Demonstration of a small programmable quantum computer with atomic qubits.

Satellite instruments monitor the Earth’s surface day and night, and, as a result, the size of Earth observation (EO) data is dramatically increasing. Machine Learning (ML) techniques are employed routinely to analyze and process these big EO data, and one well-known ML technique is a Support Vector Machine (SVM). An SVM poses a quadratic programming problem, and quantum computers including quantum annealers (QA) as well as gate-based quantum computers promise to solve an SVM more efficiently than a conventional computer; training the SVM by employing a quantum computer/conventional computer represents a quantum SVM (qSVM)/classical SVM (cSVM) application. However, quantum computers cannot tackle many practical EO problems by using a qSVM due to their very low number of input qubits. Hence, we assembled a coreset (“core of a dataset”) of given EO data for training a weighted SVM on a small quantum computer, a D-Wave quantum annealer with around 5000 input quantum bits. The coreset is a small, representative weighted subset of an original dataset, and its performance can be analyzed by using the proposed weighted SVM on a small quantum computer in contrast to the original dataset. As practical data, we use synthetic data, Iris data, a Hyperspectral Image (HSI) of Indian Pine, and a Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) image of San Francisco. We measured the closeness between an original dataset and its coreset by employing a Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence test, and, in addition, we trained a weighted SVM on our coreset data by using both a D-Wave quantum annealer (D-Wave QA) and a conventional computer. Our findings show that the coreset approximates the original dataset with very small KL divergence (smaller is better), and the weighted qSVM even outperforms the weighted cSVM on the coresets for a few instances of our experiments. As a side result (or a by-product result), we also present our KL divergence findings for demonstrating the closeness between our original data (i.e., our synthetic data, Iris data, hyperspectral image, and PolSAR image) and the assembled coreset.

Recent improvements in control of quantum systems make it seem feasible to finally build a quantum computer within a decade. While it has been shown that such a quantum computer can in principle solve certain small electronic structure problems and idealized model Hamiltonians, the highly relevant problem of directly solving a complex correlated material appears to require a prohibitive amount of resources. Here, we show that by using a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm that incorporates the power of a small quantum computer into a framework of classical embedding algorithms, the electronic structure of complex correlated materials can be efficiently tackled using a quantum computer. In our approach, the quantum computer solves a small effective quantum impurity problem that is self-consistently determined via a feedback loop between the quantum and classical computation. Use of a quantum computer enables much larger and more accurate simulations than with any known classical algorithm, and will allow many open questions in quantum materials to be resolved once a small quantum computer with around one hundred logical qubits becomes available.

One of the most promising routes towards fault-tolerant quantum computation utilizes topological quantum error correcting codes, such as the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ surface code. Logical qubits can be encoded in a variety of ways in the surface code, based on either boundary defects, holes, or bulk twist defects. However proposed fault-tolerant implementations of the Clifford group in these schemes are limited and often require unnecessary overhead. For example, the Clifford phase gate in certain planar and hole encodings has been proposed to be implemented using costly state injection and distillation protocols. In this paper, we show that within any encoding scheme for the logical qubits, we can fault-tolerantly implement the full Clifford group by using joint measurements involving a single appropriately encoded logical ancilla. This allows us to provide new low overhead implementations of the full Clifford group in surface and color codes. It also provides the first proposed implementations of the full Clifford group in hyperbolic codes. We further use our methods to propose state-of-the art encoding schemes for small numbers of logical qubits; for example, for code distances $d = 3,5,7$, we propose a scheme using $60, 160, 308$ (respectively) physical data qubits, which allow for the full logical Clifford group to be implemented on two logical qubits. To our knowledge, this is the optimal proposal to date, and thus may be useful for demonstration of fault-tolerant logical gates in small near-term quantum computers.

Now that it is possible to achieve measurement and control fidelities for individual quantum bits (qubits) above the threshold for fault tolerance, attention is moving towards the difficult task of scaling up the number of physical qubits to the large numbers that are needed for fault-tolerant quantum computing. In this context, quantum-dot-based spin qubits could have substantial advantages over other types of qubit owing to their potential for all-electrical operation and ability to be integrated at high density onto an industrial platform. Initialization, readout and single- and two-qubit gates have been demonstrated in various quantum-dot-based qubit representations. However, as seen with small-scale demonstrations of quantum computers using other types of qubit, combining these elements leads to challenges related to qubit crosstalk, state leakage, calibration and control hardware. Here we overcome these challenges by using carefully designed control techniques to demonstrate a programmable two-qubit quantum processor in a silicon device that can perform the Deutsch-Josza algorithm and the Grover search algorithm-canonical examples of quantum algorithms that outperform their classical analogues. We characterize the entanglement in our processor by using quantum-state tomography of Bell states, measuring state fidelities of 85-89 per cent and concurrences of 73-82 per cent. These results pave the way for larger-scale quantum computers that use spins confined to quantum dots.

As small quantum computers are becoming available on different physical platforms, a benchmarking task known as cross-platform verification has been proposed that aims to estimate the fidelity of states prepared on two quantum computers. This task is fundamentally distributed, as no quantum communication can be performed between the two physical platforms due to hardware constraints, which prohibits a joint SWAP test. In this paper we settle the sample complexity of this task across all measurement and communication settings. The essence of the task, which we call distributed quantum inner product estimation, involves two players Alice and Bob who have $k$ copies of unknown states $\rho,\sigma$ (acting on $\mathbb{C}^{d}$) respectively. Their goal is to estimate $\mathrm{Tr}(\rho\sigma)$ up to additive error $\varepsilon\in(0,1)$, using local quantum operations and classical communication. In the weakest setting where only non-adaptive single-copy measurements and simultaneous message passing are allowed, we show that $k=O(\max\{1/\varepsilon^2,\sqrt{d}/\varepsilon\})$ copies suffice. This achieves a savings compared to full tomography which takes $\Omega(d^3)$ copies with single-copy measurements. Surprisingly, we also show that the sample complexity must be at least $\Omega(\max\{1/\varepsilon^2,\sqrt{d}/\varepsilon\})$, even in the strongest setting where adaptive multi-copy measurements and arbitrary rounds of communication are allowed. This shows that the success achieved by shadow tomography, for sample-efficiently learning the properties of a single system, cannot be generalized to the distributed setting. Furthermore, the fact that the sample complexity remains the same with single and multi-copy measurements contrasts with single system quantum property testing, which often demonstrate exponential separations in sample complexity with single and multi-copy measurements.

Quantum computing is an extremely promising research combining theoretical and experimental quantum physics, mathematics, quantum information theory and computer science. Classical simulation of quantum computations will cover part of the gap between the theoretical mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics and the realization of quantum computers. One of the most important problems in “quantum computer science” is the development of new symbolic languages for quantum computing and the adaptation of existing symbolic languages for classical computing to quantum algorithms. The present paper is devoted to the adaptation of the Mathematica symbolic language to known quantum algorithms and corresponding simulation on the classical computer. Concretely we shall represent in the Mathematica symbolic language Simon’s algorithm, the Deutsch-Josza algorithm, Grover’s algorithm, Shor’s algorithm and quantum error-correcting codes. We shall see that the same framework can be used for all these algorithms. This framework will contain the characteristic property of the symbolic language representation of quantum computing and it will be a straightforward matter to include this framework in future algorithms.KeywordsDeutsch-Josza algorithmGrover’s algorithmQuantum computingQuantum error-correctingShor’s algorithmSimon’s algorithmSimulation of quantum algorithms

Chapter 5 - Quantum Algorithms and Methods

A number of quantum algorithms have been performed on small quantum computers; these include Shor's prime factorization algorithm, error correction, Grover's search algorithm and a number of analog and digital quantum simulations. Because of the number of gates and qubits necessary, however, digital quantum particle simulations remain untested. A contributing factor to the system size required is the number of ancillary qubits needed to implement matrix exponentials of the potential operator. Here, we show that a set of tunneling problems may be investigated with no ancillary qubits and a cost of one single-qubit operator per time step for the potential evolution, eliminating at least half of the quantum gates required for the algorithm and more than that in the general case. Such simulations are within reach of current quantum computer architectures.

Strings of trapped ions are applied to investigate the dynamics and propagation of entanglement in an analogue fashion. With a small trapped-ion quantum computer a digital quantum simulation of a lattice gauge theory is performed.

For Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.

Many classes of algorithms that suffer from large complexities when implemented on conventional computers may be reformulated resulting in greatly reduced complexity when implemented on quantum computers. The dramatic reductions in complexity for certain types of quantum algorithms coupled with the computationally challenging problems in some bioinformatics problems motivates researchers to devise efficient quantum algorithms for sequence (DNA, RNA, protein) analysis. This chapter shows that the important sequence classification problem in bioinformatics is suitable for formulation as a quantum algorithm. This chapter leverages earlier research for sequence classification based on Extensible Markov Model (EMM) and proposes a quantum computing alternative. The authors utilize sequence family profiles built using EMM methodology which is based on using pre-counted word data for each sequence. Then a new method termed quantum seeding is proposed for generating a key based on high frequency words. The key is applied in a quantum search based on Grover algorithm to determine a candidate set of models resulting in a significantly reduced search space. Given Z as a function of M models of size N, the quantum version of the seeding algorithm has a time complexity in the order of as opposed to O(Z) for the standard classic version for large values of Z.

In the field of microlithography, conventional computers are widely used for mask optimization. Recent progress of quantum and quantum-inspired computers has encouraged the development of quantum algorithms for numerous applications. So far, no method has been established for solving mask optimization problems with quantum computers. We introduced a simple model that describes the mask optimization problem as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which is easily implemented on these computers. For simplicity, we assume there exists a target image profile on the wafer. The target can be the image of an existing mask or a virtual ideal mask which may be designed as a pixelated mask having a continuous transmission distribution. The solution is evaluated as the difference between the simulated image profile on the wafer surface and the target profile.

Quantum computing is a new era in the field of computation which makes use of quantum mechanical phenomena such as superposition, entanglement, and quantum annealing. It is a very promising field and has given a new paradigm to efficiently solve complex computational problems. However, programming quantum computers is a difficult task. In this research, we have developed a system called AutoQP which can write quantum computer code through genetic programming on a classical computer provided the input and expected output of a quantum program. We have tested AutoQP on two different quantum algorithms: Deutsch Problem and the Bernstein-Vazirani problem. In our experimental analysis, AutoQP was able to generate quantum programs for solving both problems. The code generated by AutoQP was successfully tested on actual IBM quantum computers as well. It is expected that the proposed system can be very useful for the general development of quantum programs based on the IBM gate model. The source code for the proposed system is available at the URL: https://github.com/usamaahsan93/AutoQP

Quantum computing is an inspiring technic on solving complicate problems, which shows the superiority over the classical computing. Contemporarily, the quantum-based algorithms were invented in many purposes on solving those problems. The thing is some of the algorithms were composed with oracles, which can be treated as a black box. It can be worked out/analyzed in theoretical mathematical expressions, but it can never fall in the ground without those actual implementations. Therefore, this paper will illustrate the idea and possible implementations on some quantum algorithm. Among various algorithms, this research will choose those relatively famous quantum algorithms, i.e., Deutsch-Jozsa Algorithm, Shor’s Algorithm, and Grover’s Algorithm. Different algorithms have the different intrinsic logics, which means there is no general description for all solution in this problem, but all of those can achieve the goal according to the same framework. Since those oracles are black boxes that can only be analyzed by its behavior with different cases, and then based on the behaviors and cases, and in IBM quantum platform, one can fill out the oracle by manipulate with different quantum operators. Lastly, the figures of some the possible implementation of those oracles with the three quantum algorithms will be shown in the IBM quantum platform, as well as the histograms of probability distributions that can justify the correctness of the implementations. These results shed light on guiding further exploration of the design and analysis on quantum algorithms.

Computer science will be radically transformed if ongoing efforts to build large-scale quantum computers eventually succeed and if the properties of these computers meet optimistic expectations. Nevertheless, computer scientists still lack a thorough understanding of the power of quantum computing, and it is not always clear how best to utilize the power that is understood. This dilemma exists because quantum algorithms are difficult to grasp and even more difficult to write. Despite large-scale international efforts, only a few important quantum algorithms are documented, leaving many essential questions about the potential of quantum algorithms unanswered. These unsolved problems are ideal challenges for the application of automatic programming technologies. Genetic programming techniques, in particular, have already produced several new quantum algorithms and it is reasonable to expect further discoveries in the future. These methods will help researchers to discover how additional practical problems can be solved using quantum computers, and they will also help to guide theoretical work on both the power and limits of quantum computing. This tutorial will provide an introduction to quantum computing and an introduction to the use of evolutionary computation for automatic quantum computer programming. No background in physics or in evolutionary computation will be assumed. While the primary focus of the tutorial will be on general concepts, specific results will also be presented, including human-competitive results produced by genetic programming. Follow-up material is available from the presenter's book, Automatic Quantum Computer Programming: A Genetic Programming Approach, published by Springer and Kluwer Academic Publishers.