With the rise of smartphones and other handheld wireless devices, GPS technology has experienced an explosion in popularity, becoming near-omnipresent in the daily lives of many consumers. However, its limitations, including its inability to work underwater and its susceptibility to both accidental and deliberate signal interference, could pave the way for a new, more accurate kind of technology – quantum navigation.
Quantum navigation, arising from the field of quantum mechanics, follows the Nobel Prize-winning research that shows that atoms can be frozen by lasers to a temperature just above absolute zero, becoming a billion times colder than the temperature of the universe. Once frozen, these slow-moving, low-energy atoms are extremely sensitive to changes in the local magnetic and gravitational field, making them ideal for more accurate atomic clocks, which utilize the regular absorption and release of radiation by their electrons during energy shifts as a highly accurate pendulum.
In addition, the laser-cooled atoms exhibit certain quantum phenomenon, such as entanglement that links two physically separated quantum systems, which could be used to improve modern navigation technology. According to scientists, if these two quantum systems go through slightly different environments, combining them gives information about the environment of one path verses the other. Such atom interferometers can in theory provide better performance than GPS navigation. GPS technology, which relies on triangulation from a network of satellites to determine location, cannot be used underwater or indoors and is vulnerable to being blocked either by illegal jamming devices or solar weather activity.
A team at the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), is now working to incorporate quantum positioning technology in submarines, missiles and other such military equipment as a backup, and maybe eventually a replacement, to GPS navigation.
“The defense industry often acts as a pioneer in the development of new technologies,” says team leader Neil Stansfield, head of Knowledge, Innovation and Futures Enterprise at DSTL, “and the potential benefits of a future in which we can navigate by inner space rather than outer space will impact both the military and civilian world.”
Civilian industries reliant on GPS, including those involved in high frequency trading, network synchronization and maritime, air and land navigation, as well as smartphone manufacturers, could stand to benefit from a more precise and robust alternative. At the same time, the higher levels of precision offered by quantum navigation could enable the development of theoretical tools such as telescopes for high precision gravity measurements, which could be used in environmental sensing, engineering surveying or natural resource mining.
Existing equipment for quantum navigation is fairly large and expensive, but scientists are hopeful that, if proven useful, this equipment can be miniaturized to a handheld size. Currently, the DSTL research team is focused on installing quantum navigation technology in a submarine that will launch in 2016. The performance of this submarine will provide scientists with a better understanding of the potential uses of the new technology.
“As with the technology itself, the timing of today’s event is significant,” Bob Cockshott, positioning, navigation and timing expert at the National Physical Laboratory, said. “With the first applications potentially ready for market in five years, now is the critical moment time to consider the opportunities provided by quantum.”
By Aliza Becker and Melanie Abeygunawardana
