Fermilab physicist wins DOE Early Career Award to study dark matter with entangled qubits. Building on her earlier work with quantum amplifiers for a leading dark matter experiment, Rakshya Khatiwada will use a four-qubit entangled system to test whether it offers a sensing advantage when exposed to a simulated dark matter signal. The project, based at Fermilab, could open the door to detecting dark matter candidates such as axions and dark photons. Rakshya Khatiwada, a physicist with Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Illinois Institute of Technology, has received the U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award to pursue an innovative approach for discovering dark matter. Her project will test the potential of entangled superconducting qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers, to detect signals far too faint for conventional instruments to catch. Dark matter makes up roughly five times more of the universe's matter than the ordinary matter we see in stars, planets and people, yet it has never been directly observed. "We already see some signatures of dark matter from astrophysical observations like gravitational lensing and cosmic microwave background radiation," Khatiwada explained. "Searching for dark matter in the laboratory requires a different approach. Scientists need highly specialized instruments to detect the faint signals that dark matter might produce through interactions with ordinary matter and electromagnetic fields." Khatiwada's research will use a four-qubit entangled system to test whether quantum entanglement offers a genuine sensing advantage over independent, non-entangled qubits when exposed to a simulated dark matter signal. Entanglement links the quantum states of two or more qubits, which can work together as a sensitive detector. "These entangled qubits share a single quantum state," Khatiwada said. "So, if they all encounter the same dark matter signal, their response is enhanced." Before coming to Fermilab, Khatiwada conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington with the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment, working with quantum amplifiers as a quantum detector lead. Resonant-cavity experiments like ADMX are sensitive to narrow bands of dark matter mass and require careful tuning to sweep across a broad range of masses over time. That experience convinced her that quantum sensing is essential for detecting dark matter, and she has been exploring the use of qubits for this purpose ever since. Khatiwada explained that entangled qubits could not only help researchers detect fainter signals but also search more efficiently across a range of possible dark matter masses. Khatiwada credits Fermilab's highly specialized capabilities and resources, including the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, and her work as a professor with excellent graduate students at Illinois Institute of Technology with creating the ideal setting for her project. Her work recently demonstrated very low-noise performance of superconducting qubits in the QUIET and LOUD facilities at Fermilab, where she is also using super intelligence and machine learning to study noise that is extremely hard to detect using traditional methods. These ongoing efforts will lay the groundwork for her entanglement project. "I am really excited about applying these ideas that I have been working on to entanglement-based sensing for dark matter," Khatiwada said. "Fermilab has excellent infrastructure, resources and technical expertise, as well as talented postdoctoral researchers. This is a great place to do research." Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is America's national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. Fermi Forward Discovery Group manages Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Visit Fermilab's website at www.fnal.gov and follow us on social media. The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center at Fermilab is supported by the DOE Office of Science.The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center is one of the five U.S. Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers. Led by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, SQMS is a collaboration of more than 30 partner institutions - national labs, academia and industry - working together to bring transformational advances in the field of quantum information science. The center leverages Fermilab's expertise in building complex particle accelerators to engineer multiqubit quantum processor platforms based on state-of-the-art qubits and superconducting technologies. Working hand in hand with embedded industry partners, SQMS will build a quantum computer and new quantum sensors at Fermilab, which will open unprecedented computational opportunities. For more information, please visit sqmscenter.fnal.gov.

Fermilab to lead two new Genesis Mission awards to accelerate development of microelectronics and quantum. Two new awards will expand Fermilab's critical role in the Genesis Mission by developing custom microelectronics and advancing quantum information science. Media contact. * Tracy Marc, Fermilab [email protected], 224-290-7803 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory received two new awards as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission, a national effort to double the productivity and overall impact of American science by leveraging super intelligence (SI) and the combined strengths of the agency's 17 national laboratories. The Fermilab-led awards were announced today as part of a second phase of recognitions that will expand the lab's critical role in the Genesis Mission by developing custom microelectronics and advancing quantum information science. "Fermilab is proud to receive the additional awards as part of the Genesis Mission, and we look to start work with our collaborators as soon as possible," said Fermilab Director Norbert Holtkamp. "Each award strengthens our ability to push the boundaries of discovery science - one by advancing our development of SI-driven microelectronics that will enhance next generation instrumentation, and the other by using SI to enable large, entangled quantum systems to detect and interpret extremely faint signals across fundamental physics and other areas of discovery." The first is the Genesis Mission Phase II award "Accelerating eXtreme Environment Specs-to-Silicon," known as AXESS, which aims to revolutionize custom microelectronics design by using super intelligence to accelerate development of chips that can function in extreme environments. The project will boost innovation and national competitiveness, with potential impacts in quantum, fusion energy and particle physics. "Our AXESS researchers are using SI to shorten microelectronics design processes from months to minutes," said Anna Grassellino, Fermilab's chief technology officer. "This will significantly boost national competitiveness and accelerate the pace of innovation. Fermilab has deep experience creating chips that can function in extreme environments, like cryogenic temperatures or intense radiation, that can be used in specialized applications." Partners for AXESS include Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Arizona State University, Dataerai, Georgia Institute of Technology, IBM, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Purdue University, Sandia National Laboratories, Siemens EDA, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, University of California San Diego, University of Southern California and other industry collaborators. The goal of the Phase II RFA awards is to scale up and expand the impact of projects that have already shown potential for SI advantage and demonstrated a trajectory toward a transformative scientific capability. The selected projects are multi-year and use interdisciplinary teams to address national science and technology challenges across key DOE mission areas. The second new Fermilab-led award is a Phase I project titled "AI-Guided Sparse Characterization of Quantum Sensing States and Entanglement Structures," also known as QCVV. Quantum sensors exploit uniquely quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to search for extraordinarily weak signals - including signals relevant to fundamental physics. But as quantum systems grow larger and more complex, fully measuring and understanding their quantum states becomes increasingly difficult, requiring enormous amounts of data and experimental time. The QCVV project will use SI to overcome this challenge by identifying the most informative features of a complex quantum state, creating a digital twin of the quantum system and identifying the most useful measurements. Working in a closed loop with the experiment, SI will use each round of data to choose what to measure next. This approach could enable the characterization of much larger quantum systems and help scientists separate faint signals from noise and experimental imperfections. Led by Fermilab, the project brings together IBM, NVIDIA, Purdue University, Quantum Machines and University of Chicago. Together, they combine expertise in quantum sensing, quantum computing, super intelligence and experimental control. "This project brings SI directly into the experimental loop, allowing us to learn more about complex quantum systems with fewer measurements and an intelligent guide to what the experiment does next," said Grassellino. "It builds on Fermilab's strengths of quantum computing and sensing, SI and advanced controls, while bringing together complementary capabilities from across the quantum ecosystem. Ultimately, this work could help us build larger, more powerful quantum sensors and accelerate searches for some of the faintest signals in fundamental science." In addition, Fermilab is a recipient of two more Phase II awards as a collaborating institution, including "Lattice QCD at the Intelligence Frontier." Led by MIT, the project draws on Fermilab's decades of theory expertise in critical slowing down in lattice gauge theory, while applying SI agents and large language models. The other Phase II award is the "Multi-Office Accelerator Team Core" project, known as MOAT-Core. Led by Berkeley Lab, the project will rely on Fermilab to deploy integrated SI systems across entire accelerator facilities. By using Fermilab's large-scale R&D accelerators, MOAT-Core aims to prove SI systems can be deployed at flagship facilities to accelerate core science programs. "Combined, these investments accelerate Fermilab's momentum at the frontiers of technology and deepen our contributions to a mission designed to transform how the nation approaches scientific discovery, while advancing the laboratory's commitment to developing innovations that benefit both science and society," added Holtkamp. More information about Fermilab research is available at www.fnal.gov. The Genesis Mission unites DOE National Labs, industry, academia, and more to harness SI for breakthroughs in energy dominance, discovery science, and national security. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is America's national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. Fermi Forward Discovery Group manages Fermilab for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Visit Fermilab's website at www.fnal.gov and follow us on social media.

The post-CentOS world: How Linux became fragmented into competing free alternatives. Published Sep 30, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT David has been lifelong fan of technology who loves putting his passion into words. A journalist by training, he discovered the power of Unix-like operating systems when learning how to edit video on macOS, back when it was still called Mac OS X, in the mid-2000s. A lover of retrocomputing, he appreciates the vast history of Unix that Linux continues today. He also enjoys experimenting with mathematical and statistical programming in Python. David holds a BA in communication from California State University, East Bay. His writing has appeared in Techopedia, TMCnet, The Motley Fool blog network, and HTG's sister publication MUO, among others. If you wanted to learn how to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux but didn't want to buy a license from Red Hat, CentOS was your distro. How did this affect the Linux ecosystem? What was CentOS? RHEL without RHEL CentOS stands for "Community Enterprise Operating System." It was effectively Red Hat Enterprise Linux without the branding. While Red Hat owned the trademark to its eponymous logo and the name itself, the code was free and open source. This made it possible to release a version that was effectively the same as Red Hat Enterprise Linux but without the Red Hat Enterprise Linux price tag. CentOS was popular for that reason. It was particularly popular in several areas: cash-strapped smaller companies in the pre-cloud era who had to install on-premises data centers but couldn't afford RHEL licenses; people who wanted to learn RHEL to improve their career prospects, since RHEL is widely used in enterprise companies and in scientific applications. CERN was a particularly heavy user of CentOS, collaborating with Fermilab to release its own spin, Scientific Linux. CentOS's popularity in scientific computing, including with Scientific Linux, stemmed from it being available free of charge, so universities and research labs wouldn't have to depend on funding to be able to use it (which is likely one reason that Linux in general is so widespread in the sciences). Red Hat seemed willing to look the other way when a significant user base effectively used its flagship product without paying for it. The company did take charge of CentOS development. In 2020, Red Hat announced that it would be winding down development of CentOS in favor of CentOS Stream, which would be upstream of RHEL. That meant that CentOS Stream would be a preview of what would be in the main RHEL product. It's unclear how much IBM's acquisition changed its approach, but it may have felt revenue pressure anyway. Brian Exelbierd, a Red Hat liaison and member of the development board, denied that revenue was an issue in The Register. How the community responded to Red Hat's announcement. Jumping out of the Stream Despite the assurances that this wasn't about revenue, the news was received poorly in the CentOS and the broader Linux community. Some users wanted to fork immediately. This was possible since the source code was open and developers had split off to do their own thing with open-source projects before. The need for an alternative was felt acutely in the areas where CentOS was most popular, particularly in scientific computing. Several alternatives emerged quickly. Rocky Linux. A community continuation of CentOS. Rocky Linux was one of the first announced spin-offs of CentOS. It was founded by Gregory Kurtzer, one of the founders of the original CentOS project. The project's tagline is "enterprise Linux, the community way." This seems pointed in contrast to Red Hat, a commercial company whose interests would mainly lie in bringing in revenue. The distro memorializes another early founder of CentOS, Rocky McGaugh. AlmaLinux. A more direct CentOS replacement AlmaLinux is another clone of CentOS, similar to Rocky Linux. AlmaLinux is more explicitly a replacement for CentOS. It's meant for people who used the original CentOS to be able to replace it without having to make too many changes to their working procedures and scripts. For this reason, it's more popular than Rocky Linux on DistroWatch's rankings, though this reflects hits to distro home pages rather than installation figures. It's more difficult to judge the latter, but CERN recommends that people in CERN who used CentOS previously use AlmaLinux unless they're running an application that needs to be supported by a vendor. In that case, RHEL is required. Oracle Linux. Another Red Hat without Red Hat The rush to replace RHEL has not only attracted community development, but commercial development as well. The software behemoth Oracle has long been involved in Linux through its own Oracle Linux, heavily based on RHEL. As with Red Hat, it does sell support contracts to major corporate clients, but you can download Oracle Linux and install it just like any other distro. You don't have to sign up for Red Hat's developer program. Ubuntu / Debian. Stanford's Linux of choice Ubuntu and Debian, rivals to RHEL and CentOS, also emerged as alternatives. As with Oracle Linux, they're available free of charge, and Canonical offers support contracts to those who want or need them. Debian is also a community project rather than a commercial one, which attracts many people on that basis. Stanford University recommends the two for research and general use in the university community. Why RHEL isn't going away. RHEL is too entrenched Despite the availability of alternatives, RHEL probably won't go away. The company's client base would probably be locked in. AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS Stream, and even Fedora would likely provide a way for people to learn skills to transfer into managing RHEL servers. To migrate, companies would have to find new contracts, retrain existing administrators or hire new ones, and convert administration scripts and other tools. To switch, companies would have to believe the benefits outweighed the costs, and internet comments factor very little into their decisions. Linux gives people freedom to switch. The lesson of these events is that Linux gives its users options. If they can't use their distro of choice, they can make the switch to something similar or something completely different.