The Week in Quantum Computing - February 15th
Issue #23
The Week in Quantum Computing. Brought to you by Sergio Gago (@piratecto) and The Quantum World Association.
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By @piratecto
Quick Recap
Happy Valentine’s day! Did you know that entangled particles are monogamous? If two qubits A and B are maximally quantumly correlated they cannot be correlated at all with a third qubit C. Almost like humans :) See below a romance-like explanation of the “Spooky action at a distance”.
So this week is about entanglement and its properties. But also about scalability. Have you seen all those cables and pipes going into the chandellier of your typical quantum computer? How would you scale all that connectivity for 100x more qubits? Quantum Supremacy is not just about the amount of qubits its realiability (see a novel approach for phase-flip error correction below). But also about how to integrate all that in a chip. That is one of the main research areas at Intel.
Research does not stop not even for love. From the demonstration of one single qubit being able to model any function (from Barcelona!), to more quantum operating systems lining up. Read on this week’s packed newsletter!
Featured Content
Two great conferences are coming up in march:
Quantum Business Europe (March 16th/17th), is the new must-attend digital event to learn about the advancements and business applications of quantum technologies. Discover the first use cases, exchange ideas, and better understand all the challenges of this upcoming revolution.
Quantum Pirates and QWA readers receive a 25% discount booking with this code: QBE-QWA. Register here.
Where Quantum Technology Means Business™
The next Inside Quantum Technology Conference and Exhibition will be held online May 17-21, 2021. This will be the fourth such event and is the foremost gathering of business leaders, product developers, marketing strategists and investors anywhere in the world focused on quantum technology. We are anticipating that over 1,000 people will be attending this event from all over the world and from every area of quantum technology.
This conference includes panels and keynotes on eight topics critical to those seeking new business revenues from quantum-related opportunities.
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Unitary Fund & QOSF Wittek price winner announced:
Roger Luo is the 2020 Winner of the Wittek Quantum Prize for Open Source Software for his work on Yao.jl and several other projects. The prize has been awarded by the Quantum Open Source Foundation (QOSF) in collaboration with Unitary Fund, reviewing over 50 candidatures from a worldwide community.
See the full video in the link.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/
Particles are lovebirds. An explanation of the Spooky action at a distance by NASA / JPL Caltech
The Summary of the Week
Interview: No, you don't need to be a quantum physicist to work in quantum computing
For this edition, we spoke with the technical team at Atom Computing about why their unique approach to quantum computing can help the nascent technology scale and what kind of software engineers they're trying to bring in to help deliver it to more end-users.
Link: https://ift.tt/39V4x20
February 07, 2021 at 08:33PM
The direct observation of the Pauli principle
Researchers at Heidelberg University's Physics Institute have recently observed this principle directly in a continuous system comprised of up to six particles. Their experiment, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could pave the way towards a better understanding of strongly interacting systems comprised of fermions.
Link: https://ift.tt/3q0hxc5
February 08, 2021 at 05:33PM
Experimental demonstration of quantum advantage for NP verification with limited information
In recent years, many computational tasks have been proposed as candidates for showing a quantum computational advantage, that is an advantage in the time needed to perform the task using a quantum instead of a classical machine.
Link: https://ift.tt/3aIRMH5
February 08, 2021 at 10:33PM
Quantum Threat Timeline Report 2020
Quantum computers will break or weaken many of today’s cryptosystems. How is quantum computing research progressing, and when will such a computer be built? We have collected and analyzed up-to-date estimates and opinions of leading experts in this new Global Risk Institute report. Report by Dr. Marco Piani and Dr. Michele Mosca.
Link: https://ift.tt/2NcM5Jq
February 08, 2021 at 10:33PM
Connecting Distant Qubits Just Brought Distributed Quantum Computing Closer
Quantum computers could change the world, but first we need to work out how to build ones that are big enough to live up to this potential. A new breakthrough in the ability to connect distant qubits could show a way forward.
Link: https://ift.tt/2N7wBX3
February 09, 2021 at 09:33AM
Chinese research team unveils quantum-computer operating system
HEFEI, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- A company in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, released an operating system for quantum computers Monday.
Link: https://ift.tt/3jxLC0h
February 09, 2021 at 09:33AM
Implementing a quantum approximate optimization algorithm on a 53-qubit NISQ device
Comparison of simulated (left) and experimental (right) p = 1 landscapes shows a clear correspondence of landscape features. An overlaid optimization trace (red, initialized from square marker) demonstrates the ability of a classical optimizer to find optimal parameters.
Link: https://ift.tt/3oVPauh
February 09, 2021 at 11:33AM
Paper: One qubit as a Universal Approximant
A single-qubit circuit can approximate any bounded complex function stored in the degrees of freedom defining its quantum gates. The single-qubit approximant is operated through a series of gates that take as their input the independent variable of the target function and an additional set of adjustable parameters. The independent variable is re-uploaded in every gate while the parameters are optimized for each target function. The result of this quantum circuit becomes more accurate as the number of re-uploadings of the independent variable increases. In this work, we provide two different proofs stating that a single-qubit circuit is a universal approximant, first by a direct casting of a series of exponentials to standard Fourier analysis and, second, by an analogous proof for quantum systems of the universal approximation theorem for neural networks. We also benchmark the performance of both methods and compare them to their classical counterparts. We further implement a single-qubit approximant in a real superconducting qubit device, demonstrating how the ability to describe a set of functions improves with the depth of the quantum circuit.
Link: https://ift.tt/3cSVnEX
February 09, 2021 at 12:33PM
via Pocket https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.04032v1
The global quantum computing race has begun. What will it take to win it?
National quantum programs and decade-long quantum strategies are increasingly being announced by governments around the world. And as countries unlock billions-worth of budgets, it is becoming clear that a furious competition is gradually unrolling.
Link: https://ift.tt/3tBXROd
February 09, 2021 at 07:33PM
Intel Horse Ridge II Controlling the Quantum Computer Magic
Quantum computing is coming. Some may argue it is already here since the are functioning quantum computers, but we are still some time away from this being s fully mainstream form of computation.
Link: https://ift.tt/2MQsgrd
February 10, 2021 at 08:33AM
The quantum advantage: a novel demonstration
Experimental demonstration of quantum advantage for NP verification with limited information. Federico Centrone, Niraj Kumar, Eleni Diamanti, and Iordanis Kerenidis. Nature Communications, February 8, 2021. DOI : 10.1038/s41467-021-21119-1
Link: https://ift.tt/2Z3sRZi
February 10, 2021 at 08:33AM
NEC, ParityQC Collaborate to Develop Highly-scalable, Practical Quantum Computers
Tokyo, Japan and Innsbruck, Austria, Feb 10, 2021 - (JCN Newswire) - NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701) and ParityQC today announced that they have started collaborating in the field of quantum annealing, a method of quantum computing.
Link: https://ift.tt/36ZLXDS
February 10, 2021 at 10:33AM
Paper: Realization of a multi-node quantum network of remote solid-state qubits
The distribution of entangled states across the nodes of a future quantum internet will unlock fundamentally new technologies. Here we report on the experimental realization of a three-node entanglement-based quantum network. We combine remote quantum nodes based on diamond communication qubits into a scalable phase-stabilized architecture, supplemented with a robust memory qubit and local quantum logic. In addition, we achieve real-time communication and feed-forward gate operations across the network. We capitalize on the novel capabilities of this network to realize two canonical protocols without post-selection: the distribution of genuine multipartite entangled states across the three nodes and entanglement swapping through an intermediary node. Our work establishes a key platform for exploring, testing and developing multi-node quantum network protocols and a quantum network control stack.
Link: https://ift.tt/3jDcj3B
February 10, 2021 at 09:33PM
Building a quantum-powered future – Physics World
With an undergraduate degree in physics and music, a PhD in quantum technology and a number of years building “deep tech” start-ups from the ground up, physicist Ilana Wisby was the perfect candidate to lead and build Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC).
Link: https://ift.tt/3jCxTFy
February 10, 2021 at 11:33PM
CEA-Leti Team Paves the Way for Massive Integration of Qubits, Critical for Achieving Quantum Supremacy
Grenoble, France | Posted on February 10th, 2021 In a paper presented during the 2020 Electronics System-Integration Technology Conference (ESTC), the team reported preliminary electrical characterizations at cryogenic temperatures of chip assemblies made with 3D interconnects such as SnAg microbump
Link: https://ift.tt/3jDe0OE
February 11, 2021 at 11:33AM
Is Your Qubit Better Than My Qubit?
I had been studying superconducting quantum computing for seven years before I was stumped by this seemingly simple question: How do I know if my qubit is better than your qubit? Quantum computers could ultimately unlock the capability to solve hard problems in chemistry, cryptography and quantum me
Link: https://ift.tt/3d3OYqB
February 11, 2021 at 11:33PM
via Pocket https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/your-qubit-better-my-qubit
Quantum Computing Hardware, Software Players Seeding the Market
By John P. Desmond, AI Trends Editor Honeywell recently made its quantum computers available as a service, through the use of Honeywell Quantum Credits, representing the size of a quantum computational job run on the system.
Link: https://ift.tt/2LIoTCl
February 12, 2021 at 11:33AM
New EU Consortium shaping the future of Quantum Computing.
An IQM Quantum Computers led consortium awarded € 12.4 Million by the German Ministry of Education and Research to commercialize application-specific quantum processors.
Link: https://ift.tt/3rRzlqB
February 12, 2021 at 12:33PM
Paper: Exponential suppression of bit or phase flip errors with repetitive error correction
Realizing the potential of quantum computing will require achieving sufficiently low logical error rates. Many applications call for error rates in the $10^{-15}$ regime, but state-of-the-art quantum platforms typically have physical error rates near $10^{-3}$. Quantum error correction (QEC) promises to bridge this divide by distributing quantum logical information across many physical qubits so that errors can be detected and corrected. Logical errors are then exponentially suppressed as the number of physical qubits grows, provided that the physical error rates are below a certain threshold. QEC also requires that the errors are local and that performance is maintained over many rounds of error correction, two major outstanding experimental challenges. Here, we implement 1D repetition codes embedded in a 2D grid of superconducting qubits which demonstrate exponential suppression of bit or phase-flip errors, reducing logical error per round by more than $100\times$ when increasing the number of qubits from 5 to 21. Crucially, this error suppression is stable over 50 rounds of error correction. We also introduce a method for analyzing error correlations with high precision, and characterize the locality of errors in a device performing QEC for the first time. Finally, we perform error detection using a small 2D surface code logical qubit on the same device, and show that the results from both 1D and 2D codes agree with numerical simulations using a simple depolarizing error model. These findings demonstrate that superconducting qubits are on a viable path towards fault tolerant quantum computing.
Link: https://ift.tt/3aZ1mFN
February 12, 2021 at 01:33PM
Quantum Computer Chips Manufactured Using Mass-Market Industrial Fabrication Techniques
The quantum computing revolution is upon us. Well, almost. It’s hard to have missed the headlines proclaiming the great power of the latest generation of quantum, their ability to outperform conventional computers , a property called quantum supremacy, and the huge promise of the years ahead.
Link: https://ift.tt/3jG8j2l
February 12, 2021 at 03:33PM
Fujitsu and Entanglement Solve COVID-19-Related Problems Through Quantum-Inspired Technology
Fujitsu partnered with Entanglement, Inc. to demonstrate and validate the capabilities of the Digital Annealer (DA), a quantum-inspired computing platform and related services, to address large scale logistical combinatorial optimization challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other intractable challenges facing humankind.
Link: https://ift.tt/3akGdqB
February 14, 2021 at 12:33AM