The week in Quantum Computing - December 21st
The Week in Quantum Computing. Brought to you by Sergio Gago and The Quantum World Association.
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Quick Recap
This week we bring news on investments. Seeqc gets a series A round of $22,4m and Phasecraft a seed round of £3.7m. From Spain aQuantum gets €3.67m from the CDTI to apply quantum in health. We also got a McKinsey report on the coming hardware wards (below) and a great Fact based Insight 2021 outlook for what is to come.
Some of the news are very related to the geopolitics that will be deeply involved in this industry as China, USA, Canada and Europe take positions. Anyon building the Canadian quantum computer for their defense department for example.
In the meantime, we continue seeing advances on quantum internet, majorana quantum states and others.
Oh, and a quantum videogame was released! What else!?
Will the be the last week with great developments?
Featured Content
This week’s Newsweek cover summarizes nicely this year developments:
Quantum Definitions (by @quantumfyed)
The folks at @quantumfyed are creating amazing infographies explaining quantum mechanics and quantum computing concepts. We will be posting some of them here. Follow them for great content: Twitter: https://twitter.com/quantumfyed and Instagram: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quantumfyed/
The Summary of the Week
Quantum computers will create better versions of Alexa and Siri
Alexa can tell you the weather, turn on your lights and even tell you a joke. But if you really want to have a meaningful conversation with a computer, it is probably going to have to be a quantum computer.
Link: https://ift.tt/3n60XpX
December 14, 2020 at 09:33PM
Quantum Hardware Outlook 2021 – Fact Based Insight
A growing number of quantum majors, startups and institutes are working to build an increasing range of quantum hardware. From early NISQ devices to full scale FTQC machines.
Link: https://ift.tt/2K2inFu
December 14, 2020 at 11:33PM
Airbus announces Team Machine Learning Reply as winners of 2020 Airbus Quantum Computing Challenge
Originally hosted in 2019, Airbus’s Quantum Computing Challenge has finally announced the end of the competition.
Link: https://ift.tt/2Kqs3JQ
December 15, 2020 at 09:33AM
Phasecraft announces largest seed funding round for a UK quantum computing company
UCL and University of Bristol spin-out Phasecraft raises funds to deliver real-world applications of quantum computing. Its £3.7m seed funding round is led by VC firm LocalGlobe with Episode1 along with previous investors.
Link: https://ift.tt/2LC9lQa
December 15, 2020 at 09:33AM
This breakthrough could unlock the power of quantum computers
There are three kinds of light, says Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, the CEO and co-founder of Nu Quantum – a quantum photonics company based in Cambridge. Chaotic light is the stuff we encounter on a daily basis – street lamps and light bulbs.
Link: https://ift.tt/37TF2ff
December 15, 2020 at 09:33AM
As China Leads Quantum Computing Race, U.S. Spies Plan for a World with Fewer Secrets
Back in 1994, when quantum computers existed only as so much chalk on a blackboard, mathematician Peter Shor invented what may soon prove to be their killer app.
Link: https://ift.tt/3a8MBkZ
December 15, 2020 at 11:33AM
Quantum Mechanics, the Mind-Body Problem and Negative Theology
Scientists and philosophers should keep trying to solve reality’s deepest riddles while accepting that they are unsolvable. Here’s how I distinguish science from philosophy. Science addresses questions that can be answered, potentially, through empirical investigation. […] Philosophy addresses questions that probably can’t be solved, now or ever.
Link: https://ift.tt/34vR65F
December 15, 2020 at 07:33PM
Fault-tolerant quantum circuits with much lower overhead
New approach reduces the number of ancillary qubits required to implement the crucial T gate by at least an order of magnitude. Today’s qubits are still too noisy to faithfully execute the long quantum algorithms needed to solve practically important problems. Quantum error correction can compensate for noise, but it has high overhead. With existing quantum error correction schemes, a single logical qubit — the qubit that actually performs a quantum computation — might require thousands of additional physical qubits to handle the error correction.
Link: https://ift.tt/2WnM3zn
December 16, 2020 at 08:33AM
Anyon Systems to Deliver a Quantum Computer to the Canadian Department of National Defense
Anyon Systems Inc. (“Anyon”), a quantum computing company based in Montreal, Canada, announced today that it is to deliver Canada’s first gate-based quantum computer for the Department of National Defense’s Defence Research and Development Canada (“DRDC”). The quantum computer will feature Anyon’s Yukon generation superconducting quantum processor. Named after Canada’s westernmost territory, the quantum computer will enable DRDC researchers to explore quantum computing to solve problems of interest to their mission.
Link: https://ift.tt/3r36T5i
December 16, 2020 at 08:33AM
Video: The Measurement in the Middle
Ross Duncan describes some recent work in collaboration with Honeywell Quantum Solutions, focusing on the use of mid-circuit measurements. Includes laser sound effects.
Seeqc Announces LG Technology Ventures’ Participation in Series A Funding Round
Seeqc, the Digital Quantum Computing company, today announced that LG Technology Ventures, an investment arm of the South Korean conglomerate LG Group, is participating in its $22.4 million Series A round.
Link: https://ift.tt/3gPqYHz
December 16, 2020 at 09:33AM
The project “QHealth: Quantum Pharmacogenomics Applied to Aging”, led by aQuantum, receives a 3.67 million euro grant from the CDTI Missions 2020
On November 27, the Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, made public the list of the granted projects among those submitted to the call for the 2020 CDTI Missions Program, within the framework of the Spanish program of Busines
Link: https://ift.tt/34kdz5g
December 16, 2020 at 10:33AM
Videogame: Quantum Odyssey
Solve real quantum puzzles in an intuitive and approachable way. Our puzzles have alluring graphics that present a completely visual way to create genuine quantum algorithms. Every puzzle is created by quantum physicists active in the field.
Link: https://ift.tt/3oXSjKB
December 16, 2020 at 11:33AM
Quantum Interference Phenomenon Identified That Occurs Through Time
Since the very beginning of quantum physics, a hundred years ago, it has been known that all particles in the universe fall into two categories: fermions and bosons.
Link: https://ift.tt/3gMDYxG
December 16, 2020 at 05:33PM
Contest: Quantum Paper of the Year – 2020
We need your help for selecting the Best Quantum Paper of the Year 2020!
Link: https://ift.tt/3moSyg9
December 16, 2020 at 05:33PM
Raising the profile of quantum research
Quantum research is one of the most promising research areas being pursued today. The hope is that the principles of quantum mechanics will trigger pioneering breakthroughs in a variety of fields, leading to new applications.
Link: https://ift.tt/3numuZv
December 17, 2020 at 08:33AM
Researchers to Investigate Quantum Computing for the Music Industry
The potentially game-changing impact that Quantum Computing could have upon the UK’s music industry is to be the focus of a pioneering new project that will be launched in the New Year.
Link: https://ift.tt/3apENvr
December 17, 2020 at 09:33AM
Daimler and Google collaboration: The Art of Quantum Simulation
“Relatively large-scale simulations like these have been challenging even for state-of-the-art quantum computers. They have now become possible by developing effective error mitigation strategies and optimizing them for quantum chemical simulation on Sycamore,” explains Eunseok Lee, Principal Scientist at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America. MBRDNA, headquartered in Silicon Valley, has officially partnered with IBM and Google to develop a deeper understanding of quantum computing and explore future practical applications.
Link: https://ift.tt/3r9kVSU
December 17, 2020 at 07:33PM
Video: Grand unification of quantum algorithms
Speaker: Isaac Chuang, Professor of Physics , Professor of Electrical Engineering, Senior Associate Dean of Digital Learning, MIT December 7, 2020 The three main branches of quantum algorithms, for simulation, search, and factoring, hold historically disparate origins. Today, we can now understand
“Electronic Amoeba” Analog Computer Finds Swift Solution to the Traveling Salesman Problem
Researchers at Hokkaido University and Amoeba Energy in Japan have, inspired by the efficient foraging behavior of a single-celled amoeba, developed an analog computer for finding a reliable and swift solution to the traveling salesman problem — a representative combinatorial optimization problem.
Link: https://ift.tt/3nsZmKN
December 17, 2020 at 10:33PM
Goldman Sachs & IBM researchers estimate quantum advantage for derivative pricing
The financial services industry is full of potential applications for quantum computing, including optimization, simulation and machine learning. But it’s not that easy to determine which applications are most likely to benefit from quantum advantage, and exactly how powerful quantum computers must be to run those applications significantly better than classical systems can.
That’s what we are trying to address. In a new preprint now on arXiv, “A Threshold for Quantum Advantage in Derivative Pricing”, our quantum research teams at IBM and Goldman Sachs provide the first detailed estimate of the quantum computing resources needed to achieve quantum advantage for derivative pricing – one of the most ubiquitous calculations in finance.
Link: https://ift.tt/3mua6Y2
December 18, 2020 at 09:33AM
Scientists take important step toward building practical quantum internet
An international research team, including UCalgary quantum physicists, has taken a big step toward building a high-performing, scalable “quantum internet.” A functional quantum internet would dramatically change the fields of secure communication, data storage, precision sensing and computing.
Link: https://ift.tt/2Kw7AmZ
December 18, 2020 at 09:33AM
Ultra-Thin Designer Materials Unlock Elusive Quantum Phenomena With Huge Impact for Quantum Computing
A team of theoretical and experimental physicists have designed a new ultra-thin material that they have used to create elusive quantum states. Called one-dimensional Majorana zero energy modes, these quantum states could have a huge impact for quantum computing.
Link: https://ift.tt/3gWgoyw
December 18, 2020 at 03:33PM
Tiny quantum computer solves real optimization problem
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have now shown that they can solve a small part of a real logistics problem with their small, but well-functioning quantum computer […] Together with Göran Johansson, Giulia Ferrini led the theoretical work when a team of researchers at Chalmers, including an industrial doctoral student from the aviation logistics company Jeppesen, recently showed that a quantum computer can solve an instance of a real problem in the aviation industry.
Link: https://ift.tt/3gX9OYE
December 18, 2020 at 07:33PM
China Telecom claiming quantum phone supremacy
China Telecom will launch 'quantum smartphones' this month but critics say they look and act like Huawei's existing Mate 40 model
Link: https://ift.tt/3p1exLP
December 18, 2020 at 10:33PM
ColdQuanta Wins NASA Entrepreneur’s Challenge
BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 16, 2020 — ColdQuanta, a quantum atomics company, was awarded a $100K prize as one of six winners of NASA’s Entrepreneur’s Challenge.
Link: https://ift.tt/3gW7YHn
December 18, 2020 at 10:33PM
As China Leads Quantum Computing Race, U.S. Spies Plan for a World with Fewer Secrets
Back in 1994, when quantum computers existed only as so much chalk on a blackboard, mathematician Peter Shor invented what may soon prove to be their killer app.
Link: https://ift.tt/3oSd9Lq
December 19, 2020 at 09:33AM
Sustained, High-Fidelity Quantum Teleportation Achieved for the First Time
A viable quantum internet — a network in which information stored in qubits is shared over long distances through entanglement — would transform the fields of data storage, precision sensing and computing, ushering in a new era of communication. This month, scientists at Fermilab, a U.S.
Link: https://ift.tt/3h3ohCv
December 19, 2020 at 01:33PM
McKinsey Report: How quantum computing could change financial services
Fully scaled quantum technology is still a way off, but some banks are already thinking ahead to the potential value. Many financial services activities, from securities pricing to portfolio optimization, require the ability to assess a range of potential outcomes.
Link: https://ift.tt/2LEIUZZ
December 19, 2020 at 04:33PM