Schrödinger’s Web: Race to Build the Quantum Internet

As the race to build the world’s first quantum computer is coming to an end, the race to build the quantum internet has just started. This book leverages the author’s unique insights into both the Chinese and American quantum programs. It begins with the physics and history of the quantum internet and ends with the latest results in quantum computing and quantum networks. The Chinese quantum Sputnik moment. The U.S. National Quantum Initiative. What’s up with Quantum Computing Supremacy? The Race to Build the Quantum Internet. Where will Quantum Technology be Tomorrow? Written by a renowned quantum physicist, this book is for everyone who is interested in the rapidly advancing field of Quantum Technology — The Second Quantum Revolution. The 2016 launch of the Chinese quantum satellite Mozi was a quantum Sputnik moment. The United States went from thinking it was ten years ahead of the Chinese to the realization that it was ten years behind them. This quantum gap led to the U.S. National Quantum Initiative, launched in 2018. Since then, the race to build the quantum internet has taken off at breakneck speed.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface, xiii Foreword, xv Author, xxi CHAPTER 1 ■ Many Hands Make Light Work 1 THE DARKENED ROOM 2 NEWTON’S BULLETS 5 WAVES OF HUYGENS’ – PTOOEY! 11 OUT – DAMNED SPOT! 12 THE JOURNEY STONE 20 FRANKLIN, FROGS, AND FRANKENSTEIN 22 ØRSTED UNLODES 23 ELECTRIC BOY REWINDS 26 ALL’S WELL THAT’S MAXWELL 31 FIAT LUX! 34 WATT IS LOVE? DON’T HERTZ ME, NO MORSE! 38 MARCONI AND CHUTZPAH 39 MAXWELL’S RAINBOW 40 CHAPTER 2 ■ What Light Through Yonder Window – Breaks? 43 THE END OF PHYSICS? 44 PLANCKING FOR BEGINNERS 51 ONE PHOTON, INDIVISIBLE, WITH QUANTA OF ENERGY, IN BALLS 56 IT’S A WAVE! IT’S A PARTICLE! IT’S – WHAT THE HECK IS IT!? 60 QUANTUM NONDEMOLITION DERBY 68 VAIDMAN – DUDE’S THE BOMB! 73 THE UNDETECTABLE QUANTUM TRIPWIRE 76 EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE MADNESS OF CLOUDS 79 TO COMPUTE OR NOT TO COMPUTE – WHAT IS THE QUESTION? 82 EINSTEIN’S BUBBLE – TOIL AND TROUBLE 83 PARTICULARS OF POLARIZED PHOTONS 87 CHAPTER 3 ■ It Takes Two to Tangle 91 SCHRÖDINGER’S CURSE 92 EINSTEIN’S BANE 94 VON NEUMANN’S BLUNDER 99 BOHM’S BOMBSHELL 101 BELL GETS TESTY 103 BERTLMANN’S SOCKS 108 CLAUSER’S NO-BELL PRIZE 108 CLOSING THE LOOPHOLES 112 TWO’S COMPANY – BUT THREE’S A CLOUD 115 SPEAKING THE UNSPEAKABLE 118 CHAPTER 4 ■ Quantum Networks: The Building Blocks 121 SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS 122 QUANTUM-DOT SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS 122 SORT-OF-SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS AND MAGIC CHINESE CRYSTALS 125 PSEUDO-SINGLE-PHOTON GUNS 129 ENTANGLED-PHOTON GUNS 132 QUANTUM-DOT ENTANGLED-PHOTON GUNS 132 ENTANGLED SORT-OF-PHOTON GUNS AND MAGIC CHINESE CRYSTALS 134 I SPY, WITH MY LITTLE EYE 138 E. T. PHONE HOME 141 POLARIZE! LET NO PHOTON EVADE YOUR EYES! 146 RARE AS A TWO-DOLLAR BELL 149 CHAPTER 5 ■ The Second Quantum Revolution 151 WHAT IS QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY? 152 QUANTUM RANDOM-NUMBER GENERATORS 154 CRYPTOGRAPHY 158 CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY – RSA PUBLIC-KEY ENCRYPTION 159 CLASSICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY – ONE-TIME-PAD PRIVATE-KEY ENCRYPTION 162 QUANTUM MONEY – WIESNER’S UNPUBLISHABLE PAPER 172 QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY – THE BENNETT AND BRASSARD 1984 PROTOCOL 175 QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY – THE EKERT 1991 PROTOCOL 182 POST-QUANTUM-CRYPTOGRAPHY – OFF-RAMP ON THE QUANTUM INTERNET 185 QUANTUM TELEPORTATION 187 ENTANGLEMENT SWAPPING 194 QUANTUM MEMORIES 196 CLASSICAL REPEATERS 198 QUANTUM REPEATERS 201 QUANTUM TRANSPONDERS 205 CHAPTER 6 ■ Quantum Networks 207 THE QUANTUM INTERNET – WHY NOW? 208 WHAT’S UP WITH QUANTUM COMPUTERS THESE DAYS? 210 QUANTUM SUPREMACY 213 DOUBLE-BUBBLE – TOIL AND TROUBLE! 215 A CHINESE QUANTUM-SPUTNIK MOMENT 219 NATIONAL QUANTUM INITIATIVE ACT 222 QUANTUM INTERNET 1.0 – ALL THAT IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE? 228 QUANTUM INTERNET 2.0 – RAGE OF ENTANGLEMENT 230 QUANTUM INTERNET 3.0 – RISE OF THE UBIQUITOUS QUANTUM REPEATERS 238 I HAVE A CODE IN MY NODE! 245 TELEPORTATION AND DISTRIBUTED QUANTUM COMPUTING 247 CLASSICAL COMMUNICATION OVER THE QUANTUM NETWORK 251 CHAPTER 7 ■ Networks of Quantum Sensors 255 QUANTUM SENSORS 256 COHERENT SENSOR ARRAYS 261 CLOCKS IN SPACE 270 DISTRIBUTED QUANTUM SENSORS 273 EPILOGUE, 281 INDEX, 285

About the Author :
Jonathan Dowling earned a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics from the University of Colorado. He has worked at the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and then at the Louisiana State University. Dr. Dowling is one of the founders of the U.S. Government program in quantum computing and quantum cryptography.

Review :
"As theoretical physicist Jonathan Dowling makes clear in Schrödinger’s Web, early versions of the quantum internet are here already — for example, quantum communication has been taking place between Beijing and Shanghai via fiber-optic cables since 2016 — and more are coming fast. So now is the perfect time to read up. Dowling, who helped found the U.S. government’s quantum computing program in the 1990s, is the perfect guide. Armed with a seemingly endless supply of outrageous anecdotes, memorable analogies, puns and quips, he makes the thorny theoretical details of the quantum internet both entertaining and accessible. … Like Dowling’s 2013 book on quantum computers, Schrödinger’s Killer App, Schrödinger’s Web hammers home the nonintuitive truths at the heart of quantum mechanics. … Dowling died unexpectedly in June at age 65, before he could see this future come to fruition. Once when I interviewed him, he invoked Arthur C. Clarke’s first law to justify why he thought another esteemed scientist was wrong. "The first law is that if a distinguished, elderly scientist tells you something is possible, he’s very likely right," he said. "If he tells you something is impossible, he’s very likely wrong." Dowling died too soon to be considered elderly, but he was distinguished, and Schrödinger’s Web lays out a powerful case for the possibility of a quantum internet." —Dan Garisto in Science News, September 2020 "As theoretical physicist Jonathan Dowling makes clear in Schrödinger’s Web, early versions of the quantum internet are here already — for example, quantum communication has been taking place between Beijing and Shanghai via fiber-optic cables since 2016 — and more are coming fast. So now is the perfect time to read up. Dowling, who helped found the U.S. government’s quantum computing program in the 1990s, is the perfect guide. Armed with a seemingly endless supply of outrageous anecdotes, memorable analogies, puns and quips, he makes the thorny theoretical details of the quantum internet both entertaining and accessible. … Like Dowling’s 2013 book on quantum computers, Schrödinger’s Killer App, Schrödinger’s Web hammers home the nonintuitive truths at the heart of quantum mechanics. … Dowling died unexpectedly in June at age 65, before he could see this future come to fruition. Once when I interviewed him, he invoked Arthur C. Clarke’s first law to justify why he thought another esteemed scientist was wrong. "The first law is that if a distinguished, elderly scientist tells you something is possible, he’s very likely right," he said. "If he tells you something is impossible, he’s very likely wrong." Dowling died too soon to be considered elderly, but he was distinguished, and Schrödinger’s Web lays out a powerful case for the possibility of a quantum internet." —Dan Garisto in Science News, September 2020