Physics Can Live Long and Prosper! by Amelia Rehrig

If your parents are mega nerds, like mine, there’s a fair chance that you’ve heard of Star Trek. The franchise has lots of TV series and movies, but the main premise is a group of humans and aliens alike traveling through the universe on a discovery mission. They help planets and species in need, conduct research, and battle against evil doing foes, such as the Borg.

When I was in the 3rd grade, my family would watch one particular spin off Star Trek TV series, Star Trek: Voyager. The show had all the hallmark Star Trek gadgets and technology. The starship USS Voyager cruised through galaxies with a warp drive, crew members could beam down through space to other planets and vessels, and everyone had their choice of food synthesized on the spot with a meal replicator. In my young mind, it seemed like all of the technology that was used in the starship could be real. The crew spoke with such a deceiving level of complexity and depth about the technology that I thought it all must be based in real science, physics, and mathematical concepts. Unfortunately, upon some light research I learned that this was mostly not true, and the whole world of Star Trek was a fallacy created by some very talented writers.   

For many people, I believe that new age physics topics also seem so complex and foreign that it’s difficult to discern whether they're based in reality or make-believe SciFi. Understanding the new frontiers of the vast subject requires a whole unique glossary of terms, most of which also need some background knowledge to comprehend. Sure, if you already know the basics of composite particles, such as protons and neutrons from your high school physics class, getting spun up on subatomic particles like quarks and leptons may not seem so difficult. But without that foundational layer of information the task becomes far more daunting, especially for more specialized or obscure topics. 

For the average person who has only an interest in physics, but no in depth knowledge on the subject, a more effective route may be taken to get them to grasp concepts and internalize their importance. People need a why, before getting into the nitty gritty of how. They need to know why physics relates to them, why physics can improve their quality of life, and, for the more altruistic crowd, why physics can help others. 

Take quantum computing for instance. Its conception is very recent, dating back to the 80’s, and functional quantum computers have only emerged in the last decade. For me, in hindsight to my embarrassment, understanding binary computing systems was confusing, so qubits blew my mind. Qubits are the fundamental units for a quantum computer, and rather than representing information like a binary computer with a 0 or 1, they exist in a superposition of both states simultaneously. Each qubit is additionally entangled within one another creating an instantaneous dependence across all qubits. These characteristics of the qubit allow for higher power computing, complex problem solving, and enhanced communication efficiency. 

But wait, what does superposition mean again? And how does entanglement work? Is it like the tangled knots in my hair? These are questions I asked myself and can imagine others having themselves. However, beginning to learn about quantum computing through one of its many benefits to society prevents these questions from ever cropping up in the first place.

Have you ever had your email hacked? Sent an unsavory photo and stressed it could get leaked to the world? Quantum computing can revolutionize personal communication and data privacy through the use of quantum cryptography, preventing the leakage of your personal messages and photos. Quantum cryptography relies on an encryption method that uses the quantum properties of photons to protect the content of communications. The message sender and receiver have a specific key for their communication, providing the encryption. This key is determined by a physical light polarizer for the photons, just like how your tinted polarized sunglasses filter out glaring light. The polarizer augments the photons in 4 different ways, dependent on the oscillations of the photon particle, and a single augmentation determines the key setting for the messages. Both the sender and receiver’s keys are set to the same polarizing setting to allow their messages to pass through the filter key. Any attempts to intercept or eavesdrop on the message will change the augmentation of the photons, rendering the message indiscernible as the messenger photons are now in a different format than the key. This will also alert the receiver, as the messages will no longer pass through their key and be available to interpret. 

Congratulations! Just like that you now know how superposition works. See, the 4 augmentations of the photon of light represent the same data as the superimposed binary that make up a qubit. You now know how entanglement works too. When one photon is tampered with the whole message is distorted, just as when one qubit is altered it alters all other qubits because every qubits’ state is dependent on one another.

 By approaching this complex topic through the lens of data privacy, which is a pressing matter for anyone with an online footprint, the concept was more digestible and I believe significant to everyday life. The same fundamentals of quantum computing could be explained through describing its ability to optimize supply chain management and logistics, to enable faster pace drug discovery and pharmaceutical research, and to accurately model complex natural disaster scenarios to predict the extreme effects of climate change. By using the positive, and in some cases negative, effects of physics on society, seemingly incomprehensible concepts become far more accessible to the average person, and will bring the quantum realm to the forefront of many more people's realities.