Some of BAE Systems’ quantum experts, Henry, Andy and Dawn have been helping Infleqtion understand the rigours of a flight environment and funded the flight trial, which was carried out with QinetiQ in May.
Dawn explained why the trial was such an important milestone: “Bose Einstein Condensates (BEC) are extremely fragile, so creating a stable BEC on board a flying aircraft was no mean feat. The theory of a BEC was initially proposed by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein in 1924, but was only created in a lab in 1995. Last week was the first demonstration of a BEC in an aircraft in flight, unlocking the door to providing highly accurate navigation details without relying on external signals such as GPS. In a world where even passenger planes have seen their GPS signals intentionally disrupted, this is becoming increasingly important.”
But how does this exotic quantum technology actually work? To make a BEC, a group of atoms have to be cooled to almost absolute zero (-273C), at which point they begin to act as a single quantum entity, and allowing their quantum nature to be interrogated to make precise measurements. In the trial, the BEC was split into two and then brought back together. Because the two sides of the BEC took a different path, comparing their relative states can tell you how far you have moved.
How a quantum navigation system works
| 1. 100m rubidium atoms are chilled with lasers to a fraction above absolute zero (-273C). |
2.This creates a Bose-Einstein Condenstate – the fifth state of matter – which has quantum properties and acts as both a wave and particle. |
3.Around 5,000 atoms are split into three superimposed forms. |
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| 4.Particles are trapped with a magnetic field and spin in specific ways. |
5.One continues on its path, one spins clockwise. As the aircraft travels, the particles’ route changes. | 6.Three forms are recombined in a process know as re-interference. The alternations mean different quantum routes can now be calculated into position. |
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Satellite navigation systems can be jammed, potentially causing disruption to air travel. New quantum-based systems could offer a highly accurate and resilient complement to current satellite navigation, helping ensure that flights are not disrupted.Henry, Lead technologist for sensing
To put the concept into an everyday scenario, imagine a group of dancers all choreographed to perform the exact same dance – which represents chilling the atoms to make them act as a single entity. That group is then split into two and take different routes through a city, but continue to perform the dance. When those groups come back together at the end of their journey, the position of the dancers will have been affected by the obstacles they met and the length of their journey, allowing an observer to make some judgements about the journey. A BEC allows us to do something similar, but the impact on their ‘dance’ of moving through space can be turned into navigational information using complex, repeatable maths, giving objective values that allow us to calculate the position of the vehicle.
Now this demonstration has shown that the BEC continues to be stable during flight, the next step is to perform that navigation function, allowing us to use this as a standard piece of equipment during navigation. Investing at this early stage has helped cement the UK’s position as a leader in quantum technology, achieving a world first with this flight demonstration.
Some of our quantum experts with the Science Minister, from left to right:
Dawn (BAE Systems), Dr Timothy Ballance (Infleqtion), Andrew Griffiths (Science Minister), Dr Keshav Thirumalai (Infleqtion), Henry (BAE Systems).