French National Quantum Update — October 2024

Executive Summary

A steady cadence of news has streamed out of the quantum ecosystem in France during October 2024, a solid step in the last quarter of the year and a strong signal that 2024 will be an important year in the history of this emerging technology. Some of the news did not originate in France, rather it was French companies and institutions taking their technological innovation and business acumen out into the world. France’s quantum representatives met with leaders in the U.S. and across Europe during the month. While France’s quantum outreach spreads across the globe, it also stretches across time. The nation’s pioneering quantum technology companies are looking to the future. For example, Pasqal released its roadmap for the next five years. See below for a non-exhaustive look at just some of the news in the French quantum ecosystem this month.

Policy

Senator Stine Meets Macron, French PM

Senator Jeremy Stine of Lake Charles just completed an intense two-week mission to Paris to build new partnerships between France and Louisiana. Stine was the head of the Louisiana delegation to the International Organization of La Francophonie Summit, which took place October 4 and 5. Senator Stine is the grandson of four French-speaking Cajun grandparents and attended one of Louisiana’s first immersion schools in Lake Charles. Senator Stine also held institutional economic meetings with the leaders of MEDEF International and the Alliance of French-speaking Employers. In addition to highlighting Louisiana’s strategic position as the world’s leading LNG supplier, he also discussed potential strategies to attract other French companies to set up in Louisiana, particularly in the energy (LNG, nuclear, renewables), quantum, aerospace, agribusiness, and artificial intelligence sectors.

Business

Eviden Installs IQM Spark Quantum Computer at Its Flagship Factory in France

Eviden, the Atos Group business leading in advanced computing today announces having signed a partnership with IQM Quantum Computers – a global leader in designing, building, and selling superconducting quantum computers – to make quantum computing a reality across businesses and organizations. 

Quandela Publishes 2024-2030 Roadmap

Quandela, the European leader in photonic quantum computing, has revealed its ambitions with the release of its 2024-2030 technology roadmap. The company aims to achieve fault-tolerant quantum computing by 2030. As a first major step, Quandela plans to develop the first logical (error-free) qubits by 2025, before scaling quantum computing by networking multiple quantum computers together by 2028.

Eviden Introduces Advanced Post-Quantum Cryptography Service

Eviden, an Atos Group company, has launched its post-quantum cryptography Hardware Security Module as a Service (PQC HSMaaS), highlighting its adherence to EU sovereignty and its capability to meet NIS2 Directive’s strict security requirements. This service, backed by ANSSI’s highest security qualification, offers businesses a future-proof encryption solution against quantum computing advances. It is hosted in France, ensuring data sovereignty and reducing reliance on public clouds.

Pascal Signs Partnership Agreement with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

During the Aramco Entrepreneurship Summit, Pasqal officially signed a partnership with King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals – KFUPM to explore groundbreaking opportunities in hashtag#quantum computing research and hashtag#education in Saudi Arabia. The partnership will focus on key areas of collaboration, including Student Engagement, Faculty Engagement and Research Collaborations.

Research

Pasqal and Qubit Pharmaceuticals Use Neutral Atom QPUs to Predict Water Molecule Behavior in Drug Discovery

Predicting the behavior of water molecules within protein structures is a necessary but challenging task in drug discovery, as these molecules influence how well a drug interacts with its target. Existing methods for solvent configuration prediction are computationally demanding and often lack precision. In a recent study published in Physical Review Research, researchers from Pasqal, Qubit Pharmaceuticals, and Sorbonne Université presented a new approach using analog quantum computing with neutral atoms to address this issue. 

Why quantum theory is just like magic (and Einstein deserves more credit in this field than he gets)

French physicist Alain Aspect is a pioneer in ‘quantum entanglement’ — connections between the quantum properties of subatomic particles that are preserved even at distances too great for signals to travel at light speed. He shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work, which underpins quantum computers and other technologies. With his book on the foundations of quantum mechanics being released, Aspect, at the University of Paris-Saclay and the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, tells Nature why he sees parallels between physics and magic, why Einstein doesn’t get all the credit he deserves and how there were two quantum revolutions, not one.

INTERFEROMETRY: What will a photon be a second ago?

The observer’s role in quantum mechanics has been confirmed to be very weird indeed. Researchers in France have finally carried out John Wheeler’s famous “delayed choice” thought experiment, in which the intent is to determine exactly when photons decide to act like particles or waves; the experiment relies on a single-photon source developed for quantum-cryptography experiments. Several attempts have been made over the years to carry out the thought experiment, but complications have arisen largely in the search for a sufficiently stable single-photon source. Alain Aspect and Philippe Grangier at the Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique (Paris, France) have been working on such sources since the 1980s for similar single-photon interference work.

Fermionic quantum processing with programmable neutral atom arrays

Neutral atoms trapped in tweezer arrays have recently emerged as powerful quantum simulation platforms, with recent experiments targeting quantum spin models. In this work, the researchers envision the next generation of programmable atomic quantum simulators, where not only the atom’s internal but also motional degrees of freedom are controlled to process quantum information. Work at Grenoble is supported by the French National Research Agency via the Programme Jeunes Chercheuses et Jeunes Chercheurs (JCJC) project QRand (ANR-20-CE47-0005), and via the research programs EPIQ (ANR-22-PETQ-0007, Plan France 2030), and QUBITAF (ANR-22-PETQ-0004, Plan France 2030).

Education and Events

The French Academy of Sciences Honors Alice & Bob

The French Academy of Sciences unveiled the various prizes it has awarded for 2024. Through these prizes, which honor scientists and researchers, the French Academy of Science contributes directly to its mission of encouraging scientific life. The French Academy of Sciences pays tribute to them at the award ceremonies held under the dome of the Institut de France on October 15, 2024. Alice & Bob’s Patrice Théau Peronnin and Raphaël Lescanne were honored by the French Academy of Sciences for their work.

France-Chicago Conference on Spin Defects in Solids for Quantum Information Science

This interdisciplinary workshop focuses on spins in solids for quantum technologies to bring together diverse research groups, foster collaborative work, encourage the open exchange of ideas, and broaden the interconnected network of researchers from Q-NEXT, CNRS, France and Europe.