INTRODUCTION
Under the Trump Administration, the United States has made American leadership in quantum information science (QIS) a critical priority for ensuring our Nation’s long-term economic prosperity and national security. Harnessing the novel properties of quantum physics has the potential to yield transformative new technologies, such as quantum computers, quantum sensors, and quantum networks.
The United States has taken significant action to strengthen Federal investments in QIS research and development (R&D) and prepare a quantum-ready workforce. In 2018, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released the National Strategic Overview for Quantum Information Science, the U.S. national strategy for leadership in QIS. Following the strategy, President Trump signed the bipartisan National Quantum Initiative Act into law, which bolstered R&D spending and established the National Quantum Coordination Office (NQCO) to increase the coordination of quantum policy and investments across the Federal Government.
Building upon these efforts, the Quantum Frontiers Report on Community Input to the Nation’s Strategy for Quantum Information Science outlines eight frontiers that contain core problems with fundamental questions confronting QIS today:
• Expanding Opportunities for Quantum Technologies to Benefit Society
• Building the Discipline of Quantum Engineering
• Targeting Materials Science for Quantum Technologies
• Exploring Quantum Mechanics through Quantum Simulations
• Harnessing Quantum Information Technology for Precision Measurements
• Generating and Distributing Quantum Entanglement for New Applications
• Characterizing and Mitigating Quantum Errors
• Understanding the Universe through Quantum Information
These frontier areas, identified by the QIS research community, are priorities for the government, private sector, and academia to explore in order to drive breakthrough R&D.
As background for this report, Federal agencies on the National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on QIS have engaged with the QIS research community through public requests for information (RFI) [1] and through a series of QIS workshops, roundtables, and technical studies led by experts and stakeholders in the QIS R&D community. The NQCO analyzed the RFI responses and workshop readouts and found several recurring themes. This report summarizes and organizes the community input in order to focus the Nation’s QIS research, academic, private sector, and Federal Government leaders on frontiers where key questions must be answered to enable the full potential of QIS. The Trump Administration remains committed to maintaining and strengthening America’s QIS leadership and unleashing the promise of this emerging field to improve the prosperity, security, and well-being of the American people.
