A project to create a quantum computer has begun in Russia. The project is aimed at developing practical technologies for collecting databases and creating ultra-secure communication networks. The author of the article considers this an attempt to catch up with other countries in the development of practical quantum technologies.
Over the next five years, the Russian government will invest about 50 billion rubles ($ 790 million) in fundamental and applied quantum research conducted by leading Russian laboratories. This was announced on December 6 at the technological forum in Sochi by the Deputy Prime Minister of the country Maxim Akimov. It is part of a 258 billion ruble R&D program in digital technology, which the Kremlin views as critical to modernizing and diversifying the Russian economy.
“This is real acceleration,” says quantum physicist Alexei Fedorov, who works in Skolkovo near Moscow at the Russian Quantum Center (RQC), a non-governmental research organization. "If everything turns out as planned, this initiative will be an important step towards bringing Russian quantum science to the level of world standards."
In quantum computers, elementary particles are used to carry out computations, which can simultaneously exist in different quantum states. Quantum bits of qubits can theoretically process information many times faster than binary bits, which are used in classical computer calculations. Powerful quantum computers can predict the results of chemical reactions, search huge databases, and factorize large numbers like those used in encryption.
Quantum benefits
Quantum technologies are already receiving serious government support in a number of countries. In 2016, the EU announced the launch of the Quantum Technology Flagship program worth one billion euros. It is expected that within its framework in the coming years there will be demonstration technology projects, say, a quantum processor on a silicon microcircuit. In August 2019, Germany announced the launch of a € 650 million national quantum initiative. The governments of China and the United States are also spending billions on quantum science and technology programs.
The race has begun to create quantum computers that will surpass classical machines in solving specific problems in their characteristics. The prototypes, which have been developed by Google and IBM, headquartered in Mountain View, California, and Armonk, New York, are approaching the limits of classic computer simulation. In October, Google scientists announced that one quantum processor performing special calculations had achieved such a quantum advantage.
Promotional video:
Russia is far from that. “We are 5-10 years behind,” says Fedorov. "But there is great potential here, and we are closely monitoring what is happening abroad." Weak funding made it impossible for Russian scientists to compete with Google in the quantum field, said engineer Ilya Besedin, who works at the National Research Technological University in Moscow.
Besedin's group has created a prototype of a quantum processor based on superconductors. The system consists of two qubits. Google's quantum computer runs on 53 qubits. Russia is lagging behind, but the national quantum initiative was launched on time, Besedin says.
“No one has yet come close to solving any practically useful problem more efficiently than a classical computer,” he says. “There are many technical challenges and we are all looking for new ways to research. With serious government support in Russia, there will be very interesting opportunities for such research.”
Homegrown qubits
The initiative is announced at a time when Russia is beginning to recover from the departure of leading scientists from the country in the 1990s and 2000s, who left Russia in search of higher salaries and funding for research. Several Russian quantum physicists working abroad, including Mikhail Lukin and Evgeny Demler of Harvard University in Cambridge, have joined the International Advisory Board of the RCC. Others, such as the physicist Alexei Ustinov, who studies condensed matter at the Karlsruhe University of Technology in Germany, have received grants from the Russian government to set up research groups in Russia.
And Russian scientists are already developing their own concepts for creating large-scale quantum computers, says Ustinov. "Russian laboratories are not yet able to compete with the laboratories of such giants as Google," he says. "However, this initiative has become a promising start for raising the level of quantum research in Russia. Let's see where it leads."
However, Peter Zoller, who is researching quantum computers at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, doubts this initiative alone will be enough to attract talented young scientists to quantum research and technology. Restoring confidence in the Russian science system and reviving the country's educational tradition will be more difficult than announcing a quantum initiative, he notes.
Quirin Schiermeier