After coming out of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, Academician Liu felt like he was sleepwalking. His mind was a mess.
After the demonstration, Lu Zhou immediately explained to the experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences the application of topological quantum theory in model insulators, as well as how he realized Majorana fermions through some basic carbon-based integrated circuit components and Josephson junctions.
Objectively speaking, it was a bit difficult for an applied researcher like Lu Zhou to understand those complex physical mathematical formulas.
Fortunately, although the formulas accounted for more than 70% of the lecture, there were dynamic graphics as a demonstration, so they were able to understand the mystery.
However, after listening to this "unique" lesson, he felt that his worldview, which he had spent decades building up, was almost completely refreshed.
It took less than one second to disassemble the product of 1024-digit prime numbers, which at least meant that the calculator in his hand had at least 500 qubits.
However, this wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that this quantum computer was only the size of a palm! It was many times smaller than the quantum computer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences!
And if they were to compare horizontally, the best result they could achieve was only 20 qubits …
And this was the latest result of the year.
Other than that, compared to the box-sized quantum computer, what shocked him more was Academician Lu, who was standing on stage and explaining these theories to them.
Mathematics, physics, materials, and integrated circuit design … The knowledge covered in this lecture could even be subdivided into more than a dozen subject branches.
However, for a young man who was not even thirty years old, the profound and obscure knowledge seemed to be at his fingertips, and there was not the slightest hindrance when he used it.
If he didn't see it with his own eyes, he wouldn't believe that someone in this world could be this good.
Maybe this is why he can overcome world-class problems one after another …
Academician Liu sat in the car parked at the entrance of the research institute. He suddenly sighed emotionally.
"I feel like … maybe I need to go back to school to further my studies."
Director Li's expression was quite calm.
After all, he was only surprised about the technology itself. As for the esoteric theories, he didn't understand them anyway, so he didn't take it to heart.
Lu Zhou looked at Academician Liu, who had a melancholic look on his face, and comforted him.
"… After all, it's Academician Lu. His class is indeed difficult to understand, so don't take it to heart. I believe that it's not just you who can't understand, even if someone else were to sit here, it would be the same. "
"It's not a matter of taking it to heart." Academician Liu shook his head and said, "It's just that sometimes I really feel like I can't keep up with this era."
"Topological quantum computing is relatively new, but someone in our institute is also working on it. The target is Microsoft's Majorana fermion project. However, whether it's Academician Pan's project, our project against Microsoft, or Microsoft's own … The number of qubits has always been around 20 or 30. "
Director Li couldn't care less about comforting him. He quickly asked.
"What did Professor Lu do?"
Academician Liu: "I forgot to ask how much exactly, but judging from the display just now … there should be at least 500."
500 …
That was an order of magnitude higher!
The carriage was silent for a long time.
After a while, Director Li came back to his senses and sighed faintly.
"… That's pretty scary."
…
In terms of the importance of the technology itself, the importance of quantum computers was undoubtedly far greater than the carbon-based chip itself.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that quantum computers were comparable to controllable fusion technology.
According to the generally accepted view, the three pillars of modern technology were energy, information, and materials. Quantum computers were the pinnacle of this century's information technology.
And that wasn't all.
Most importantly, traditional encryption methods seemed to be stripped naked in front of a quantum computer. There was no defense at all.
This was the scariest part of this technology.
As everyone knew, not just in the IT and finance industries, but more than 90% of the security of modern information networks relied on asymmetric public key encryption. The most widely used encryption algorithm was the RSA encryption algorithm.
There was no fixed formula for the factorization of large prime numbers, and there was only one solution. Therefore, in principle, as long as the product of prime numbers was large enough, it was basically unsolvable. Even Professor Lu wouldn't be able to solve it in his lifetime.
However, in front of a quantum computer, this kind of problem that would take a traditional computer hundreds of years to solve could be solved in less than a second.
Some people might say that RSA wasn't the only asymmetric public key encryption algorithm. There were also elliptic curve encryption, Elgamal encryption, and other discrete logarithm based encryption algorithms …
But in the face of the computing power of a quantum computer, this was nothing.
It wouldn't even be a problem.
After returning home at night, Lu Zhou sat at his desk and thought for a long time. He finally took out a piece of paper and wrote on it with a pen.
【
The changes brought about by quantum computers in the field of communication technology would be disruptive.
Encryption and decryption methods of communication technology had always been in a state of dynamic development. However, the breakthrough in topological quantum computing technology had broken this balance.
It would only take a few seconds to decrypt a traditional asymmetric public key encryption problem.
Once this technology is popularized, it will bring great development to our society, but it will also inevitably bring huge security risks.
The top priority now is to establish a stricter and more reliable encryption algorithm as a replacement for the original encryption method.
A quantum encryption algorithm similar to the bb84 protocol is a good choice, but it will still be inadequate in the face of a quantum computer with more than 1000 qubits.
In my opinion, quantum computer technology with more than 1000 qubits can be broken in a short period of time.
Therefore, this new encryption rule must be more reliable than the bb48 protocol, and it must even surpass its improved version, bbm92.
Once we master this new encryption technology, it will be the best time to promote the commercial use of quantum computers.
By then, we will have an information technology advantage that other countries can't match.
Just like the controllable fusion technology has established an advantage for us in the energy field.
】
Lu Zhou stopped writing and found an envelope in his drawer. He stuffed the letter into it and threw it on the corner of the table.
When he went to Jin Ling University tomorrow, he would give it to Wang Peng and ask him to find someone to send it to Chang 'an Avenue in Beijing.
Even though he felt like Director Li would definitely report to the higher-ups even if he didn't say anything, sometimes the opinions of experts were more useful, and it was easier to attract the attention of the higher-ups.
Even though these things weren't something that a scholar needed to worry about, Lu Zhou still hoped that his research results could bring some positive effects to the world. He didn't want to push the world in a bad direction.
Even though this might not be as exciting as scientific research itself.
But it was also part of the fun.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
