Introduction
Imagine being attacked by the United States. An enemy-armed ship is flying off the coast of the United States, sometimes appearing on radar and sometimes disappearing. U.S. fighter jets take off, but experts are still struggling to identify the target.
At the moment, America's best defense system is not a fighter or missile system. This is a box of extremely cold atoms.
A general shout, "Use a quantum computer." These computers, which have the ability to solve the most complex of atomic problems very quickly, issue instructions on how to reset the radar so that they can see the direction of flight of an enemy aircraft and accurately identify the target.
One company that is preparing to deal with such a conceptual scenario is called ColdQuanta.
The company recently signed an agreement with the US Department of Defense, DARPA, to build a quantum computer that will be able to tell how fast a computer can instruct radars to reset its position. This is when the defense system is partially failing. This system relies on the ability to store atoms in one place called 'Qubits' as known as Quantum Bits. Qubits are very small instruments, about a tenth of a nanometer. They are usually formed from silicon, gallium arsenide, or some other semiconductor material. A quantum computer consists of those that allow it to calculate very complex numbers very quickly. To do this, the atom needs to be very cold, which makes it one of the oldest computers in the world.
There is a lot of talk about quantum computers right now, but the technology is still in its initial stage. Various companies like Google, IBM, Microsoft are now working on a system that is claimed to be far behind the traditional digital computer in performing important tasks.
"What we've been asked to do in the next 40 months is to build a machine that has thousands of Qubits that are complex for real-life defense," said Bo Ewald, chief executive of Coldquanta in Colorado. It can solve problems, and what we are working on is capable of finding solutions to complex radar problems.
The purpose of the above example is to optimize a complex problem, a situation in which there may be thousands, or millions, of solutions to a problem. But the real task is to find the best solution.
In addition to military use, quantum computers can be used to make medicines, to make investment strategies, to optimize Quantum machine learning, Artificial intelligence algorithms, to break computer encryption, and to organize the most complex tasks.
Mr. Ewald says these are areas where the benefits of quantum computers will be explored initially helping us find the simplest solutions to the complexities for which computers currently in use, even among them. Even the fastest computers can take hours or even days to solve a complex problem.
Many types of quantum computers are currently being developed, but the use of neutral Qubits with extremely cold atoms is very rare. These quantum computers are different from supercomputers made by big companies like IBM and Google, or other projects that use 'charged atoms', also called ions.
'Superconducting quantum computers' do not use individual atoms like qubits, although these computers operate at low temperatures but do not require as low a temperature as the cold atomic quantum atoms.
"Those who use superconducting are working at a thousandth of a Kelvin, while we are working at even lower temperatures," says Ewald with great pride.
'Kelvin' is the name of a measure of temperature. Absolute zero Kelvin, or 273.15 Celsius, is the coldest temperature possible. Now while milli Kelvin (0.001 Kelvin) is the colder temperature, ColdQuanta's Micro Kelvin is a much colder temperature, which is about 0.000001 Kelvin. Both are much colder than any of the naturally occurring temperatures, In the case of cold quanta, rubidium atoms are stored in a six-cornered or rectangular glass box, barely an inch wide, and two inches deep.
Rubidium is a metallic element like silver. In this box, the atoms are raised in the atmosphere of the box by laser beams.
But why is temperature so important in this whole process? Andrew Daly, a professor at the University of Strathclyde, and his colleagues are also conducting research on the ultra-cold neutral atom quantum computer. He says it is important to control atoms and keep them in that state.
The bright rays of the laser emit energy from the atoms and reduce their speed.
This process makes it possible for them to be completely frozen or sustainable, which is the main purpose of this whole process. They are not as cold as we perceive coolness to be their only coolness is to make their movements completely frozen or sustainable.
Professor Daly says that once you have your ducks (atoms) in a row, you can sort them any way you want.
The ability to arrange atoms in such a delicate way means that they can be arranged in two- or three-dimensional order and placed close to each other near the heart of a quantum computer. This is important because each additional atom doubles the capacity of the computer.
Moving each neutral atom with another laser causes them to vibrate, which increases their size. These changes 'encode' information or make atoms strangely interconnected with each other, and this method is called 'entanglement', meaning that in a very complex way all these atoms become entangled with each other. This way we get a collection of qubits that work together in a system that you can tweak to explain a mathematical model or to solve a complex problem.
Surprisingly, quantum computer users can theoretically use this system to solve infinite numbers of possibilities at the same time. This is not the name of calculating many numbers in a parallel time like a traditional computer, it is stranger and less predictable, and getting a useful and helpful answer from the whole process is the real problem.
Jonathan Pritchard, a colleague of Professor Daly at the University of Strathclyde, says, "What you really want is for the 'quantum state' to finally give the answer that will help us solve the problem."
Quantum computers stop prioritizing a single 'state' or stop giving a specific answer to a problem. It should provide the best possible solution to the problem and the solution should be obtained much faster and more efficient than a traditional computer.
"We are still waiting for it to demonstrate the solution to a complex 'computing task' that goes beyond the traditional 'classic' computer," says Professor Daly.
A French company, Pascal, is building the first prototype of these computer systems, following Coldquanta's similar principles. Pascal Systems works for an energy company, EDF, which, if completed, will create the most complex schedule for collecting bills from electric cars. In particular, the goal is to minimize the time it takes to charge the batteries of these cars and to allow certain vehicles to have more time to charge the batteries than other vehicles on a priority basis.
Pascal's chairman, Christopher Jerzic, says that even a traditional computer can solve this kind of problem, but he argues that the quantum computer system will do the job much faster, in one hour instead of 24 hours.
"It doesn't seem like a big deal, but if you want to change your strategy every hour, then it will be a big change," he says. And then the whole process of computing will use a hundred times less power than a supercomputer.
Right now, all of this has to be shown in reality. But there are indications that in the next few years, but faster than some experts expect. It remains to be seen how useful this type of colder computer will be.