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posted by martyb on Saturday June 27 2020, @03:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-did-you-say? dept.

Quantum Entanglement Demonstrated Aboard Orbiting CubeSat:

In a critical step toward creating a global quantum communications network, researchers have generated and detected quantum entanglement onboard a CubeSat nanosatellite weighing less than 2.6 kilograms and orbiting the Earth.

[...] The researchers incorporated their new instrument into SpooQy-1, a CubeSat that was deployed into orbit from the International Space Station on 17 June 2019. The instrument successfully generated entangled photon-pairs over temperatures from 16 °C to 21.5 °C.

"This demonstration showed that miniaturized entanglement technology can work well while consuming little power," said Villar. "This is an important step toward a cost-effective approach to the deployment of satellite constellations that can serve global quantum networks." The project was funded by Singapore's National Research Foundation.

Journal Reference:
Aitor Villar, Alexander Lohrmann, Xueliang Bai, et al. Entanglement demonstration on board a nano-satellite [open], Optica (DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.387306)

Secure, as long as you trust the man in the middle...


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  • (Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday June 27 2020, @05:34PM

    by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Saturday June 27 2020, @05:34PM (#1013311) Journal

    Thanks for that comment. I understand that quantum communications links have to be evaluated on a statistical basis, but when you get right down to it, you evaluate classical communications systems the same way, the prime example being BER curves as a function of S/N ratio. Why are there not similar metrics for the performance of a quantum communications link? Without some kind of metric, how does one make a comparison between two systems, or assess technical progress? How much performance degradation might one expect between a satellite and a ground based system, for example?

    Which brings me to repeat my other point: Why aren’t they entirely focused on solving this very sophisticated problem in Earth based laboratories? Why do they want to complicate the design of a link by burdening it with the constraints of being a space worthy communications platform? It makes absolutely no sense to me, and can only be explained by things that you mention relating to availability of funding. Which means politics, which often comes with big helpings of BS.

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