EVERY DAY IS ONE FOR QUANTUM LEAPS
QUANTUM – the science of how everything works – is everywhere. Even our president vowed “quantum leaps towards economies of the future” at the first SA Digital Economy Summit in 2019. Now we have a World Quantum Day, which took place on April 14.
World Quantum Day is to promote public understanding of Quantum Science and Technology globally.
In 1918, the Nobel Prize was bestowed on Max Planck (1858-1947), a German theoretical physicist, for “his discovery of energy quanta”.
Theoretical physicists describe this relationship as E=hv (not as famous as the ubiquitous E=mc^2, but, probably, a close second). Planck’s constant numerical value is 4.14 x 10^-15 eVs, which explains the choice of April 14 for the quantum celebrations.
In the decades following Planck’s breakthrough, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, Paul Dirac and others developed the theory of quantum mechanics. The fundamental equations of quantum theory involve the Planck constant and allowed these quantum pioneers to explain the physical behaviour first of atoms and molecules and later of the atomic nuclei and elementary particles.
It took a few more decades for the first quantum technological applications to emerge. Lasers, transistors, semi-conductors, diodes eventually were put together to give us computers and lead us in today’s digital world. The economic impact of quantum physics is massive – quanum mechanics generates around a third of the US’s GDP.
A defining feature of quantum physics is entanglement. Entangled particles can show almost perfect correlation when physical properties are measured. Einstein dismissed this concept in 1935 as “spooky action at a distance” as it violated the principle of local reality. It took about 30 years for the first experimental verification of entanglement in photons.
The ability to manipulate single quantum objects and use entanglement as a resource is at the core of the second quantum revolution. The last decades of the 20th century saw quantum theory and information theory amalgamate to form quantum information processing and communication. Quantum bits (qubits) have now all the quantum physics tools at their disposal to manipulate information.
The second quantum revolution’s impact revolves around quantum communication, quantum computing and quantum metrology – critical technologies for the 4th Industrial Revolution. Quantum communication guarantees the ultimate security based on physical principles (entanglement). Quantum computers are already available in the cloud. The simulation of quantum systems and chemical reactions, quantum machine learning, optimisation problems for the logistics and financial sector are among the most promising applications.
Secure quantum communication with single photons via optical fibre in metropolitan areas has been demonstrated many times. During the 2010 Fifa World Cup, my team at the University of KwaZulu-Natal installed a quantum communication link between the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban and an off-site risk management centre. Recently, a Chinese collaboration realised intercontinental quantum communication via satellite. Quantum internet is just around the corner!
The potential of quantum technology has triggered enormous investments by many countries and companies. Many start-ups are competing for venture capital funding. This year, the Department of Science and Innovation approved the SA Quantum Technology Initiative (SA QuTI). This framework will make sure that South Africa will not miss the opportunities of the second quantum revolution. The initiative aims at promoting local research and innovation. It includes the deployment of education and training programmes to create a local quantum workforce. All stakeholders need to join efforts to establish an ecosystem for the emergence of a novel South African quantum industry.