A light approach to quantum advantage
Quantum computational advantage or supremacy is a long-anticipated milestone toward practical quantum computers. Recent work claimed to have reached this point, but subsequent work managed to speed up the classical simulation and pointed toward a sample size–dependent loophole. Quantum computational advantage, rather than being a one-shot experimental proof, will be the result of a long-term competition between quantum devices and classical simulation. Zhong
et al.
sent 50 indistinguishable single-mode squeezed states into a 100-mode ultralow-loss interferometer and sampled the output using 100 high-efficiency single-photon detectors. By obtaining up to 76-photon coincidence, yielding a state space dimension of about 10
30
, they measured a sampling rate that is about 10
14
-fold faster than using state-of-the-art classical simulation strategies and supercomputers.
Science
, this issue p.
1460
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDIQKD) with the decoy-state method negates security threats of both the imperfect single-photon source and detection losses. Lengthening the distance and improving the key rate of quantum key distribution (QKD) are vital issues in practical applications of QKD. Herein, we report the results of MDIQKD over 404 km of ultralow-loss optical fiber and 311 km of a standard optical fiber while employing an optimized four-intensity decoy-state method. This record-breaking implementation of the MDIQKD method not only provides a new distance record for both MDIQKD and all types of QKD systems but also, more significantly, achieves a distance that the traditional Bennett-Brassard 1984 QKD would not be able to achieve with the same detection devices even with ideal single-photon sources. This work represents a significant step toward proving and developing feasible long-distance QKD.
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