Istvan Kovacs Earns NSF Career Award
February 3, 2025
Congratulations to Physics and Astronomy Professor Istvan Kovacs for receiving a NSF Career Award! The title of the proposal is: "Network-based Inference of Complex Biological Interactions". 
While entangled photons hold incredible promise for quantum computing and communications, they have a major inherent disadvantage. After one use, they simply disappear.
But in a new study published in Physical Review Letters, Kovacs proposes a strategy to maintain communications in a constantly changing, unpredictable quantum network. By rebuilding these disappearing connections, the researchers found the network eventually settles into a stable — albeit different — state.
The key resides in adding a sufficient number of connections to ensure the network continues to function, the researchers found. Adding too many connections comes with a high cost, overburdening the resources. But adding too few connections results in a fragmented network that cannot satisfy the user demand.
The findings potentially could lead to optimally designed quantum networks for lightning-fast computing and ultra-secure communications.
“Many researchers are putting significant efforts into building larger and better quantum communication networks around the globe,” said Northwestern’s István Kovács, the study’s senior author. “But, as soon as a quantum network is opened up to users, it burns down. It’s like crossing a bridge and then burning it down behind you. Without intervention, the network quickly dismantles. To tackle this problem, we developed a simple model of users. After each communication event, we added a fixed number of bridges, or links, between disconnected nodes. By adding a large enough number of links after each communication event, we maintained network connectivity.”
Click here to read the rest of the article by Amanda Morris.