发表机构
University of Vienna; QUBO Technology GmbH; Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR); Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IFN-CNR)（维也纳大学; QUBO技术有限公司; 德国航空航天中心遥感技术研究所; 国家研究委员会光子学与纳米技术研究所）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
本研究在纳米卫星上实现可编程量子光子处理器，通过调谐双光子干涉，首次在轨利用非经典光进行计算，为星载量子辅助计算奠定基础。
AI 中文摘要
量子技术有望提供超越经典系统能力的计算能力。一个前瞻性的应用在于卫星任务，这些任务在尺寸、重量和功率的严格限制下，越来越依赖星载计算。量子光子学在此特别具有吸引力：光子干涉可以在固定硬件资源下增强处理大量星载数据所需的机器学习模型。然而，利用这种干涉不仅仅需要产生单光子，因为它们必须保持相互不可区分：这是一种脆弱的条件，在包括火箭发射、强烈热漂移和辐射在内的技术要求苛刻的太空任务框架中难以维持。这就是为什么光量子态虽然已在轨道上生成并传输用于安全通信和基础测试，但从未被用作计算资源。在此，我们报告了一个在纳米卫星上运行的可编程量子光子平台，在六模通用集成电路中处理两个光子。通过编程不同的酉变换并将光子调谐到不可区分状态，我们观察到双光子干涉，确立了星载非经典光的生成、操控和探测。这将天基技术扩展到在轨量子辅助计算，例如地球观测数据的本地编码，或分布式量子网络中的节点。
英文摘要
Quantum technologies promise computational capabilities beyond the reach of classical systems. A forward-looking application lies in satellite missions, which increasingly depend on onboard computing under stringent constraints on size, weight and power. Quantum photonics is particularly attractive here: photon interference can enhance the machine-learning models needed to process large onboard data volumes, at fixed hardware resources. However, harnessing this interference requires more than generating single photons, as they must remain mutually indistinguishable: a fragile condition that is hard to maintain within the technically demanding framework of a space mission, which includes a rocket launch, strong thermal drifts, and radiation. This is why quantum states of light, though already generated and transmitted in orbit for secure communication and fundamental tests, have never been used as a computational resource. Here, we report a programmable quantum photonic platform operating on a nanosatellite, processing two photons in a six-mode universal integrated circuit. By programming distinct unitaries and tuning the photons into indistinguishability, we observe two-photon interference, establishing the on-board generation, manipulation and detection of non-classical light. This extends space-based technologies towards in-orbit quantum-assisted computing, for instance local encoding of Earth-observation data, or nodes in a distributed quantum network.
