A future ‘quantum internet’ could find use long before it reaches technological maturity, a team of physicists predicts.
Such a network, which exploits the unique effects of quantum physics, would be fundamentally different to the classical Internet we use today, and research groups worldwide are already working on its early stages of development. The first stages promise virtually unbreakable privacy and security in communications; a more mature network could include a range of applications for science and beyond that aren’t possible with classical systems, including quantum sensors that can detect gravitational waves.
A prominent team of quantum-internet researchersatDelft University of Technology in the Netherlands has now released a roadmap laying out the stages of network sophistication — and detailing the technological challenges that each tier would involve. Their predictions are described in Science1 on 18 October.