At the moment USA and China monopolize all the prominence in the field of Quantum computers. His struggle for world supremacy has many ramifications, and, precisely, Quantum technologies They embody one of them. Both countries have reached Quantum supremacyand, on paper, they are also the most developed in the still premature field of quantum telecommunications. However, this story did not start with them.
He was born in Europe. And he did it at a time when quantum computers had already been outlined from a theoretical point of view, but seemed unfeasible. Everything changed in 1995. That year the Spanish physicist Ignacio Cirac and the Austrian physical veteran Peter Zoller They published the article which is unanimously considered the cornerstone that supports the birth of quantum computing as we currently contemplate it. Without their work in all likelihood, current quantum computers would not exist. Or, at least, they would have arrived later.
It all started with Cirac and Zoller
The roads of these two researchers crossed in the early 90s. Ignacio Cirac had finished the physics career at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1988 and decided to travel to the US to complete his doctorate with the prestigious physicist Peter Zoller. His collaboration was very fruitful From the first moment, so together they began working in such promising fields, and, at the same time, as complex, as quantum cryptography or teleport. Other researchers had proposed before them the possibility of building a quantum computer, but nobody knew how to do it.
At that time no physique knew what the right strategy was to put a quantum computer. Zoller and Cirac did know
In 1994 Cirac and Zoller attended a conference in which other researchers explained the enormous potential they had from a strictly theoretical point of view quantum computers. However, at that time No physique knew what the right strategy was To set up one of these machines. Zoller and Cirac surveys inspiration shortly after witnessing that conference, and realized that they had found a way to build a machine capable of carrying out calculations with quantum bits or cubits.
His scientific article was published in Physical Review Letters on May 15, 1995. They titled ‘Quantum Computations with Cold Trapped Ins’ (Quantum computing with cold ions), and, despite their exoticism, many other physicists immediately realized that what Cirac and Zoller proposed had a huge potential. If we intend to set a date to identify the germ that gave rise to the birth of quantum computers it seems reasonable to accept what should be the day in which the text of these two European physicists saw the light.
In any case, one of his greatest successes was his ability to gather the world of abstract theories of quantum computing in which other physicists worked before them with atomic physics, molecular physics and optics. In fact, the title of your scientific text already contains one of the types of cubits most advanced currently available: Quantum bits of ion traps. Honeywell or Ionq are two of the companies that have collected their witness and several decades later they have managed to put this type of quantum machines ready.
The recognition of the scientific community soon arrived. Zoller and Cirac were consolidated as two central figures in the formation of international research groups, and, above all, both were actively involved in the constitution of European Quantum Technologies Development Programs. Zoller collaborates closely since the beginning of the 2000 with the Institute for Inns Information and Quantum Optics (Austria). And Cirac has directed since 2001 the theoretical division of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics housed in Garching, a peaceful town located a few kilometers from Munich (Germany).
Europe has failed to transfer its academic leadership to the industry
The thrust of Ignacio Cirac, Peter Zoller and many other scientists with whom they have worked has not been enough to deliver industrial leadership to Europe in the field of quantum computers. Currently the old continent remains a world power in research thanks to the work that the groups of Quantum Physics of the University of Technology of Delft, in the Netherlands; the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, in Germany; the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich, in Switzerland; the Center for Quantum Technologies of Paris, in France; the National Center for Quantum Computing, in the United Kingdom; or the Institute of Fotonic Sciences, in Spain, among other academic institutions.
Leadership in scientific research does not necessarily guarantee industrial leadership in those applications derived from these technical innovations
But it is not enough. Leadership in scientific research does not necessarily guarantee industrial leadership in those applications derived from these technical innovations. This is the big problem that Europe has had. He has not managed to transfer his academic leadership to the industry. During The conversation I held In October 2019 with Juan José García Ripoll, a researcher of the Fundamental Physics Institute of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) that develops its research activity within the Quantum Information Group and Fundamentals of Quantum Theory, this physicist explained to me why Europe does not rivate today with the USA or China, when you could do it.
As we have seen, the old continent had the scientific advantage in this field, but lost it because within just five years a few international companies and laboratories invested a lot of money in strengthening a few groups and got an exponential advance in this area. This reminds us how important it is to observe that it is strategically interesting and not lose that track. This field was built by Europe.
Just two and a half decades He stayed behind. “Probably the fault is of our scientific fabric, and, above all, of our business fabric, which is less innovative and costs him more to get into this type of risky lines,” Juan José García Ripoll holds.
In Europe there are companies that are dedicated to quantum computers. The Austrian Alpine Quantum Technologies, the Finnish IQM, the British Oxford Quantum Circuit, the French Pasqal, the German Eleqtron, the Helvetica Terra Quantum or the Spanish Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech are increasingly competitive. Even so, for the moment their scale does not allow them to compete from you to you with the divisions specialized in quantum computers of American companies IBM, Honeywell, Google, Intel or Microsoft. China plays in another league. The research centers and companies have the unconditional support of the Chinese government, so the resources they have at your disposal They are large. And the results are endorsing them.
Images | Intel
More information | Physical Review Letters
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