Quantum Computation

Historically, JPL has been one of the key innovators of computer technology in the United States. To give just a few examples, JPL has designed and built massively parallel computers, hypercubes, and neural network hardware and we currently invest in superconducting electronics based computers, quantum dots, nanotechnology, and reconfigurable, fault-tolerant, hardware. These research activities rarely make the headlines as the space missions do, but computer technology research plays a critical supporting role for our primary mission objectives.

We recognize, however, that there is more potential from quantum technology than just computation. Moreover, certain non-computational devices appear to be more feasible to implement within the near future. In an effort to elucidate new ideas, and to push the envelope on existing ones, in 1998 we organized the "First NASA International Conference on Quantum Computing and Quantum Communications", held in Palm Springs, California. In particular, four key ideas emerged that caught our attention: quantum gyroscopes, improved precision of atomic clocks, the first steps in quantum algorithms for tackling NP-complete (structured) problems and the potential for Earth-to-space quantum key distribution (QKD). The proceedings have been published as Volume 1509, of Springer Verlag's Lecture Notes in Computer Science.