Grant: Alliance Grants

Quantum networks are an emerging technology with a wide array of proposed applications; proposals include combining the computing power of separated quantum computers, building interconnects between different components of a single computer, and deploying secure communications, among others. These and related applications are expected to have significant economic impacts for Canada, with the National Research Council estimating the total economic impact of quantum technologies in Canada to be $533 million by 2025. This grant supports collaboration between key centres in Canada and the UK positioned to advance this technology, including the Institute for Quantum Computing, Perimeter Institute, Simon Fraser University, Cambridge University and the UK Quantum Communications Hub centred at Heriot-Watt university. In our research program we will develop new applications of quantum networks, advance existing applications, and assess their feasibility and utility. We will have a focus on networks with satellite based nodes. We will develop resource cost and benefit models based firmly on current and foreseeable quantum technologies. Among the applications we will consider are unforgeable money schemes, a near term application of potentially high economic impact in financial and related sectors. Our work will also contribute significantly to fundamental research on quantum information and quantum communication theory; we will develop in particular the theory of summoning, which characterizes how information can move through a network when subject to timing constraints, and network coding, which mitigates the effect of noise in quantum networks.