地获得量子互联网及其经济做好准备。CQN ERC将积极研究这项新兴技术的社会和政策影响，并将为不同社区带来对量子技术的基本了解。在大学一级，CQN将促进一门新学科--量子信息科学与工程(QISE)的发展。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。在一位量子信息科学家、一位量子工程师和一位技术政策专家的独特领导下，这所高度跨学科的亚利桑那大学领导的ERC从核心合作机构哈佛、麻省理工学院和耶鲁大学，以及成员机构UMassAmherst、俄勒冈大学、北亚利桑那大学、霍华德大学、芝加哥大学和杨百翰大学。在推进量子互联网技术方面，CQN还得到了强大的行业财团和领先的国际合作伙伴的支持。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首批由容错量子中继器实现的长距离量子通信网络之一，并在量子中继器和交换机的网络主干上得到支持。这些量子中继器是特殊用途的量子处理器，可以实现远距离量子比特(0和1叠加的量子比特)的高速通信。配备了在钻石中建立了空位缺陷中心的量子存储器，以及将它们连接到现代电信基础设施的自旋光子接口，量子中继器及其关键子部件将在两个试验台(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。工程研发将与社会科学研究协调，这些研究涉及安全和隐私法、量子网络驱动应用中的意外偏差，以及开源量子云访问的影响。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，CQN ERC将作为推动量子互联网发展和绘制其预期应用和社会影响的路线图的国家枢纽。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.