Quantum Computing for Energy-Related Applications

Fengyi Wang, Yang Lu

Quantum Information Systems (QIS) have emerged as a transformative paradigm, integrating the principles of quantum mechanics with advanced computational and communication technologies to address complex problems beyond the capabilities of classical systems. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of current developments, beginning with the foundational principles that define QIS, including its theoretical underpinnings, quantum state representations, and computational frameworks. It then examines advances in quantum computing for QIS, with a focus on hardware architectures, the design and optimization of core algorithms, and the computational advantages over classical approaches. The discussion extends to quantum machine learning for QIS, exploring hybrid quantum–classical learning models, quantum data encoding techniques, and optimization strategies. Finally, it surveys diverse application domains, such as finance, industrial information integration, energy systems, healthcare, and intelligent transportation. In addition, the paper highlights pressing technological, data-centric, algorithmic, and ecosystem-level challenges, and discusses future trajectories shaped by innovations such as quantum blockchain, quantum artificial intelligence, and decentralized QIS. Through a structured and integrative analysis, this work aims to provide a roadmap for researchers and practitioners navigating the rapidly evolving QIS landscape.

Chiranjit Biswas, Jayanta Pal, Swanirbhar Majumder

Bettina Schneider, Kech Benjamin, Wilfrid Azan +1 more

Grace D. Metcalfe, Boyan Tabakov, Tristan Nguyen +2 more

Scientific and technological progress has repeatedly revolutionized society, from the invention of steam-power-driven machines that brought forth the Industrial Age to the development of the transistor that sparked the Information Age. As societies and economies become more connected through global communication networks and reliant on computational power, the demand for faster, more efficient, and secure information capabilities escalates commensurately. Enter Quantum Information Science (QIS) (QIS), a field founded on the physical laws of quantum mechanics that introduce extraordinary different and powerful paradigms for generating, manipulating, measuring, securing, and processing information. While many quantum effects are generally well understood and form the basis of widely exploited current technology, QIS is still a richly underexplored research area. This overview provides a basic research perspective on the foundational resources that empower QIS, the main challenges in exploiting QIS for practical applications, and the need for input from researchers outside quantum physics, such as those from the aerospace community, to stimulate new ideas and advance progress in QIS. This paper introduces key QIS concepts and continues with discussions on each of the following subareas: sensing, computation and algorithms, networks, and information security. The paper concludes with an outlook of the field as it relates to aerospace.

Joanna Śliwa, Konrad Wrona

Quantum Information Science (QIS) is potentially a game-changing technology for the future military operational environment. Being significantly dependent on the capabilities of current quantum computers, it is still very immature; however, evolving rapidly and increasing the technical and knowledge potential of industrial and state actor players that invest in it. Investing in this technology can lead the NATO Alliance to gain quantum superiority and outperform its adversaries in technological development in diverse military domains. This article presents possible applications of QIS in the military domain in the form of use cases. We have formulated these use cases after analysis of today's capabilities of quantum computing technology and its prospects for the future of the quantum information domain. Our article concludes with initial recommendations for the early adoption of quantum technology. This paper was presented at the NATO Science and Technology Organization Symposium (ICMCIS) organized by the Information Systems Technology (IST) Panel, IST-200 RSY - the ICMCIS, held in Skopje, North Macedonia, 16–17 May 2023.

Vaishali Sood, Rishi Pal Chauhan