QUROPE Quantum Information Processing and Communication in Europe

HOT is a 4-year FET Proactive project that will lay the foundation for a new generation of devices that connect or even contain several nano-scale platforms in a single “hybrid” system. These hybrid devices will allow the exploitation of the unique advantages of each subsystem, thus enabling entirely novel functionalities.

QuAmpere aims at further developing the best existing concepts of SET pumps (single-electron transport devices needed to control the number of electrons flowing in a unit time interval) and to combine them with single-electron detectors to create highly accurate quantum current sources, to be used as current standards in the future.  Furthermore, the necessary associated instrumentation is developed.  The key objective of the project is the implementation of capabilities and methodologies for the realisation and dissemination of the new SI base unit definition for the ampere.

We now have the ability to build electronic devices at the nanoscale and operate them at millikelvin temperatures, and this has opened up the possibility to design, operate and utilise devices based on quantum physics. Quantum devices have been used in electrical metrology for decades and now nanoscale single-electron current sources are about to take their place in the realization of the ampere.

The 20th century has produced two great theories in physics: the theory of relativity and quantum physics. Apparently, the two theories use a completely different set of conceptual tools.

QuProCS is a joint research project that is part of FET PROACTIVE QUANTUM SIMULATIONS, funded through the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Union. We are a consortium of seven different institutions with longstanding theoretical and experimental expertise in quantum optics and many-body physics.

Topological quantum computation, based on the encoding of quantum information in non-local degrees of freedom, provides a promising route for a working quantum computer not affected by quantum decoherence. A possible way of realizing this non-locality is to encode qubits into so-called Majorana fermions - quantum particles that are their own antiparticles. As an elementary particle, Majorana fermion is a hyphotetical object. However in condensed matter it can be built out of what nature offers us: electron and hole excitations.

We propose to solve the long-standing problem of coupling quantum states in atoms to solid-state quantum devices. The realization of such a quantum interface represents a major breakthrough for information science, as it enables the development of a powerful hybrid architecture, where long-lived states of atoms store quantum information that can be processed rapidly using superconducting quantum circuits. Within such a hybrid approach, the problem of scalability, fast information processing and long-time storage of quantum information can all be solved on a single integrated platform.

A quantum technology going beyond microscopic borders will be confronted with aspects of thermodynamics that are yet to be understood. This is important, both from a fundamental perspective and with a view to development of quantum devices. Here we propose a comprehensive research programme -- which we dub TherMiQ -- aimed at developing a general framework that brings together thermodynamics and the physics of mesoscopic open quantum systems. The programme builds on an active interplay between theoretical and experimental work. Specifically, we pursue three scientific lines:

Quantum communication and computation are emerging fields with the potential to launch new technologies to control, propagate and process information. Amongst candidate systems for transporting quantum information, photons are the most promising as they can both maintain coherence over long distances, and interact strongly with electrons to generate nonlinear effects and allow transfer of information between subsystems. As a result, use of photons as 'qubits' has led to ground-breaking demonstrations of quantum entanglement, quantum teleportation and quantum cryptography.

Among complex systems with emergent behaviours, frustrated quantum magnets are predicted to exhibit novel, highly nontrivial phases of matter that may play a major role in future and emerging quantum technologies such as the synthesis of innovative materials for energy harnessing and storage, entanglement-enhanced metrology, and topological quantum computing.