Blog

Weeknotes 12

The big quantum physics story of the week was the Nobel Prize for Physics award. There’s a useful explanation of quantum mechanics https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2025/popular-information/ 

When you throw a ball at a wall, you can be sure it will bounce back at you. You would be extremely surprised if the ball suddenly appeared on the other side of a solid wall. This is exactly the type of phenomenon that has given quantum physics a reputation for being bizarre and unintuitive. ©Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Working my way through the latest Air Street Capital ‘State of AI’ report; 313 rather dense slides. No summary yet.

Low power high bit rate random number generator space rated, Heriot Watt development and Nature paper

From: A 2-Gbps low-SWaP quantum random number generator with photonic integrated circuits for satellite applications

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41534-025-01100-2 Heriot Watt A 2-Gbps low-SWaP quantum random number generator with photonic integrated circuits for satellite applications

The QRNG architecture can be integrated with an overhead power consumption of just 7.93 W, accounting for the opto-electronics and FPGA implementation, providing fast random number generation at up to 2 Gbps. We demonstrate the real-time seeding of a free-space decoy-state quantum key distribution system using our QRNG. Our design and implementation provides a practical solution for QRNGs requiring low-power and high bit rates.

Weeknotes 11

NuQuantum parts at an Amadeus demo day event

55North Quantum investment fund Denmark https://tech.eu/2025/10/02/denmark-launches-the-worlds-largest-quantum-fund 

ETSI standardisation  https://www.etsi.org/newsroom/press-releases/2594-etsi-creates-new-committee-on-quantum-technologies

Key Areas of Activity:

  • Quantum Communications: Secure data transmission using quantum principles like superposition and entanglement.
  • Quantum Networking: Connecting quantum systems for distributed computing and cryptography.
  • Quantum Sensing: Enabling ultra-precise measurements for quantum communication networks.
  • Satellite Quantum Communications: Standardising beacon signals, interfaces, and security for space-based quantum systems.
  • Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs): Generating true randomness for secure applications.
  • Quantum Security: Establishing methodologies to assess hardware vulnerabilities and side-channel attack risks.


Quantum Brilliance (Australia and Fraunhofer Institute) : room temperature quantum computing using a nitrogen vacancy centred in a diamond lattice – Oak Ridge https://www.eetimes.com/quantum-brilliance-makes-devices-that-keep-their-cool/

Sensor market – Innatera. Netherlands. https://innatera.com/blog/lessons-from-the-floor-what-global-events-reveal-about-the-future-of-ai-sensing 


Caltech https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-team-sets-record-with-6100-qubit-array Even with more than 6,000 qubits in a single array, the team kept them in superposition for about 13 seconds—nearly 10 times longer than what was possible in previous similar arrays—while manipulating individual qubits with 99.98 percent accuracy. Looking ahead, the researchers plan to link the qubits in their array together in a state of entanglement, where particles become correlated and behave as one. Entanglement is a necessary step for quantum computers to move beyond simply storing information in superposition; entanglement will allow them to begin carrying out full quantum computations.

Nscale building UK supercomputer with Nvidia GPUs https://www.nscale.com/press-releases/nscale-uk-ai-infrastructure-announcement Sept 25th, raised $1.1B https://www.nscale.com/press-releases/nscale-series-b

Weeknotes 10

Atom array architecture for continuous reloading. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09596-6

These notes are my collection of recent press material and research references for quantum computing and quantum networking, with emphasis on pointers towards real products developing from the theoretical physics and comprehensible explanations for businesses looking for opportunities and risks.

3000 qubits for 2 hours

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-qubit-neutral-atom-array-reloads.html 

Nature paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09596-6 (restricted access) Harvard, MIT, ETH Zurich authors

Advancements can enable faster, more reliable quantum networking and entanglement distribution, in addition to boosting the engineering of things like continuously operating atomic clocks and quantum sensors with higher stability and bandwidth.

Quantum hardware not required for post quantum cryptography resistance https://blog.cloudflare.com/you-dont-need-quantum-hardware/ Why QKD doesn’t scale

More quantum advantage – 12 qubits – trapped ions https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9138 https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.07255 

[Submitted on 8 Sep 2025]

Demonstrating an unconditional separation between quantum and classical information resources

William Kretschmer, Sabee Grewal, Matthew DeCross, Justin A. Gerber, Kevin Gilmore, Dan Gresh, Nicholas Hunter-Jones, Karl Mayer, Brian Neyenhuis, David Hayes, Scott Aaronson
High fidelity entangling gates between two processors 0.3m apart https://phys.org/news/2025-08-high-fidelity-entangling-gates-remote.html

IonQ , US Air Force Research https://quantumcomputingreport.com/ionq-and-afrl-demonstrate-quantum-frequency-conversion-to-telecom-wavelengths/

Trapped ions ..  the company plans to soon connect two quantum computers using commercial fiber infrastructure

BT testbench Sitehop announcement

https://sitehop.com/secure-scalable-and-sovereign-what-sitehops-bt-trial-means-for-uk-telecoms/ 

Results 

  • 90Gbps throughput
  • 75% reduction in power consumption
  • Minimal packet loss and improved latency
  • Just two clicks to configure and deploy

This was a full proof of concept in a real-world environment. The trial proved that our SAFE Series hardware can run high-speed encryption with near-zero impact on performance, even in demanding telecom conditions.

HSBC IBM research paper : Enhanced fill probability estimates in institutional algorithmic bond trading using statistical learning algorithms with quantum computers https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17715 Our work demonstrates the emerging potential of quantum computing as a complementary explorative tool in quantitative finance and encourages applied industry research towards practical applications in trading 

Interconnection for Nvidia GPUs and superconducting digital chips https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/seeqc-and-the-nqcc-announce-first-digital-interface-system-for-scalable-quantum-error-correction-in-collaboration-with-nvidia-302560779.html? 

SEEQC designs and manufactures superconducting digital chips, firmware, and software for scalable, energy-efficient quantum computing systems based on its proprietary Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) chips produced at the company’s multi-layer superconductive electronics chip foundry located in Elmsford, NY. This chip-based architecture is designed to increase performance while reducing quantum requirements, complexity, cost, and latency. SEEQC’s chip-based solution is augmented by the company’s PRISM firmware and software that supports a full spectrum of applications for third-party developers.

Cisco announces quantum compiler and demo days https://blogs.cisco.com/news/cisco-quantum-labs-announces-software-that-networks-quantum-computers-together-and-enables-new-classical-applications? Cisco Quantum Summit, next week on September 30 and October 1, 2025 ..

Quantum weeknotes 9

James Clerk Maxwell, 1831 – 1879 Mathematical Physicist sculptor Alexander Stoddart

Toshiba Quantum Key Distribution Technology for Multiplexing Over 30 Tbps of High-Capacity Data and Secret Keys https://www.global.toshiba/ww/news/digitalsolution/2025/03/news-20250326-01.html

Coherent quantum communications can be deployed on standard telecommunications infrastructure. The key breakthrough is a new system architecture that replaces unwieldy, complex cryogenic components with simple semiconductor-based devices. For the first time in a real-life deployment, quantum information encoded in the phase of a quantum light signal was shown to be perfectly stable, despite propagating over 250 km of deployed telecom fibre, using only off-the-shelf components and operating in a typical colocation data centre at room temperature.

https://www.toshiba.eu/newsroom/toshiba-breakthrough-brings-quantum-communications-to-existing-national-scale-telecommunications-infrastructure/

integrated PQC & QKD solution for quantum-safe networking https://www.toshiba.eu/quantum/news/toshiba-announces-integrated-pqc-qkd-solution-for-quantum-safe-networking/Quantum network in Germany https://www.toshiba.eu/quantum/news/toshiba-breakthrough-on-national-quantum-networking/ Key breakthrough is the use of semiconductor avalanche photodiodes.

Google Quantum paper Generative Quantum AI https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.09033 “quantum enhanced generative models with provable advantage” 

As a key application, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate advantage in sampling from classical distributions that are classically intractable, scaling up to 816 shallow qubits with inferred results beyond 34,000 shallow qubits. This is enabled by an exact deep-to-shallow circuit mapping that allows exact sampling from very deep 2D circuits, which we prove are universal. (d) We prove that learning to generate compressed quantum circuits for physical simulation is classically hard. This stands in sharp contrast to the efficient techniques for learning to generate low-depth circuits demonstrated here experimentally on a real device using up to 40 physical qubits.

The success of ML has been largely driven by the availability of data, and at its heart, the universe and its data are quantum. Quantum machine learning has a unique opportunity to take advantage of this data in its natural form, and we believe that for generative processes involving quantum data, quantum computers will be essential.

Summary https://quantumcomputingreport.com/google-quantum-ai-researchers-demonstrate-generative-quantum-advantage-for-classical-and-quantum-problems/

Quantum Motion – computer at UK National Quantum computing centre https://quantummotion.tech/quantum-motion-delivers-the-industrys-first-full-stack-silicon-cmos-quantum-computer/ 

The system integrates a Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) with a user interface and control stack compatible with industry standard software frameworks such as Qiskit and Cirq. The company’s architecture and manufacturing approach are designed to scale to a fault-tolerant system. The system demonstrates single- and two-qubit operations, initialization, and readout within a compact architecture that has a data-center-friendly footprint of three 19” server racks. This design allows systems to be easily upgraded by installing future generation QPUs

Q-CTRL DARPA awards – navigation sensors https://q-ctrl.com/blog/darpa-selects-q-ctrl-to-develop-next-generation-quantum-sensors-for-navigation-on-advanced-defense-platforms

https://q-ctrl.com/ironstone-opal

MIT quantum Index report (June 2025) https://qir.mit.edu/ 

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/70553845/2025-mit-quantum-index-report

28 quantum networking test beds in US and Europe

39% of quantum communications research papers coming from China; US 12%, everywhere else less than 5%

Section 9 – different ways to do quantum computing “modalities” 

Quantum network at Montana State University Qunnect

https://quantumcomputingreport.com/qunnect-deploys-carina-product-suite-for-quantum-entanglement-network-at-montana-state-university/

Also in New York and Berlin https://www.qunnect.inc/press-release-2025-09-09 

The Carina product suite integrates Qunnect’s 1) atom-based, entangled-photon generators, 2) single photon counting detectors with high resolution time tagging, and 3) adaptive polarization compensation, entanglement validation and orchestration into a single rack-mount unit. Key features include:

  • High-rate entangled pair generation at telecom wavelengths for up to 100 km fiber spans
  • Real-time polarization stabilization to maintain fidelity over changing environmental conditions
  • Modular interface for seamless integration with existing DWDM networks and classical data channels

Quantum weeknotes 7 & 8

lower-res images of BTO wafer at Sanmina – Omega from PsiQuantum Feb 2025

Psi Quantum https://www.reuters.com/business/psiquantum-valued-7-billion-latest-funding-round-teams-up-with-nvidia-2025-09-10/ 

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/quantum-computing-stocks-nvidia-psiquantum-quera/

https://www.optica-opn.org/home/industry/2025/september/psiquantum_raises_us$1_billion/

“Nearly nine years after we started, we have pushed the technology to an unprecedented level of maturity and performance” said Pete Shadbolt, PsiQuantum cofounder and Chief Scientific Officer. “We have the chips, we have the switches, we have a scalable cooling technology, we can do networking, we have found the sites, we have the commercial motive and the government support—we’re ready to get on and build utility-scale systems.”https://arxiv.org/html/2404.17570v1 26 Apr 2024  A manufacturable platform for photonic quantum computing with photons Global Foundries Has switches. List of required improvements.

HPC prep https://insidehpc.com/2025/09/hyperion-research-and-alice-bob-report-on-how-hpc-centers-can-prepare-for-quantum/ 

Quantum computing application lists and trends in capability https://alice-bob.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Seizing-Quantum-Edge-eFTQC-HPC-Report-Alice-Bob.pdf 

“Alice & Bob is a quantum computing company based in Paris and Boston whose goal is to create the first universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob has already raised €130 million in funding, hired over 150 employees and demonstrated experimental results surpassing those of technology giants such as Google or IBM. Alice & Bob specializes in cat qubits, a pioneering technology developed by the company’s founders and later adopted by Amazon. Demonstrating the power of its cat architecture, Alice & Bob recently showed that it could reduce the hardware requirements for building a useful large-scale quantum computer by up to 200 times compared with competing approaches.”

Wilson Sonsini on IP strategy for quantum  “We’re seeing a shift from research-heavy moonshots to more application-oriented investments—companies developing near-term commercial use cases like quantum sensing, quantum-secure communications, and hybrid AI systems. VC interest will likely follow the path we saw with AI: from foundational tools to vertical-specific applications. Expect to see more funding into enabling technologies, such as cryogenic systems, photonics, and error-correction software.”

Phasecraft Quantum algorithms https://www.phasecraft.io/ for simulation Funding https://www.phasecraft.io/news/phasecraft-raises-34-million-from-plural-playground-novo The company’s core business is to design quantum algorithms that significantly reduce the hardware requirements—such as the number of qubits and circuit depth—needed to solve complex problems, thereby accelerating the timeline to achieving quantum advantage. Phasecraft’s revenue model is centered on partnerships with both quantum hardware manufacturers and companies in various industries that stand to benefit from quantum computation. By collaborating with hardware leaders like Google, IBM, Rigetti, Quantinuum, and QuEra, Phasecraft gains access to the most advanced quantum processors to test and refine its algorithms. “Our algorithms are delivering meaningful results now, whether it’s simulating the physics of complex materials or optimizing the structure of a large energy network “

https://www.reuters.com/business/honeywells-quantinuum-raises-funds-nvidia-others-10-billion-valuation-2025-09-04/ Honeywell’s Quantinuum $10b raise; lining up to IPO

Phasecraft – algorithms https://www.phasecraft.io/news/phasecraft-raises-34-million-from-plural-playground-novo Bristol, London

https://www.ft.com/content/51f293fb-4e43-415b-80a6-516c7b2932ea Quantum hardware hasn’t improved enough yet to run these algorithms ..