Quantum computers could revolutionize the way we tackle problems that stump even the best classical computers.
Single atom transistor recently introduced has been seen as a tool that could lead the way to building a quantum computer. For general introduction how quantum computer work, read A tale of two qubits: how quantum computers work article.
D-Wave Announces Commercially Available Quantum Computer article tells that computing company D-Wave has announced that they’re selling a quantum computing system commercially, which they’re calling the D-Wave One. D-Wave system comes equipped with a 128-qubit processor that’s designed to perform discrete optimization operations. The processor uses quantum annealing to perform these operations.
D-Wave is advertisting a number of different applications for its quantum computing system, primarily in the field of artificial intelligence. According to the company, its system can handle virtually any AI application that can be translated to a Markov random field.
Learning to program the D-Wave One blog article tells that the processor in the D-Wave One – codenamed Rainier – is designed to perform a single mathematical operation called discrete optimization. It is a special purpose processor. When writing applications the D-Wave One is used only for the steps in your task that involve solving optimization problems. All the other parts of your code still run on your conventional systems of choice. Rainier solves optimization problems using quantum annealing (QA), which is a class of problem solving approaches that use quantum effects to help get better solutions, faster. Learning to program the D-Wave One is the first in a series of blog posts describing the algorithms we have run on D-Wave quantum computers, and how to use these to build interesting applications.
But is this the start of the quantum computers era? Maybe not. D-Wave Announces Commercially Available Quantum Computer article comments tell a story that this computer might not be the quantum computer you might be waiting for. It seem that the name “quantum computer” is a bit misleading for this product. There are serious controversies around the working and “quantumness” of the machine. D-Wave has been heavily criticized by some scientists in the quantum computing field. First sale for quantum computing article tells that uncertainty persists around how the impressive black monolith known as D-Wave One actually works. Computer scientists have long questioned whether D-Wave’s systems truly exploit quantum physics on their products.
Slashdot article D-Wave Announces Commercially Available Quantum Computer comments tell that this has the same central problem as before. D-Wave’s computers haven’t demonstrated that their commercial bits are entangled. There’s no way to really distinguish what they are doing from essentially classical simulated annealing. Recommended reading that is skeptical of D-Wave’s claims is much of what Scott Aaronson has wrote about them. See for example http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=639, http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=198 although interestingly after he visited D-Wave’s labs in person his views changed slightly and became slightly more sympathetic to them http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=954.
So it is hard to say if the “128 qubits” part is snake oil or for real. If the 128 “qubits” aren’t entangled at all, which means it is useless for any of the quantum algorithms that one generally thinks of. It seem that this device simply has 128 separate “qubits” that are queried individually, and is, essentially an augmented classical computer that gains a few minor advantages in some very specific algorithms (i.e. the quantum annealing algorithm) due to this qubit querying, but is otherwise indistinguishable from a really expensive classical computer for any other purpose. This has the same central problem as before: D-Wave’s computers haven’t demonstrated that their commercial bits are entangled.
Rather than constantly adding more qubits and issuing more hard-to-evaluate announcements, while leaving the scientific characterization of its devices in a state of limbo, why doesn’t D-Wave just focus all its efforts on demonstrating entanglement, or otherwise getting stronger evidence for a quantum role in the apparent speedup? There’s a reason why academic quantum computing groups focus on pushing down decoherence and demonstrating entanglement in 2, 3, or 4 qubits: because that way, at least you know that the qubits are qubits! Suppose D-Wave were marketing a classical, special-purpose, $10-million computer designed to perform simulated annealing, for 90-bit Ising spin glass problems with a certain fixed topology, somewhat better than an off-the-shelf computing cluster. Would there be even 5% of the public interest that there is now?
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Q&A: Architect of New “Inspire”; Quantum-Computing Platform on Spin Qubits and Programming Quantum Chips
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/quantum-inspire-launches
Richard Versluis, the system architect, describes Europe’s first public-access quantum-computing platform
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computers vastly outperform supercomputers when it comes to energy efficiency
https://physicsworld.com/a/quantum-computers-vastly-outperform-supercomputers-when-it-comes-to-energy-efficiency/
Researchers in the US have created a new energy-based benchmark for quantum advantage and have used it to show that noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers use several orders of magnitude less energy than the world’s most powerful supercomputer when doing a specific task.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VTT hankkii viiden kubitin kvanttitietokoneen
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/05/12/vtt-hankkii-viiden-kubitin-kvanttitietokoneen/
Teknologiakehittäjä VTT käynnistää ensimmäisen kvanttitietokoneen hankinnan. Uuden koneen suunnittelu ja rakennus toteutetaan innovaatiokumppanuutena. Ensimmäisen viiden kubitin koneen tavoitteena on kasvattaa kansallista kyvykkyyttä alueen suunnitteluun ja rakentamiseen sekä luoda osaamista tuleville sovellusalueille.
Kvanttiteknologia tulee mullistamaan tulevaisuudessa useita teollisuuden aloja sekä synnyttämään uusia, kansallisesti merkittäviä liiketoiminta- ja tutkimusmahdollisuuksia jo lähivuosina. Se mahdollistaa suuren laskentatehon ja nykyisille supertietokoneille mahdottomien ongelmien ratkaisemisen.
Suomalaisen kvanttitietokoneen kehittäminen ja rakentaminen toteutetaan innovaatiokumppanuutena, jonka VTT avaa myös kansainväliselle kilpailutukselle. Hanke tulee kestämään useampia vuosia ja sen kokonaiskustannuksiksi arvioidaan koko hankkeen ajalta noin 20-25 miljoonaa euroa.
Espoossa lasketaan kubiteilla viiden vuoden kuluttua
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/10758-espoossa-lasketaan-kubiteilla-viiden-vuoden-kuluttua
VTT käynnistää Suomen ensimmäisen kvanttitietokoneen hankinnan. Suomen ensimmäinen kvanttilaskentaan kykenevä kone rakennetaan Otaniemeen, Micronovaan.
Hanke on kolmivaiheinen. Ensimmäisen vaiheen tavoitteena on kasvattaa kansallista kyvykkyyttä kvanttitietokoneen suunnitteluun ja rakentamiseen ja luoda osaamispohjaa sen tuleville sovellusalueille. Kvanttitietokoneen suunnittelu ja rakennus toteutetaan innovaatiokumppanuutena.
Suomalaisen kvanttitietokoneen kehittäminen ja rakentaminen toteutetaan innovaatiokumppanuutena, jonka VTT avaa kansainväliselle kilpailutukselle. Hanke tulee kestämään useampia vuosia ja sen kokonaiskustannuksiksi arvioidaan koko hankkeen ajalta noin 20-25 miljoonaa euroa.
Hanke etenee vaiheittain, ja sen ensimmäisessä, noin vuoden kestävässä vaiheessa tavoitteena on saada toimintaan vähintään viiden kubitin kvanttitietokone. Kokonaistavoitteena on kuitenkin merkittävästi korkeampi kubittien määrä ja suurempi laskentateho.
Hankkeen myötä VTT:n tavoitteena on olla maailman johtavia toimijoita kvanttiteknologioissa sekä niiden soveltamisessa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electronic Circuits for Quantum Computing
https://www.eeweb.com/profile/maurizio-di-paolo-emilio/articles/quantum-computer-design-electronic-circuits?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=link&utm_medium=EEWebEngInsp-20200514
Tomi Engdahl says:
Army Researchers Advance Toward Quantum Computing at Room Temperature
https://scitechdaily.com/army-researchers-advance-toward-quantum-computing-at-room-temperature/
Army researchers predict quantum computer circuits that will no longer need extremely cold temperatures to function could become a reality after about a decade.
For years, solid-state quantum technology that operates at room temperature seemed remote. While the application of transparent crystals with optical nonlinearities had emerged as the most likely route to this milestone, the plausibility of such a system always remained in question.
Now, Army scientists have officially confirmed the validity of this approach.
researchers can use the indeterminate state of whether or not a photon is in a crystal cavity to represent a qubit. The logic gates act on two qubits together, and can create “quantum entanglement” between them. This entanglement is automatically generated in a quantum computer, and is required for quantum approaches to applications in sensing.
However, scientists based the idea to make quantum logic gates using nonlinear optical crystals entirely on speculation — up until this point. While it showed immense promise, doubts remained as to whether this method could even lead to practical logic gates.
Once they designed the quantum logic gate, the researchers performed numerous computer simulations of the operation of the gate to demonstrate that it could, in theory, function appropriately.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft’s quantum computing platform is now in limited preview
https://tcrn.ch/3cMvzaS
Microsoft today announced that Azure Quantum, its partner-centric quantum computing platform for developers who want to get started with quantum computing, is now in limited preview. First announced at Microsoft Ignite 2019, Azure Quantum brings together the hardware from IonQ, Honeywell, QCI and Microsoft, services from the likes of 1QBit, and the classical computing capabilities of the Azure cloud. With this move to being in limited preview, Microsoft is now opening the service up to a small number of select partners and customers.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/quantum/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside big tech’s high-stakes race for quantum supremacy
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/quantum-supremacy-google-microsoft-ibm
Quantum computers used to be an impossible dream. Now, after a decade of research by some of the world’s biggest tech companies, they’re on the verge of changing everything
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Many Qubits Are Needed for Quantum Supremacy?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/qubit-supremacy
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/05/12/vtt-hankkii-viiden-kubitin-kvanttitietokoneen/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Counterintuitive Superconductivity and Quantum Computing Breakthrough: Using Pressure to Make Liquid Magnetism
https://scitechdaily.com/counterintuitive-superconductivity-and-quantum-computing-breakthrough-using-pressure-to-make-liquid-magnetism/
Using two flat-top diamonds and a lot of pressure, scientists have forced a magnetic crystal into a spin liquid state, which may lead to insights into high-temperature superconductivity and quantum computing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Suomalainen kvanttitietokone kuvissa ja videoissa
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/06/11/66081/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/06/11/quantum-computing-and-the-end-of-encryption/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2020/06/16/kvanttitietokoneille-oma-silq-ohjelmointikieli/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Machines announces QUA, its universal language for quantum computing
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/17/quantum-machines-announces-qua-its-universal-language-for-quantum-computing/?tpcc=ECFB2020
“QUA is basically the language of the Quantum Orchestration Platform,” Sivan told me. “But beyond that, QUA is what we believe the first candidate to become what we define as the ‘quantum computing software abstraction layer.’ ”
He argued that we are now at the right stage for the development of this layer because the underlying hardware has reached a matureness and because these systems are now fully programmable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Machines Announces QUA as First Standard Universal Language for Quantum Computers
https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/quantum-machines-announces-qua-as-first-standard-universal-language-for-quantum-computers/
Quantum Machines, creator of a hardware and software solution for the control and operation of quantum computers, announced the launch of QUA as a standard universal language for Quantum Computing. QUA allows researchers to intuitively program even the most complex quantum programs that are tightly integrated with classical processing and real-time decision-making. The language is the first to address all requirements of an anticipated quantum computing software abstraction layer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/15/silq-is-a-new-high-level-programming-language-for-quantum-computers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-quantum-app-store-is-coming/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/06/22/new-silq-programming-language-aims-to-make-quantum-programming-easier/
Fresh from ETH Zurich comes the new Silq programming language. They also have submitted a paper to the PLDI 2020 conference on why they feel that it is the best quantum programming language so far. Although it may be not common knowledge, the lack of usable general purpose quantum computers has not kept multiple teams from developing programming languages for such computer systems.
Microsoft’s Q# is a strong contender in this space, along with the older QCL language. The claims by the Silq team on exactly why their language is better appear to come down to it being ‘more high level’, and by supporting automatic (and safe) uncomputation. While the ‘high level’ aspect is suspect since Q# is most decidedly a high-level programming language, their uncomputation claim does at least have some merit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Horizon Quantum raises $3.23M for its quantum software development tools
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/22/horizon-quantum-raises-3-23m-for-its-quantum/?tpcc=ECFB2020
At its core, Horizon Quantum aims to democratize quantum development. Because there is very little about quantum computing that is intuitive, the company argues, it will take a new set of tools to help today’s developers tackle quantum. What makes Horizon unique is that it takes conventional source code and then automatically analyzes that to figure out where a quantum computer could speed up an algorithm. Right now, the company can identify potential speedups in code written for Matlab and Octave.
“The conventional approach to developing quantum applications is to explicitly specify the individual steps of a quantum algorithm, or to use a library where such explicit steps are specified. What makes our approach unique is that we construct quantum algorithms directly from conventional source code, automatically identifying places where it can be sped up,” explained Si-Hui Tan, the chief science officer at Horizon Quantum. “Everything that relates to quantum mechanics happens under-the-hood and on-the-fly in our compiler. This automation is what alleviates the need for any quantum knowledge. All our users have to do is to provide their program in a conventional programming language.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Honeywell Claims It Has Most Powerful Quantum Computer
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/honeywell-claims-it-has-most-powerful-quantum-computer
“We expect within next three months we will be releasing world’s most powerful quantum computer,” Tony Uttley, president of Honeywell Quantum Solutions, told IEEE Spectrum in March. Right on cue, last week the company claimed it had reached that mark. The benchmark measurement, called quantum volume, is essentially a combined measure of the number of physical qubits, how connected they are, and how error prone they are. For Honeywell’s system, which has 6-qubits, that number is now 64, beating a 53-qubit IBM system that had a quantum volume of 32.
The quantum volume measure isn’t a universally accepted benchmark and has an unclear relationship to the “quantum supremacy” goal Google claimed in 2019, which compares a quantum computer to the theoretical peak performance of classical computers. But Uttley says it’s the best measure so far. “It takes into account more than just how many physical qubits you have,” he says. Just going by the number of qubits doesn’t work because, “you don’t necessarily get all or even any of the benefits of physical qubits” in real computations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum physics provides a way to hide ignorance
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-quantum-physics.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fifty perfect photons for ‘quantum supremacy’
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-fifty-photons-quantum-supremacy.html
Fifty is a critical number for quantum computers capable of solving problems that classic supercomputers cannot solve. Proving quantum supremacy requires at least 50 qubits. For quantum computers working with light, it is equally necessary to have at least 50 photons. And what’s more, these photons have to be perfect, or else they will worsen their own quantum capabilities. It is this perfection that makes it hard to realize. Not impossible, however, which scientists of the University of Twente have demonstrated by proposing modifications of the crystal structure inside existing light sources. Their findings are published in Physical Review A.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Honeywell’s new quantum computer edges closer to threatening Bitcoin
https://decrypt.co/33086/honeywells-new-quantum-computer-edges-closer-to-threatening-bitcoin
Honeywell has announced that its newest quantum computer has reached a quantum volume of 64—twice that of IBM and Google’s rival machines.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Honeywell Unveils the World’s Fastest Quantum Computer
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/06/21/honeywell-unveils-the-worlds-fastest-quantum-compu.aspx
The race toward quantum-computing devices capable of beating digital systems in real-world applications continues.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Honeywell makes world’s fastest Quantum Computer with quantum volume of 64
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/honeywell-quantum-computer-fastest-volume-64-6469629/
According to Honeywell, the main focus while building the quantum computer was to eliminate the errors present within the system on smaller numbers of qubits and then working to scale up their number.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Novel Error Correction Code Opens a New Approach to Universal Quantum Computing
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/software/novel-error-correction-code-opens-a-new-approach-to-universal-quantum-computing
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/quantum-mechanics-interpretation-many-worlds-theory/
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIT researchers have developed a process to manufacture and integrate “artificial atoms,” created by atomic-scale defects in microscopically thin slices of diamond, with photonic circuitry, producing the largest quantum chip of its type. The accomplishment “marks a turning point” in the field of scalable quantum processors, says Dirk Englund, an associate professor in MIT’s Department …
MIT News
Scaling up the quantum chip
http://news.mit.edu/2020/scaling-quantum-chip-0708
MIT engineers develop a hybrid process that connects photonics with “artificial atoms,” to produce the largest quantum chip of its type.
Tomi Engdahl says:
#TBT: Does being an informed citizen really require a familiarity with quantum mechanics? This is a serious question.
For Some Reason, These Quantum Mechanics Toys Didn’t Catch On
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/heroic-failures/for-some-reason-these-quantum-mechanics-toys-didnt-catch-on
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing: how conditions created by the COVID-19 shutdown are delivering ‘the best data we have ever seen’
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01937-x
The COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown have been disastrous for many people. But one research project in my lab has been humming along, taking the best data my team has ever seen. It is an advanced ‘ion trap’ quantum computer, which uses laser beams to control an array of floating atoms.
We spent three years setting it up to run remotely and autonomously. Now, we think more labs should run quantum-computing experiments like this, to speed up research.
But good quantum hardware is extremely fragile, and the larger the system, the more easily it is perturbed. Some quantum components must be chilled to near absolute zero. Others must be stored in a vacuum more rarefied than that of outer space. It’s really hard to prepare and control precise quantum states, let alone keep them stable for hours. Stray currents, changes in temperature and vibrations can easily destabilize the system.
The quantum computer at the University of Maryland, led by myself and physicist Marko Cetina, uses up to 32 identical atoms as the quantum bits, or qubits. Each is levitated by electromagnetic fields and cooled by lasers to sit almost at rest. Typically, such an apparatus has thousands of electronic and optical components, all aligned precisely on a 3-metre wide, 500-kilogram steel table damped against vibrations. It requires an army of people to tweak mirrors and adjust signals, and the components must continually be replaced, tested, calibrated and updated.
Since my university went into COVID-19 shutdown in March, EURIQA has kept running — all day, every day. And the data have been excellent because the campus has been a ghost town. The lab’s temperature hasn’t wavered and there’s little vibrational noise in the unoccupied building. It’s one of very few university quantum experiments making real progress right now.
But there’s a bigger picture. This remote mode of operation is exactly what’s needed in quantum-computing research. Companies including IBM, Google, Honeywell and a start-up I co-founded, IonQ (whose systems are based on EURIQA), are opening up commercial access to their early quantum-computing devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finally, a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Will Ever Be Able to Solve
By
KEVIN HARTNETT
June 21, 2018
https://www.quantamagazine.org/finally-a-problem-that-only-quantum-computers-will-ever-be-able-to-solve-20180621/
Computer scientists have been searching for years for a type of problem that a quantum computer can solve but that any possible future classical computer cannot. Now they’ve found one.
Early on in the study of quantum computers, computer scientists posed a question whose answer, they knew, would reveal something deep about the power of these futuristic machines. Twenty-five years later, it’s been all but solved. In a paper posted online at the end of May, computer scientists Ran Raz and Avishay Tal provide strong evidence that quantum computers possess a computing capacity beyond anything classical computers could ever achieve.
Raz, a professor at Princeton University and the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Tal, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, define a specific kind of computational problem. They prove, with a certain caveat, that quantum computers could handle the problem efficiently while traditional computers would bog down forever trying to solve it. Computer scientists have been looking for such a problem since 1993, when they first defined a class of problems known as “BQP,” which encompasses all problems that quantum computers can solve.
Since then, computer scientists have hoped to contrast BQP with a class of problems known as “PH,” which encompasses all the problems workable by any possible classical computer
Making that contrast depended on finding a problem that could be proven to be in BQP but not in PH. And now, Raz and Tal have done it.
The result does not elevate quantum computers over classical computers in any practical sense.
engineers are still struggling to build a useful quantum machine. But Raz and Tal’s paper demonstrates that quantum and classical computers really are a category apart — that even in a world where classical computers succeed beyond all realistic dreams, quantum computers would still stand beyond them.
The two most famous complexity classes are “P” and “NP.” P is all the problems that a classical computer can solve quickly. (“Is this number prime?” belongs to P.) NP is all the problems that classical computers can’t necessarily solve quickly, but for which they can quickly verify an answer if presented with one. (“What are its prime factors?” belongs to NP.) Computer scientists believe that P and NP are distinct classes, but actually proving that distinctness is the hardest and most important open problem in the field.
In 1993 computer scientists Ethan Bernstein and Umesh Vazirani defined a new complexity class that they called BQP, for “bounded-error quantum polynomial time.” They defined this class to contain all the decision problems — problems with a yes or no answer — that quantum computers can solve efficiently. Around the same time they also proved that quantum computers can solve all the problems that classical computers can solve. That is, BQP contains all the problems that are in P.
But they could not determine whether BQP contains problems not found in another important class of problems known as “PH,” which stands for “polynomial hierarchy.” PH is a generalization of NP. This means it contains all problems you get if you start with a problem in NP and make it more complex by layering qualifying statements like “there exists” and “for all.”1 Classical computers today can’t solve most of the problems in PH
The best way to distinguish between two complexity classes is to find a problem that is provably in one and not the other.
If you want a problem that is in BQP but not in PH, you have to identify something that “by definition a classical computer could not even efficiently verify the answer, let alone find it,” said Aaronson. “That rules out a lot of the problems we think about in computer science.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/biggest-flipping-challenge-quantum-computing
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/physics/researchers-see-tiny-quantum-fluctuations-move-a-humansized-mirror/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists Have Demonstrated Quantum Entanglement on a Tiny Satellite Orbiting Earth
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-manage-quantum-entanglement-on-a-satellite-orbiting-earth
Tomi Engdahl says:
Physicists Just Quantum Teleported Information Between Particles of Matter
https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-have-teleported-information-between-particles-of-matter-for-the-first-time
Tomi Engdahl says:
Developer Jan-Rainer Lahmann, aided by his son Robert, has published a guide to turning a Raspberry Pi into a quantum computer — inspired by Hassi Norlen’s Qrasp project, and powered by IBM’s open source Qiskit framework.
Jan and Robert Lahmann Get a Quantum Computer Running on Your Raspberry Pi in Under 30 Minutes
https://www.hackster.io/news/jan-and-robert-lahmann-get-a-quantum-computer-running-on-your-raspberry-pi-in-under-30-minutes-4b972010009d
Based on IBM’s Qiskit, and inspired by Hassi Norlen’s earlier Qrasp project, the Lahmanns’ guide should get you up and running in no time.
“Inspired by the Qrasp project developed by Hassi Norlen, this post describes in detail how to install and run Qiskit — IBM’s open source quantum computing software framework— on a Raspberry Pi in order to turn it into a quantum computing simulator and use it to access real IBM quantum computers.”
The tutorial walks through the setup of a Raspberry Pi SBC in headless mode with a suitable Python environment and various dependencies, then installation of IBM’s Qiskit framework. Launched three years ago, IBM’s Qiskit was originally developed to interface with IBM’s own Q Experience prototype quantum devices — but also comes with a handy simulation mode, allowing for experimentation with quantum computing concepts on traditional computing hardware.
With Qiskit installed and Jupyter notebooks set up, the Lahmanns move on to configuring a Raspberry Pi Sense HAT add-on — using the 8×8 RGB LED matrix as a display to visualize the quantum computing experiments.
RasQberry: Quantum Computing is the Coolest Project for Raspberry Pi
https://medium.com/qiskit/rasqberry-quantum-computing-is-the-coolest-project-for-raspberry-pi-3f64bec5a133
Quantum computers typically operate at temperatures close to zero Kelvin (minus 273.15 °C, or −459.67 °F). So if we could turn a Raspberry Pi into a quantum computer, this must be the “coolest” project for Raspberry Pi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
U of A physicists develop technology to transform information from microwaves to optical light to ultra-secure quantum communications channels
U of A physicists develop technology to transform information from microwaves to optical light
https://www.folio.ca/u-of-a-physicists-develop-technology-to-transform-information-from-microwaves-to-optical-light/
New tool has potential to translate data from quantum computers to ultra-secure quantum communications channels.
“Many quantum computer technologies work in the microwave regime, while many quantum communications channels, such as fibre and satellite, work with optical light,” explained Lindsay LeBlanc, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Ultracold Gases for Quantum Simulation. “We hope that this platform can be used in the future to transduce quantum signals between these two regimes.”
The new technology works by introducing a strong interaction between microwave radiation and atomic gas. The microwaves are then modulated with an audio signal, encoding information into the microwave. This modulation is passed through the gas atoms, which are then probed with optical light to encode the signal into the light.
“This transfer of information from the microwave domain to the optical domain is the key result,” said LeBlanc. “The wavelengths of these two carrier signals differ by a factor of 50,000. It is not easy to transduce the signal between these regimes, but this transfer proves this is possible.”
“This idea arose by having talks and meeting within the Quanta group—and it turned out to work as well or better than we first expected,” said LeBlanc.
The study, “Atomic Microwave-to-Optical Signal Transduction via Magnetic-Field Coupling in a Resonant Microwave Cavity,” was published in Applied Physics Letters
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5144616
Tomi Engdahl says:
US Just Unveiled Its Blueprint For a “Virtually Unhackable” Quantum Internet
AFP
25 JULY 2020
https://www.sciencealert.com/us-begins-planning-for-a-virtually-unhackable-internet-using-quantum-computing
US officials and scientists have begun laying the groundwork for a more secure “virtually unhackable” internet based on quantum computing technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Have Finally Measured How Long It Takes For An Atom To Quantum Tunnel
https://www.iflscience.com/physics/researchers-have-finally-measured-how-long-it-takes-for-an-atom-to-quantum-tunnel/
“We’ve known about tunneling for nearly a century, and use it in some of the fastest electronics, highest-precision magnetometers, superconducting qubits, etc – it is a disgrace that so much time has gone by without us truly understanding how long the process takes,” senior author Professor Aephraim Steinberg told IFLScience. “Knowing this could help us understand many other related processes where a system can end up in more than one final state, which is pretty ubiquitous in quantum theory.”
“In general, to me, the context here isn’t even as much about tunneling as about trying to find out how much quantum mechanics allows us to infer about the past,” he added.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum physicists crack mystery of ‘strange metals,’ a new state of matter
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-quantum-physicists-mystery-strange-metals.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Tunneling Is Not Instantaneous, Physicists Show
A new experiment tracks the transit time of particles
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/quantum-tunneling-is-not-instantaneous-physicists-show/
burrowing through barriers, revealing previously unknown details of a deeply counterintuitive phenomenon
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exotic “Blinking” Crystals May Convert CO2 Into Fuels, Power Quantum Computers
https://scitechdaily.com/exotic-blinking-crystals-may-convert-co2-into-fuels-power-quantum-computers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum exciton found in magnetic van der Waals material
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-quantum-exciton-magnetic-van-der.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
MIT “Light Squeezer” Reduces Quantum Noise in Lasers, Enhances Quantum Computing and Gravitational-Wave Detection
https://scitechdaily.com/mit-light-squeezer-reduces-quantum-noise-in-lasers-enhances-quantum-computing-and-gravitational-wave-detection/
Portable System Boosts Laser Precision, at Room Temperature
Physicists at MIT have designed a quantum “light squeezer” that reduces quantum noise in an incoming laser beam by 15 percent. It is the first system of its kind to work at room temperature, making it amenable to a compact, portable setup that may be added to high-precision experiments to improve laser measurements where quantum noise is a limiting factor.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists strengthen quantum building blocks in milestone critical for scale-up
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-quantum-blocks-milestone-critical.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-giant-atoms-enable-quantum.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-quantum-loop-unveils-blueprint-virtually.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing could revolutionize the tech industry—but only if we have enough people who know how to leverage it. #QuantumComputing #Jobs
Building a Quantum Computing Workforce from the Ground Up
https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/at-work/education/building-a-quantum-computing-workforce-from-the-ground-up
Although quantum computing is still in its infancy, its potential means it has already become one of the fastest-growing STEM fields. Consequently, industry and academia are now starting to tackle the problem of creating a labor pool that can leverage the opportunities provided by this new field.
It’s likely that any future quantum workforce will have to come from a diverse universe of scientists and engineers, including material scientists and electronic engineers working on hardware and code developers and mathematicians working on software.
This was the view of education leaders from IBM, NYU and Howard University at a recent virtual meeting set up to discuss the challenges of the anticipated quantum computing talent shortage.
“You have to have advanced education in order to make a good living in this industry,”
“So the question is are we preparing our K through 12 to go to the schools that have requisite curriculum that will then prepare them to be in the industry? I think, unfortunately, the answer is “no” and that’s a long-standing problem we’ve had in this country.”
IBM has been trying to pull both industry and academia together to prepare for the day when quantum computing requires a large number of trained professionals. One of IBM’s initiatives has been its Qiskit Global Summer School for future quantum software developers (prerequisites are the ability to multiply two matrices and basic Python programming experience). Qiskit has already had over 5,000 students from around the world apply to it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“In quantum computing at this stage in its development, you can’t separate software and hardware,” said Shabani. “We know that we don’t have a perfect quantum computer, so in order to make a little improvement you need to know the quantum computer inside and out [because of] the errors that exist in the quantum computers.”
https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/at-work/education/building-a-quantum-computing-workforce-from-the-ground-up
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘BUTTERFLY EFFECT’ IS WRONG AND REALITY CAN ‘HEAL ITSELF’, QUANTUM SCIENTISTS FIND IN TIME TRAVEL EXPERIMENT
Sending a qubit through a simulation of the past had it return to the present generally unchanged
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/butterfly-effect-time-travel-study-quantum-scientists-a9644416.html