Quantum Computing News and Discussions

[Yuli Ban]

Google plans to build a commercial quantum computer by 2029

Google developers are confident they can build a commercial-grade quantum computer by 2029. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the plan during today's I/O stream, and in a blog post, quantum AI lead engineer Erik Lucero further outlined the company's goal to "build a useful, error-corrected quantum computer" within the decade.

Executives also revealed Google's new campus in Santa Barbara, California, which is dedicated to quantum AI. The campus has Google's first quantum data center, hardware research laboratories, and the company's very own quantum processor chip fabrication facilities.

The main benefits of quantum computing come in terms of processing power, scale and accuracy, allowing researchers to run complex computations incredibly quickly. Experts predict quantum computing will help drive breakthroughs in a number of industries, including healthcare, economics, encryption, artificial intelligence, sustainability and energy.

[weatheriscool]

Google Aims to Make Quantum Computing Viable by 2029

By Ryan Whitwam on May 19, 2021 at 12:48 pm
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/322 ... le-by-2029

Google makes products for consumers and businesses, but a lot of advanced computer science goes into making those products work. The company began working with neural networks around 20 years ago, enabling many of the cool features we take for granted on the user side. Now, Google is on to its next moonshot with the Quantum AI campus, where it hopes to build a useful, error-corrected quantum computer within the next decade. Ten years might sound like a long time, but it won’t be easy to crack quantum computing.

As Google explained during its recent quantum campus unveiling, quantum mechanics is the language of the universe. Quantum bits, or qubits, can be entangled in complex superpositions of states that mirror the way real molecules work. A computer that speaks that language has the potential to complete calculations much faster than traditional binary systems, enabling detailed simulations that could accelerate the development of batteries, drug discovery, unbreakable encryption, and more.

[Yuli Ban]

Pasqal’s 'neutral atom' tech promises 200 qubits of quantum processing power

The race to build quantum computers that can deliver meaningful improvements to enterprises is accelerating. Among those leading the charge is a French startup that believes it has found a way to reach the scale and power to make quantum computing useful.

Founded in 2019, Pasqal is leveraging technology that was developed at the Institut d’Optique in Palaiseau, France and relies on a process called “neutral atoms.” According to cofounder and CEO Georges-Olivier Reymond, this technique has allowed the company to build processors with up to 200 qubits, inching ever closer to the coveted quantum advantage.

“We have demonstrated that the quantum computing power is here,” Reymond said. “The next step is to deliver it, which means building devices, developing a quantum-computing-as-a-service offer, and delivering the power on the cloud.”

[weatheriscool]

Rare superconductor may be vital for quantum computing

by University of Kent
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-rare-supe ... antum.html

Research led by the University of Kent and the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has resulted in the discovery of a new rare topological superconductor, LaPt3P. This discovery may be of huge importance to the future operations of quantum computers.

Superconductors are vital materials able to conduct electricity without any resistance when cooled below a certain temperature, making them highly desirable in a society needing to reduce its energy consumption.

Superconductors manifest quantum properties on the scale of everyday objects, making them highly attractive candidates for building computers which use quantum physics to store data and perform computing operations, and can vastly outperform even the best supercomputers in certain tasks. As a result, there is an increasing demand from leading tech companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft to make quantum computers on an industrial scale using superconductors.

[weatheriscool]

I think this thread needs to be moved to the computer subforum.

[weatheriscool]

Combining classical and quantum computing opens door to new discoveries

by University of Waterloo
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-combining ... eries.html

Researchers have discovered a new and more efficient computing method for pairing the reliability of a classical computer with the strength of a quantum system.

This new computing method opens the door to different algorithms and experiments that bring quantum researchers closer to near-term applications and discoveries of the technology.

"In the future, quantum computers could be used in a wide variety of applications including helping to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, developing artificial limbs and designing more efficient pharmaceuticals," said Christine Muschik, a principal investigator at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and a faculty member in physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo.

[wjfox]

I think this thread needs to be moved to the computer subforum.

There's some overlap, but I think quantum computing has slightly more relevance to physics.

[weatheriscool]

Correlated errors in quantum computers emphasize need for design changes
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-errors-qu ... asize.html
by University of Wisconsin-Madison

Quantum computers could outperform classical computers at many tasks, but only if the errors that are an inevitable part of computational tasks are isolated rather than widespread events. Now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found evidence that errors are correlated across an entire superconducting quantum computing chip—highlighting a problem that must be acknowledged and addressed in the quest for fault-tolerant quantum computers.

The researchers report their findings in a study published June 16 in the journal Nature, Importantly, their work also points to mitigation strategies.

"I think people have been approaching the problem of error correction in an overly optimistic way, blindly making the assumption that errors are not correlated," says UW-Madison physics Professor Robert McDermott, senior author of the study. "Our experiments show absolutely that errors are correlated, but as we identify problems and develop a deep physical understanding, we're going to find ways to work around them."

[weatheriscool]

IBM Ships Its First Quantum Computer Outside the United States
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/3 ... ted-states
By Joel Hruska on June 16, 2021 at 2:19 pm

The scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute have announced they’ve taken delivery of the kind of package most of us dream of getting — provided you’ve got a steady supply of liquid nitrogen on hand, a degree in theoretical physics (as opposed to a theoretical degree in physics), and a working knowledge of whatever it is you need to know to program quantum computers in the first place. Specifically, the researchers took possession of an IBM Quantum System One.

This is the first time IBM has shipped a quantum system outside the United States, and it’s a major goalpost on the company’s long-term drive to commercialize quantum computing. A system in Japan is expected to come online in July.

[wjfox]

Amazing...

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Quantum computers take up a lot of space. Researchers decided to shrink this one down

June 21, 2021 -- 12:17 GMT (13:17 BST)

Quantum computers still require large, dedicated rooms and complex installations, but now, in a new step towards bringing the technology out of the lab, researchers have designed a prototype quantum computer that is compact enough to fit in ordinary data center racks.

As part of an EU-funded project called AQTION, a group of scientists from the University of Innsbruck in Austria successfully set up a fully functional ion trap quantum computer into two 19-inch server racks, as typically found in data centers around the world. The device only requires a single wall-mounted power plug and is otherwise self-contained.

The prototype is an exciting development in an industry that relies mostly on lab-based implementations, where quantum computers can only be controlled thanks to purpose-built infrastructure. Developing a set-up that is more accessible is therefore key to expanding the reach of the technology.

[...]

Even outside of the controlled environment that can be achieved in a lab, the device was stable enough to operate without interruption from external disturbances, and the physicists were able to individually control and entangle up to 24 ions. Measurements showed that the system's performance and error rate were on par with lab-based implementations.

[...]

By next year, the team is expecting to create a device with up to 50 individually controllable qubits.

Read more: https://www.zdnet.com/article/quantum-c ... RSSbaffb68

[Yuli Ban]

I think this thread needs to be moved to the computer subforum.

There's some overlap, but I think quantum computing has slightly more relevance to physics.

It can be moved to the Computer & Internet subforum when quantum computers become more widespread and applied in the mainstream. Right now, even the most operational QCs are essentially physics experiments.

[caltrek]

^^^Probably should have a thread in both forums. In the physics forum for articles that are more theoretical, and in the computers and internet forum for more commercial applications. Just my two cents cuz you guys are much better at those sorts of decisions than yours truly.

[wjfox]

World's first scalable multi-chip quantum processor

3rd July 2021

Rigetti Computing, a California-based developer of quantum integrated circuits, has announced it is launching the world's first multi-chip quantum processor.

The processor incorporates a proprietary modular architecture that accelerates the path to commercialization and solves key scaling challenges toward fault-tolerant quantum computers.

"We've developed a fundamentally new approach to scaling quantum computers," says Chad Rigetti, founder and CEO of Rigetti Computing. "Our proprietary innovations in chip design and manufacturing have unlocked what we believe is the fastest path to building the systems needed to run practical applications and error correction."

[...]

"There is a race to get from the tens of qubits that devices have today, to the thousands of qubits that future systems will require to solve real-world problems," said Amir Safavi-Naeini, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. "Rigetti's modular approach demonstrates a very promising way of approaching these scales."

Rigetti expects to make an 80-qubit system – the world's highest qubit count – available on its Quantum Cloud Services platform later this year, using the new breakthrough multi-chip technology.

Read more: https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... qubits.htm

[weatheriscool]

Team develops quantum simulator with 256 qubits, largest of its kind ever created
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-team-quan ... rgest.html
by Juan Siliezar, Harvard University

A team of physicists from the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms and other universities has developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator capable of operating with 256 quantum bits, or "qubits."

The system marks a major step toward building large-scale quantum machines that could be used to shed light on a host of complex quantum processes and eventually help bring about real-world breakthroughs in material science, communication technologies, finance, and many other fields, overcoming research hurdles that are beyond the capabilities of even the fastest supercomputers today. Qubits are the fundamental building blocks on which quantum computers run and the source of their massive processing power.

[weatheriscool]

Chinese achieve new milestone with 56 qubit computer
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-chinese-m ... qubit.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China, working at the University of Science and Technology of China, has achieved another milestone in the development of a usable quantum computer. The group has written a paper describing its latest efforts and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.

Back in 2019, a team at Google announced that they had achieved "quantum supremacy" with their Sycamore machine—a 54 qubit processor that carried out a calculation that would have taken a traditional computer approximately 10,000 years to complete. But that achievement was soon surpassed by other teams from Honeywell and a team in China. The team in China used a different technique, one that involved the use of photonic qubits—but it was also a one-trick pony. In this new effort, the new team in China, which has been led by Jian-Wei Pan, who also led the prior team at the University of Science and Technology has achieved another milestone.

[weatheriscool]

Adding logical qubits to Sycamore quantum computer reduces error rate
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-adding-lo ... antum.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

The Google Quantum AI team has found that adding logical qubits to the company's quantum computer reduced the logical qubit error rate exponentially. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their work with logical qubits as an error correction technique and outline what they have learned so far.

One of the hurdles standing in the way of the creation of usable quantum computers is figuring out how to either prevent errors from occurring or fixing them before they are used as part of a computation. On traditional computers, the problem is mostly solved by adding a parity bit—but that approach will not work with quantum computers because of the different nature of qubits—attempts to measure them destroy the data. Prior research has suggested that one possible solution to the problem is to group qubits into clusters called logical qubits. In this new effort, the team at AI Quantum has tested this idea on Google's Sycamore quantum computer.

Sycamore works with 54 physical qubits, in their work, the researchers created logical qubits of different sizes ranging from five to 21 qubits to see how each would work. In so doing, they found that adding qubits reduced error rates exponentially. They were able to measure the extra qubits in a way that did not involve collapsing their state, but that still provided enough information for them to be used for computations.

[Yuli Ban]

China Is Pulling Ahead in Global Quantum Race, New Studies Suggest

When a team of Chinese scientists beamed entangled photons from the nation’s Micius satellite to conduct the world’s first quantum-secured video call in 2017, experts declared that China had taken the lead in quantum communications. New research suggests that lead has extended to quantum computing as well.
In three preprint papers posted on arXiv.org last month, physicists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) reported critical advances in both quantum communication and quantum computing. In one of the studies, researchers used nanometer-scale semiconductors called quantum dots to reliably transmit single photons—an essential resource for any quantum network—over 300 kilometers of fiber, well over 100 times farther than previous attempts. In another, scientists improved their photonic quantum computer from 76 detected photons to 113, a dramatic upgrade to its “quantum advantage,” or how much faster it is than classical computers at one specific task. The third paper introduced Zuchongzhi, made of 66 superconducting qubits, and performed a problem with 56 of them—a figure similar to the 53 qubits used in Google’s quantum computer Sycamore, which set a performance record in 2019.

Photograph taken on November 26, 2016, shows a link established between the quantum satellite Micius and a quantum communication ground station in the north of China’s Hebei Province. Credit: Jin Liwang Alamy

[Yuli Ban]

Google says it has created a time crystal in a quantum computer, and it's weirder than you can imagine

In a new research paper, Google scientists claim to have used a quantum processor for a useful scientific application: to observe a genuine time crystal.

If 'time crystal' sounds pretty sci-fi that's because they are. Time crystals are no less than a new "phase of matter", as researchers put it, which has been theorized for some years now as a new state that could potentially join the ranks of solids, liquids, gases, crystals and so on. The paper remains in pre-print and still requires peer review.
Time crystals are also hard to find. But Google's scientists now rather excitingly say that their results establish a "scalable approach" to study time crystals on current quantum processors.

....

Time crystals, on the other hand, fail to settle in thermal equilibrium. Instead of slowly degenerating towards randomness, they get stuck in two high-energy configurations that they switch between – and this back-and-forth process can go on forever.

To explain this better, Curt von Keyserlingk, lecturer at the school of physics and astronomy at the University of Birmingham, who did not participate in Google's latest experiment, pulls out some slides from an introductory talk to prospective undergraduate students. "They usually pretend to understand, so it might be useful," von Keyserlingk warns ZDNet.

[weatheriscool]

Engineers make critical advance in quantum computer design
https://phys.org/news/2021-08-critical- ... antum.html
by University of New South Wales

Quantum engineers from UNSW Sydney have removed a major obstacle that has stood in the way of quantum computers becoming a reality. They discovered a new technique they say will be capable of controlling millions of spin qubits—the basic units of information in a silicon quantum processor.

Until now, quantum computer engineers and scientists have worked with a proof-of-concept model of quantum processors by demonstrating the control of only a handful of qubits.

But with their latest research, published today in Science Advances, the team have found what they consider "the missing jigsaw piece" in the quantum computer architecture that should enable the control of the millions of qubits needed for extraordinarily complex calculations.

[weatheriscool]

Quantum Optical Computer
August 19, 2021 by Brian Wang

Xanadu Quantum Technologies is a Canadian quantum computing hardware and software with US$145 million of funding.

In May, 2021, they raised US$100M in Series B financing. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round with participation from Capricorn, Tiger Global, BDC Capital, In-Q-Tel, along with returning investors Georgian, OMERS, and Tim Draper. The round brings Xanadu’s total investment to date to US$145M.

Xanadu was founded in 2016 with the objective of developing photon-based quantum computing to perform rapid and previously impossible computations at room temperature. They use silicon nitride chips.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/08/q ... puter.html