The Guardian recently drew attention to the aspirations of Lockheed Martin to develop a “quantum radar” that can “see through anything, from buildings to solid earth”. With the recent D-Wave debacle in mind, I decided to ask someone who actually knows about such things, Scott Aaronson at Shtetl-Optimized. Scott was kind enough to give me his opinion on the patent (enter EP1750145 here for .pdf):
1. While it’s *conceivable* that sending out entangled particles could provide some benefit for signal detection problems, so far as I can tell the author never explains, anywhere in the 16-page application, how exactly such a benefit would come about. My colleagues and I would have a much easier time publishing papers, if all we had to do was speculate that entanglement might help you do such-and-such, without explaining why or proving that classical correlation doesn’t give you the same benefit!
2. Nowhere does the author explain how the radar system would exploit the characteristic properties of quantum entanglement – as opposed to (say) just combining information from many different particles. This, more than anything else, makes me skeptical.
3. Indeed, nowhere does the author even demonstrate that he understands what entanglement *is*, and how it differs from (say) classical correlation.
4. Nowhere does the author talk about decoherence, which would seem to me to be an obvious and staggering practical problem in any radar system based on entanglement! Of course, this is completely separate from the question of what the benefits of entanglement would be, even if we assumed perfect coherence.
The author of the patent is Edward H. Allen, member of Lockheed’s secret research & development unit, Skunkworks, and a 2007 Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Mr Allen is no stranger to patents, but possibly not a quantum scientist. I think Scott is absolutely right when he also asks what benefits would accrue from the technology, even assuming it could be made to work.
I was rather hoping there’d be more to this story than hot air masquerading as science. I’m not even sure where to point the finger. Certainly not at the impeccable Sharon Weinberger, who wrote the skeptical Danger Room article that drew my attention to this, nor perhaps at the original Guardian article, although that is misleading. At Lockheed? Probably – they declined to comment on the Guardian piece and, as Weinberger says, “it doesn’t much matter to them whether they think the quantum radar will work or not – if it’s theoretically possible, it’s worth it to own the idea.”
This flags up a serious disconnect between the world of speculative patenting and innovative science, as well as issues of intellectual property rights. It also suggests that publicity and notoriety are worth far more than “good science” and academic propriety. Oh damn, I’ve just fallen for the oldest marketing trick in the book…
Update: Inkblot Earth gave this post a very generous review in his new Featured Readers series. Thanks, Hrafn.
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[...] Original post by kuipercliff [...]
This brings to mind those crazy x-ray railguns in Eraser. Seeing through anything would be an enormous breakthrough(if currently infeasible, I believe we can do it eventually). I hope that it will not be monopolized by the military.
Ilya, Our boys in military R&D have all the best ideas! And anything’s possible, especially in a week when the Brits deployed a comsat they actually called ‘Skynet’. I may have to do a “what’s-in-a-name?” post – did the Brits seriously think no-one had seen Terminator?
[...] Quantum Radar – Lockheed jumps the gun [...]
[...] of months ago, KuiperCliff wrote an overview about the infamous ‘Quantum Radar’ patent that featured an interview with the [...]
[...] couple of months ago, KuiperCliff wrote an overview about the infamous ‘Quantum Radar’ patent that featured an interview with the [...]
1. The U.S. Marine Corps have received the initial four Lightweight Prime Mover (LWPM) vehicles from Lockheed Martin’s [NYSE: LMT] Tactical Wheeled Vehicle (TWV) program. The LWPM will tow the new M777 lightweight 155-mm artillery howitzer. After undergoing a production qualification test at the Nevada Automotive Test Center, the LWPM will undergo an operational field user’s evaluation. Under the current contract, the Marine Corps has the option for full-rate production of 120 LWPM vehicles.
2. The LWPM rides on a height-adjustable chassis and central tire inflation system that automatically adjusts air pressure to enhance all-terrain mobility. Future production vehicles will accept appliqué armor. The vehicle is designed for improved rollover protection.
The vehicle is based on the LM4×4 truck, built on the proven High Mobility Transport design which excells with its unique weight-to-payload ratio, enabling the less than 10,000-pound vehicle to easily tow the 10,000-pound M777 howitzer. The LM4×4 is air-transportable inside the C-130 Hercules tactical transport aircraft. The vehicle also can be externally carried by the CH-53E helicopter and the MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft.