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Chicago Scientists Testing Unhackable Quantum Internet in Closet


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University of Chicago equipment closet containing a fiber link

An equipment closet contains a fiber link through which University of Chicago researchers fire quantum particles to Argonne National Laboratory in the city's suburbs.

Credit: Taylor Glascock / The Washington Post

University of Chicago scientists are conducting quantum Internet research in a basement closet.

The equipment in the closet links to a 124-mile fiber-optic network running from the university campus to the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The researchers rout encryption keys over the network via entangled photons for extraction by colleagues at Argonne. Any attempt to intercept keys will alert both sender and receiver, says University of Chicago Professor David Awschalom.

Researchers are testing similar networks in Boston, New York, Maryland, Arizona, Europe, and China. The ultimate goal is to connect these testbeds through fiber and satellite links into a world-spanning quantum Internet.

From The Washington Post
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Abstracts Copyright © 2022 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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