CNJ+ January 2024

BRINGING YOU THE QUANTUM FUTURE — FASTER You’re going to live in a quantum future.

Sooner than we may once have imagined, new technologies will leverage quantum properties to create faster, more secure communications, powerful computers, sophisticated and compact sensors, and even new industrial materials. These developments, rooted in quantum discoveries, hold the potential to stimulate economic growth, strengthen national security, and improve the health and well-being of individuals around the world. But just how distant is this future, and what will it take to get there? The shift to a quantum world won’t happen overnight. The digital revolution began immediately after World War II, but it took several decades of fundamental discoveries and advances before digital technologies such as computers became commonplace in our homes and offices. Today, we are on the cusp of a similar revolution — one in quantum technologies. We can expect innovative applications of quantum principles to emerge at an accelerated pace over the next few decades.

Making the quantum future a reality is a goal that researchers around the globe have long been working toward. Quantum is still an emerging area of science and building technologies that harness its potential will require extensive, fundamental research to better understand the principles that drive it. The U. S. also needs a significantly larger, quantum-educated science and engineering workforce ready to develop, operate and maintain the quantum technologies of the future. For decades, the U. S. National Science Foundation has led strategic

Credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller

investments in foundational research and development that have jumpstarted the quantum revolution. Now NSF is working to address key scientific and technological challenges that must be overcome to unleash its full potential. What is quantum science?

Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at its most basic level: the realm of tiny particles such as electrons and photons. Unlike some popular depictions in science fiction, quantum science won’t shrink you into an alien-fighting Antman or send you «quantum-leaping» through time to solve mysteries. While classical physics has given us a remarkable understanding of how the world works on large scales — think Newton’s first law of motion … a body at rest stays at rest — there are some things it can’t explain at very small scales: the behavior of electromagnetic radiation, for example. That’s where quantum theories come into play. They offer a fundamentally different way of understanding how particles and energy behave at very small scales. The quantum future grows nearer, as scientists and researchers have begun to turn theories into technologies that leverage newly understood quantum properties. It’s an abstract notion that is easier to understand when you consider a concrete example: the quantum computer.

Artist’s depiction of quantum simulation. Lasers manipulate an array of over 50 atomic qubits in order to study the dynamics of quantum magnetism. Photo Credit: E. Edwards/JQI

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