Networks play a crucial role in the classical world: Social networks are responsible for enduring the fabric of our societies, communication networks like the internet assure seamless interactions between distant individuals, subcellular networks are not only the basis of life but are also the key to understanding diseases. The emergence of network science about 15 years ago has lead to the striking realization that common organizing principles and laws drive these different networks. These remarkable universalities unite proponents from different disciplines and created a new coherent field of research.
In many fields of science quantum physics brought radically new insights and opened up possibilities that changed how we live and how view the world.
The central objective of this proposal is to extend network science from the classical to the quantum world, by investigating the role of quantum phenomena in networks. What does quantum bring to networks? What is a quantum network? What does it take to keep a quantum network coherent? Can we find quantum networks in nature? etc …
Our goal is to provide an overarching description of the quantum properties of networks.
This 4k data visualisation was created by Mauro Martino, and Jianxi Gao (Northeastern University).