Traveling by car or moving with the most powerful plane in the world: you will easily converge that the speed changes exponentially. We apologize to those of physics, you really understand, but this is the most appropriate example to make the revolution that will bring quantums, and the technologies to which it is applied. The Interministerial Committee for the digital transition presented the Quantum Plan, that is, the Italian strategy for quantum technologies. An articulated and ambitious plan, illustrated by the Minister of the University and Research Anna Maria Bernini and prepared in a year of teamwork.
The moment is of those who remain in history and deserves a few minutes of patience: not only will involve the brightest minds of our country, but will see investments of absolute relevance and the sharing of numerous stakeholders. Quantum technologies will radically change our daily life, in many sectors: defense, for example, medicine and scientific research, but also economy and industrial innovation. To shed light on the theme, fascinating as complex, we interviewed one of the most authoritative voices in the world, the physics Anna Grassellino, director and senior scientist of the Chicago Formilab, one of the five research centers of the United States: it is his most powerful and fast super -invented quantum super calculator project, which he works with a team of 600 researchers. “I am happy that Italy has started the Quantum floor, it is a fundamental step for the competitiveness of the country. I pushed the Italian quantum strategy: I already talked about it a few years ago with the physicist Charles Tahan, at the head of the National Quantum Coordination Office of the United States. He was dealing with bilateral agreements with different countries and I asked him as if he were put in Italy. The first must organize a national strategy. I communicated to Professor Antonio Zoccoli, president of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, and to Professor Tommaso Calaco (today coordinator of the plan, editor’s note) and advised to push the accelerator to the maximum.
What are the areas in which quantum will give an exceptionally more effective response of what we know how to do today? In such a delicate moment of wars, we start from security, defense and rearmament.
“I believe that the most important goal is quantum computing, that is, the calculation. Then there are also quantum sensor, which offers enormous precision for example for medicine, and quantum communication, for super safe and protected information. The real revolution with the quantum is however precisely the calculation: especially from the point of view of the defense, the quantum computer has attracted the attention of different countries. Shor (U.S. computer science, editor’s note), the quantum calculation has shown that it can resolve in a faster way faster than a classic computer -type problems.
What other applications will quantum calculation have?
“Thousands of applications. The super calculation will serve for optimization, to save energy, for the development of drugs. Another algorithm, that of Gover (Indian IT, editor’s note), has already changed our calculation speed: it allows you to find with precision and extreme rapidity a thing within an immense database. Extraordinary, even if in this case the advantage is linear, not exponential”.
The Quantum Plan saw Italy of the forerunners in Europe. To develop these technologies, however, is an EU that works together?
“In my opinion yes. The United States approach is to carry on the whole country together, for Europe the same is worth the same. I understand that in certain areas there is very protectionism due to the implications that this technology can have, but there is a lot of scientific research still to be done and at this stage the more you can collaborate, the more fast we go”.
At what point are you with the realization of your quantum super computer?
“We have achieved very important results. A few months ago we published a document to declare that our computer has reached the best time of consistency ever demonstrated in the world. In simple words, it makes very fast calculations with a very low percentage of errors. In technical language, we have reached three nine, 99.9% of loyalty. A comparable data to the result of the best industries, such as IBM, but with a substantial difference: we use different energy technologies, we use different energy technologies. Ours is much more powerful and offers an absolutely higher calculation efficiency “.
How much is it linked to Italy?
“Much, I am Sicilian, when I can go back to Marsala and I also take my three children. Our Fermiilab has about forty partners and 600 national and international collaborators, including Italians. We have helped Italy to be at the forefront by investing for example in the national laboratories of the Gran Sasso, which are part of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. In their underground environments, without disorders or variations, as they say in the joy, They perform very interesting measurements of Qubits, the fundamental unit of quantum information.
Compared to the United States, our country is much further back for quantum technologies. And France and Germany also invested more than us. His judgment: are we late?
“In the United States we have been talking about quantums for years, there is a great turmoil in this regard and a good knowledge of the theme. I have been doing an example: I have been asked by the government to prepare a kit for kindergarten, here the children overlook this world since the early years of age. We also form the teachers of high school. And then we focus on the Internships, periods of practical training, come from all over the world. In the document presented by Minister Bernini, Europeans, but I already said ten years ago that Italy is well positioned to be a leader in quantum technology.
How far will his super calculator take us?
“As far as we know how to arrive by studying.
It could also be able to make us discover the mystery of dark matter. So far we have not been able to have such sensitive tools that they can go and see what it is, we only know that it is a great component of the universe that surrounds us. But tomorrow yes, we could get there. ”