The Week in Quantum Computing - November 28th
Issue #115
The Week in Quantum Computing. Brought to you by Sergio Gago (@piratecto).
Quick Recap
A new qubit implementation of an AND gate could help with development of foundamental pieces in computers. ParityQC releases their research and model for universal quantum computation. While David Deutsch (father, or uncle, of quantum computing) remains skeptic). Atos adds quantum capabilities to the Juggernaut and the battle for annealing devices grows. Alan Baratz publishes an interview reflecting on the first years of D-Wave, while QCI launches a DWave-compatible QUBO solver in their Dirac machine. In Europe, the Quantum Flagship has released the Strategic Research and Industry Agenda which will inform the next years in development (link below).
Finally, a question I get asked often. Are AES-128 or SHA-256 secure against quantum attacks? YES, for now. Shor’s algorithm (and variants) attack only the structure of RSA / Diffie Hellman assymetric key cryptographic methods. In these methods, there is a public key that everyone knows, and a private one that only the sender has. With that combination one can know whether the sender of a message is really the sender and not an impostor. The sender is waranteed that only the receiver can read it, and both can be sure that an eavesdropper did not read nor modify the message in transit. The symmetric crypto methods are a bit different. They use a pre-arranged key, or create a hash of the message.
Technically you could use Grover’s type of algorithms to crack symmetric cryptography (it helps finding a solution in an unstructured database). And a few weeks ago we echoed a publication that tried that with SHA-1 (long ago deprecated due to collisions found with classical algorithms). However: Grover’s algorithm speed-up is one degree of magnitude, while Shor’s is exponential. This means that to be quantum resistant on symmetric methods (for now) we just need to increase the bits we use for the hash. The classical computer would take 10000 years to crack it, and 1000 for the quantum. Still safe. With Shor the story is different. Exponential speed ups grow much much faster!!
Just to clarify:
More info: Is AES-128 Quantum Secure?
The Week in Quantum Computing
IBM CEO Krishna makes bold prediction for quantum computing, AI opportunities
Big wins require long-term bets – and that means investing in AI and quantum computing, says IBM CEO Arvind Krishna.
At RBC Capital Markets Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference on Wednesday, Krishna tried to shift the narrative from the “doom and gloom” of high interest rates, currency headwinds and labor shortages.
Link: https://ift.tt/rKbqsG7
November 21, 2022 at 09:30AM
Quantum computing has its limits
Error-prone qubits mean quantum systems do not yet surpass classical methods. In a talk at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981, Richard Feynman spoke about ‘simulating physics with computers’. This was already being done at the time, but Feynman said he wanted to talk ‘about the possibility that there is to be an exact simulation, that the computer will do exactly the same as nature.’ But as nature is quantum-mechanical, he pointed out, what you need for that is a quantum computer.
Link: https://ift.tt/DgbPmd0
November 21, 2022 at 09:30AM
Video: Quantum Spain Seminar: Architecting full stack quantum computing systems in the NISQ era and beyond
Fluxonium qubits bring the creation of a quantum computer closer
Russian scientists from University of Science and Technology MISIS and Bauman Moscow State Technical University were one of the first in the world to implement a two-qubit operation using superconducting fluxonium qubits.
Link: https://ift.tt/4wAZGb6
November 21, 2022 at 10:30PM
Q-CTRL and Classiq Partner to Improve Quantum Algorithm Development
New software integration helps developers build faster and more efficient quantum algorithms “Our partnership with Classiq is another significant step forward in making quantum technology useful and readily available”— Aravind Ratnam, Chief Strategy Officer SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, November 22, 2022
Link: https://ift.tt/PoOzmhL
November 22, 2022 at 04:30PM
Quantum Flagship publishes preliminary Strategic Research and Industry Agenda
The Quantum Flagship is publishing a preliminary Strategic Research and Industry Agenda (SRIA), as an update to the EU’s quantum technology strategy.
Link: https://ift.tt/od3jRPZ
November 22, 2022 at 05:30PM
Harvest Now, Decrypt Later
Organizations are getting increasingly concerned about their encrypted data being stolen today with an eye toward decrypting in the future with a quantum computer. The potential for future compromise of data can add a new perspective to a data breach today.
Link: https://ift.tt/RXjF4Tr
November 23, 2022 at 06:30PM
Video: Harmut Neven on Quantum Computing at Google Zeitgeist
QCI Launches Free Software That Enables Quantum Computing Annealing Customers to Easily and Rapidly Run 10,000-Variable Quantum Computing Problems
LEESBURG, Va., Nov. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) QUBT, a leader in accessible full stack quantum solutions, today announced that the company has released free software that will enable D-Wave customers to rapidly translate their quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problems into Hamiltonian equations that can then be solved by QCI's industry-leading Dirac 1 Entropy Quantum Computing (EQC) system. Using Dirac 1, QCI is offering users of quantum annealers the ability to quickly solve real-world business problems of up to 10,000 variables.
Link: https://ift.tt/XWuZ8pV
November 23, 2022 at 11:30PM
Paper: End-to-end resource analysis for quantum interior point methods and portfolio optimization
We study quantum interior point methods (QIPMs) for second-order cone programming (SOCP), guided by the example use case of portfolio optimization (PO). We provide a complete quantum circuit-level description of the algorithm from problem input to problem output, making several improvements to the implementation of the QIPM. We report the number of logical qubits and the quantity/depth of non-Clifford T-gates needed to run the algorithm, including constant factors. The resource counts we find depend on instance-specific parameters, such as the condition number of certain linear systems within the problem. To determine the size of these parameters, we perform numerical simulations of small PO instances, which lead to concrete resource estimates for the PO use case. Our numerical results do not probe large enough instance sizes to make conclusive statements about the asymptotic scaling of the algorithm. However, already at small instance sizes, our analysis suggests that, due primarily to large constant pre-factors, poorly conditioned linear systems, and a fundamental reliance on costly quantum state tomography, fundamental improvements to the QIPM are required for it to lead to practical quantum advantage.
Link: https://ift.tt/gL7tlAf
November 24, 2022 at 07:30AM
Distributed quantum sensing with mode-entangled spin-squeezed atomic states
Quantum sensors are used for precision timekeeping, field sensing and quantum communication1,2,3. Comparisons among a distributed network of these sensors are capable of, for example, synchronizing clocks at different locations4,5,6,7,8.
Link: https://ift.tt/GchAiuY
November 24, 2022 at 10:30AM
The 4th fastest supercomputer is a quantum-ready juggernaut
What’s got two thumbs, can perform over 240 PFLOPS, and just gave Europe a 50/50 share of the world’s top four most powerful supercomputers?
This supercomputer right here:
Dubbed the “Leonardo HPC System,” what you see above is the world’s fourth most powerful supercomputer and a potential quantum leap towards the creation of Europe’s first exascale computer.
Link: https://ift.tt/MayH1rN
November 24, 2022 at 08:30PM
Quantum Researchers Discover the AND Gate
As powerful as quantum computers may one day prove, quantum physics can make it challenging for the machines to carry out quantum versions of the most basic computing operations. Now scientists in China have created a more practical quantum version of the simple AND operation, which may help quantum computing reach successful near-term applications.
Conventional electronics nowadays rely on transistors, which flick on or off to symbolize data as ones and zeroes. They connect transistors together to build devices known as logic gates, which implement logical operations such as AND, OR, and NOT. Logic gates are the building blocks of all digital circuits.
Link: https://ift.tt/E6nO1za
November 24, 2022 at 11:30PM
A novel method of universal quantum computing
– A group of physicists within ParityQC and the University of Innsbruck has developed a novel approach to universal quantum computing based on the ParityQC Architecture.
Link: https://ift.tt/GQz6Jfk
November 24, 2022 at 11:30PM
Quantum Computing Could Change the World. Just Don’t Buy the First Wave of Stocks.
Yes, the quantum computing revolution is coming. But it will take time, probably longer than is comfortable for investors in the handful of quantum start-ups that have managed to reach the public market.
Link: https://ift.tt/mFTLub8
November 25, 2022 at 09:30AM
Quantum computing pioneer D-Wave looks at the technology’s past, present and future
Quantum computing could be a disruptive technology. It’s founded on exotic-sounding physics and it bears the promise of solving certain classes of problems with unprecedented speed and efficiency. The problem, however, is that to this day, there has been too much promise and not enough delivery in the field, some say. Perhaps with the exception of D-Wave.
Link: https://ift.tt/RWhsgvp
November 26, 2022 at 04:30PM
Secure Protocol Named Quantum Blindness Could Offer Security For Client And Server
Blind quantum computing is a new approach to quantum computing that allows you to use your classical computer to simulate a quantum system without knowing the underlying quantum state.
Link: https://ift.tt/YTtxHJn
November 27, 2022 at 01:30AM