1. Physics Colloquium

    "Towards a quantum internet, and its applications"

    Presented by Thomas Jennewein, University of Waterloo

    Tuesday, November 19, 2019, 3:30 pm
    Large Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

    Hosted by: Andrei Nomerotski

    Quantum information processing and quantum communication are novel protocols that originate from the very fundamental and philosophical questions on superposition and entanglement raised since the early days of quantum mechanics. Strikingly, these new protocols offer capabilities beyond communication task possible with classical physics. One very important example is the secure key exchange based on the transmission of individual quantum signals between communication partners. The big vision and frontier in the field of quantum communication research is the development of a Quantum Internet, which establishes entanglement between many different users and devices. The basic idea is that similar to today's internet, the Quantum Internet will readily transfer quantum bits, rather than today's classical bits, between users near and far and over multiple different channels and could be used for secure communications, quantum computer networks and metrological applications. I will discuss recent advances on implementations and tools useful for generating and distributing photonic quantum entanglement over robust channels including time-bin encoding and reference-frame-free protocols. I will also present an overview of the upcoming Canadian quantum communication satellite QEYSSAT.