There was a weird silence at the other end of the phone.
It was as if the phone signal had dropped.
Lu Zhou was about to ask if Director Li was okay when he suddenly heard something drop from the other end of the phone; it was like something had fallen on a glass table.
The phone was quickly picked up.
“What are you doing, Old Liu—”
“What did you say? Topological quantum computing has been solved? What? How did you deal with the decoherence? What about the hall effect—”
Lu Zhou listened to a strange voice from the other end of the phone. He frowned and asked, “Who are you?”
After taking a deep breath, Academician Liu spoke.
“I’m Academician Liu Changqing from the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences! If it’s okay, I’d like to ask you some questions.”
Academician Liu…
Lu Zhou thought for a while, and a look of realization soon appeared on his face.
Deputy Director at the Institute of Semiconductors for the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Director of the Integrated Circuit Design Center. The person in charge of the national “Quantum Information” project. One of the experts in the Dragon chip project.
He had heard Professor Wu Tianqun mention this name several times in the past. Even though he had never met Academician Liu in person, but apparently, this guy was a big player in the Chinese semiconductor field. Therefore, telling him about the quantum computer should be fine.
“Basically, by using a special insulator material that contains Majorana fermions, I temporarily solved the problem of the unstable qubit entanglement state.”
“Wait a second, can you be more specific? I know what Majorana fermions are. So you found an insulator material that contains Majorana fermion, and… the problem was solved?”
Academician Liu was dumbfounded.
These questions were giving Lu Zhou a headache. He sighed and said, “It’s too troublesome to explain it over the phone. If you’re interested, come to Jinling.”
…
Lu Zhou didn’t expect Academician Liu to be so efficient. Academician Liu traveled from Beijing to Jinling the next day.
In addition to Academician Liu, Director Li, as well as experts from the Institute of Semiconductors, also came.
Lu Zhou smiled at the group of people. Without saying much, he led them to a conference room and stood in front of a whiteboard.
“Before explaining, I have to clarify something. The topological properties of matter do not change from bending or stretching. It only changes when you break and combine matter.”
Academician Liu pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose and spoke solemnly.
“We know that… And?”
“The same concept can be applied to quantum mechanics… Of course, these are rudimentary things. But what isn’t rudimentary is the way we apply these concepts.”
Lu Zhou turned around, picked up an electronic pen, and waved it toward the whiteboard twice. Hexagon grid lines appeared on the whiteboard.
Academician Liu, as well as the group of experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, were amazed.
When Lu Zhou noticed their reaction, he smiled and said, “This is just a small gadget I made in my spare time. It’s mainly for the convenience of writing on the whiteboard… After all, many things in physics are different from mathematics. Some things might not be so intuitive. A tool like this can save me time from using a ruler and eraser.”
In fact, this technology was nothing special. It was just a smart whiteboard with touch and display functionality, plus a smart camera with motion recognition. MIT produced a similar product, albeit with less functionality.
“Anyway, back to the main topic.” Lu Zhou tapped the electronic pen on the whiteboard and said, “The key to solving quantum computing lies in overcoming the interference of environmental noise on subatomic atoms. This is to prevent qubits from collapsing during environmental disturbances.”
He waved the electronic pen in his hand.
The electronic pen was like a baton. Black dots appeared in the middle of the hexagons.
These black dots represented subatomic particles, and they were orbiting around a circle at a uniform speed.
Everyone was staring at the whiteboard.
“This kind of quantum system is naturally immune to decoherence. It can accurately calculate any algorithm.
“So, let me demonstrate…”
Lu Zhou waved his hand toward the door. A drone floated over, delivering a small box into his hand.
Lu Zhou gently placed the box on the table.
“This is a simple scientific calculator. It can only do one kind of calculation using the software I pre-installed… By the way, does anyone have a computer?”
Academician Liu paused for a second before answering, “I have one.”
“Good, then I’ll give it to you.”
Lu Zhou handed the small box to Academician Liu.
Academician Liu opened the box and took a look. He was surprised to see a 10-number keypad and a simple display screen.
It looked like a small calculator, except there were no addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division buttons. There was an enter button, but Academician Liu wasn’t sure what it was for.
Lu Zhou spoke.
“We all know that it only takes 0.3 seconds or less for an average computer to generate a 1,024-bit prime number whereas generating two prime numbers takes 0.6 seconds. Multiplying the two takes negligible time.
“But if you asked the computer to find the factors of the multiplication of two large prime numbers, it would take days or even months.”
There was a commotion in the room.
Everyone looked astonished.
Academician Liu almost knew what was going on.
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “You can use your computer to randomly generate two prime numbers… Preferably over 1,024 bits, then calculate their product.
“I’m sure that will be easy.
“Then, enter that number into the calculator. I’m sure we’ll soon witness a miracle.”
Academician Liu gulped; his voice trembled as he spoke.
“Is this—”
Lu Zhou smiled at Academician Liu and nodded.
“Just do it.”
Academician Liu used his computer to calculate two large prime numbers. He then multiplied them and entered the number into this tiny calculator.
The experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as Director Li, all stood around him, watching him carry out the experiment.
It took him a while to enter the entire number.
After that, when Academician Liu finally pressed the confirm button, a miracle happened!
This small calculator quickly found the two prime number factors.
Academician Liu and everyone behind him were shocked.
That happened instantly!
For traditional computers, this problem could take several days to solve. However, this tiny computer solved it in less than a second!
Academician Liu’s eyes were wide open. He opened and closed his mouth.
He thought that Lu Zhou’s solution to the collapse of entangled qubits was only theoretical.
He had no idea that Academician Lu was able to make a real product.
Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director Li were all shocked.
They had no idea what kind of change this technology would bring.
There was only one thing for certain.
Which was that, from today onward, RSA encryption technology was no longer secure…
