The takeaway? 'We theorists should be bolder'

This is a preview issue of Quantum Campus, which shares the latest in quantum science and technology from university campuses. We publish on Fridays and are always looking for news from researchers across the country. Want to see your work featured? Submit your ideas to the editor.

Non-Abelian anyons without a magnetic field

In a recent Physical Review Letters paper, MIT researchers claimed that it should be possible to create non-Abelian anyons without a magnetic field. The team showed that these fractionalized electrons can exist in two single layers of the semiconductor molybdenum ditelluride are stacked with a two-degree twist between them, using theoretical modeling and advanced simulations.

“Non-Abelian anyons have the bewildering capacity of ‘remembering’ their spacetime trajectories; this memory effect can be useful for quantum computing,” said MIT’s Liang Fu, who led the work. “2023 experiments on electron fractionalization greatly exceeded theoretical expectations. My takeaway is that we theorists should be bolder.”

Read MIT’s announcement of the findings.

Quantum-resistant cryptography

The University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications recently earned an NSF grant for “Quantum-Resistant Cryptography in Supercomputing Scientific Applications.” The project will measure the adoption rate of post-quantum cryptography and allow institutions to more easily safeguard sensitive data and research — while also building public trust in the security of scientific computing and increasing the adoption rate over time.

“The problem is urgent because practical quantum computers will break classical encryption in the next decade, [and the] grand question of how existing cyberinfrastructure will support post-quantum cryptography remains unanswered,” said principal investigator Phuong Cao.

Co-PI Santiago Núñez-Corrales said: “This project opens a new avenue into NCSA’s quantum strategy. Potential future risks introduced by quantum technologies reconfigure our understanding of the landscape of trust and security in advanced computing. Mapping the adoption of [post-quantum cryptography] protocols will provide valuable information toward hardening NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure nationally.”

Learn more in NCSA’s announcement.

Layered hybrid superlattices

Xiangfeng Duan’s group at UCLA published a paper in Nature defining a new class of quantum solids called layered hybrid superlattices. With versatile molecular design strategies and modular assembly processes, team explained “layered hybrid superlattices offer vast flexibility for weaving distinct chemical constituents and quantum properties into monolithic artificial solids with a designable three-dimensional potential landscape. This opens unprecedented opportunities to tailor charge correlations, quantum properties and topological phases, thereby defining a rich material platform for advancing quantum information science.”

Read UCLA’s announcement.

$3.5 million for UT Chattanooga Quantum Center

NIST awarded the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga $3.5 million to establish a new Quantum Center. The center will expand an existing effort to connect the university to a commercial quantum network being built by the telecommunications company EPB. It will also support education and outreach, research and development, and business development projects.

Find out more in UT Chattanooga’s announcement.

Quickbits

• University of Chicago develops a dual-species Rydberg array

• HPCWire recaps an SC24 panel on HPC-quantum hybrid computing

• EE Times covers quantum tech discussed at recent Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona

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