Companies like Oxford Quantum Circuits, IBM, and Google lead quantum computing development, with China, the US, and the UK making significant investments.

China's "Zuchongzhi II" and "Jiuchang II" prototypes are 10 million and 10 times faster than current supercomputers, respectively.

The US is a major player in quantum computing, with companies like IBM and Google, and $3.7 billion in government investment as of 2022.

IBM leads in quantum computing, advancing industrial applications and planning a 4,000-qubit system by 2025.

Google has achieved quantum supremacy with its Sycamore processor and is developing new error correction algorithms.

China has invested $15.3 billion in quantum technologies, has the world's largest quantum laboratory, and holds 52.3% of global patents.

The UK has allocated £2.5 billion for quantum research and published a 10-year vision for quantum technology.

The quantum computing market is expected to reach $234.06 billion by 2032, with applications in healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy, and major players like IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell.

Quantum computing can solve complex problems in fields like healthcare, finance, and logistics, with applications in drug discovery, supply chain optimization, and climate modeling.

Quantum computing faces challenges like qubit stability and error reduction, with companies like IBM and Google developing new techniques to address them.

Quantum error correction is crucial for practical quantum computers, with companies like IBM and Google developing new techniques to improve reliability.

The choice of quantum error correction protocol depends on the application, with surface codes and concatenated codes being popular approaches.

Quantum computing has the potential to drive innovation and growth, with countries and companies investing heavily in its development.

Companies like Oxford Quantum Circuits, IBM, and Google lead quantum computing development, with China, the US, and the UK making significant investments.

Title:

Content: TIMES ENTERPRISE NETWORK: RISING STARS

Start-up leads charge in widening access to quantum computing

Oxford Quantum Circuits sells access to its supercomputer via Amazon Web Services
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Dr Ilana Wisby is the chief executive of Europe’s first “quantum computing-as-a-service” company and one of very few women leading start-ups in the field.

Quantum computing is developing rapidly, and global investment in the sector has topped $35.5 billion (£27 million) as industry and governments look to seize on the opportunity it presents. In his most recent budget, Jeremy Hunt unveiled a £2.5 billion funding pot for quantum research, even as he slashed funding for other tech areas.

Quantum computers can operate much faster than conventional computers and perform multiple calculations simultaneously. The technology is still maturing, but in the near future it could solve previously intractable problems, enhance artificial intelligence and transform processes such as drug discovery.

Wisby, 32, who holds a PhD in

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

China's "Zuchongzhi II" and "Jiuchang II" prototypes are 10 million and 10 times faster than current supercomputers, respectively.

Title:

Content: People 's Network > > Education
China achieves "quantum computing superiority" in two physical systems
Xu Jing
October 27, 2021 08: 26 | Source: People's Daily - People's Daily
Small number
Original title: Quantum computing prototype "Zuchongzhi II" and "Jiuchang II" came out - China in two physical systems to achieve "quantum computing superiority"
Recently, the research team of China University of Science and Technology has made important progress in the quantum computing of superconducting quantum and light quantum systems, and successfully developed the "Zu Chongzhi II" and "Jiuchang II", making China the only country in the world to achieve the "quantum computing superiority" milestone in the two physical systems.
The research team composed of Pan Jianwei, Zhu Xiaobo and Peng Chengzhi, and the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently successfully built the 66-bit programmable superconducting quantum computing prototype "Zuchongzhi II", which solved the "quantum random line sampling" task more than 10 million times faster than the fastest supercomputer in the world.
The research team composed of Pan Jianwei, Lu Chaoyang, Liu Naile and other researchers, in cooperation with the Shanghai Institute of Microsystems and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Parallel Computer Engineering Technology Research Center, recently successfully built 113 photon 144 mode of quantum computing prototype "Nine Chapter 2", solving Gaussian Bose sampling mathematical problems 10 times faster than the world's fastest supercomputer.
In 1981, Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman proposed the idea of a quantum computer.
Quantum computing is thought to be a key technology for the next generation of the information revolution.
"'Quantum computing superiority' refers to a specific task, or a special track, that surpasses the current supercomputer," said Lu Chaoyang, a professor at the China University of Science and Technology.
The physical realization of large-scale quantum computers is one of the major challenges at the forefront of world science and technology.
Therefore, to achieve the physical realization of quantum computing, the international academic community takes a three-step road map.
Among them, the first milestone, is known academically as the “superiority of quantum computing. ”
At present, random line sampling based on superconducting bits and Bose sampling based on photons are two important schemes to demonstrate the superiority of quantum computing experimentally.
The latest achievements of these two programs are "Zuchongzhi II" and "Jiuchang II" respectively.
"In terms of volume, you can think of the two as a large special computing device that can be installed in a room," Lu said.
As for the difference between the two, Lu Chaoyang said, mainly the media is different, "superconducting quantum computing mainly depends on the medium is superconducting material, light quantum computing mainly depends on the medium is photon."
According to the existing theory, the speed of the quantum-random line sampling problem handled by "Zuchongzhi II" is 7 orders of magnitude faster than the fastest supercomputer at present, and this achievement is the first time that China has reached the "quantum computing superiority" milestone after the "nine chapters" of the optical quantum computing prototype in the superconducting quantum bit system.
According to the existing theory, Nine Chapters Two can process Gaussian Bose samples 10 times faster than the current fastest supercomputer 24 times faster.
This achievement has once again refreshed the international technical level of light quantum manipulation, and further provided experimental evidence of quantum computing acceleration.
According to reports, the successful demonstration of the superiority of quantum computing marks the second stage of the development of quantum computing research, and begins the exploration of quantum error correction and recent applications.
"At present, the development of quantum computing is still in a very early stage, it is difficult to predict how broad the application prospects in the end, but now, it can improve our computing capabilities, in many scientific research areas are very helpful, such as drug design, molecular simulation, code deciphering, etc." Lu Chaoyang said.
People 's Daily (October 27, 2021, 12 pages)
(Editor: Lin Yutong (intern), Wen Lu)
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What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

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The US is a major player in quantum computing, with companies like IBM and Google, and $3.7 billion in government investment as of 2022.

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Content: Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

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Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

In the quantum realm, the laws of physics are different. Now its mind-bending tech could soon transform our lives. How does it work?

It was 2009, and a group of scientists had crowded around a tiny monitor in a Sydney physics laboratory. The team, led by electrical engineer Andrea Morello, held their collective breath and peered at a single flat line on the screen. Then, in the blink of an eye, the line changed: it was a series of blips, like a heartbeat. They’d hit paydirt. “When you see that symbol, you’re in the game,” recalls physicist Charles Tahan.

Welcome to the quantum world, a subatomic realm – yes, smaller than an atom – where the laws of physics are, well, different. The experiment made Morello and his team the first in the world to show that a quantum computer could be made using not diamonds, not the superconductor niobium, but everyday silicon. “To show you could do that, 100 different things had to go right,” says Tahan.

Quantum computing is one of the key technologies defining this century. Its proponents say it will do for computers what the car did to the horse and buggy. It will upend encryption and molecular biology. In theory, it could even possibly find cures for cancer. Australia is among the world leaders in a quantum computing gold rush, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying his government is “serious about building a strong quantum ecosystem” and investing nearly a billion dollars.

Yet despite eye-watering outlays worldwide, quantum computing is still in its infancy, part of a mind-bending world that physicists are only beginning to fully grasp. What is it? And how will it make a difference to our lives?

How does a quantum computer work (and why did Alice in Wonderland have the jump on it?)

It’s often remarked that it looks like a beautiful chandelier, or a wedding cake. And IBM’s quantum computer, one of the world’s largest, is certainly an intriguing object, an intricate dome of golden wires and graceful tubes suspended from a ceiling.

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The part we can see, though, is really just the control and support system for a microchip (currently a version called Condor) buried deep inside. The glittering exoskeleton is there to keep its tiny heart as cold as possible – a hundred times colder than the coldest depths of space – and to feed information in and out, the process that makes it a “computer” and not just a science experiment.

The chip itself is smaller than a postage stamp, with several layers of circuitry and metal sandwiched in a tiny square, cooled to improve conductivity and to eliminate “noise”, the bugbear of many such devices. But even what we see here is not where the action happens. For that, we have to go deeper still, down into the chip and well beyond what’s visible through even the most powerful microscope, beyond the layers of individual atoms, into the atoms themselves.

‘The truth is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.’

In the subatomic realm of electrons, protons and photons, things happen very differently. Indeed, these tiny particles have no use for Newton’s laws of physics, nor even many of Einstein’s. “The truth,” says Tahan, “is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.”

Why these particles behave as they do in the quantum realm is a difficult concept to get your head around. Even Einstein resisted aspects of it, famously arguing that “God does not play dice with the Universe”. It was a misstep. “Because he didn’t believe in the completeness of quantum mechanics,” says Morello, “he lost a lot of productive years because he didn’t understand how it is possible that this thing is true.”

Many leading physicists investigated the concept from the early 1900s, including some familiar from popular culture today, notably Einstein and Neils Bohr (portrayed in Oppenheimer), Werner Heisenberg (whose name Walter White stole for his drug-chemist alter ego in Breaking Bad) and Viennese physicist Erwin Schrödinger, of the famous cat experiment (explained below).

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Lewis Carroll, meanwhile, may have had the jump on quantum physics with his ideas in the Alice books, as James Renner observed in The Wall Street Journal in 2015. “We speak of going down the wormhole into a mysterious world that defies Newtonian physics, where once Alice went down the rabbit hole into a mysterious world that had much the same effect. Now we speak of quantum particles being in two places at once or even Schrödinger’s cat being alive and dead at the same time, long after the Cheshire Cat’s grin was magically displaced from its body.”

The quantum realm has only truly begun to reveal itself to us relatively recently. In 1964, the Irish-born physicist John Bell published one of the most important theorems, which, according to Professor Andrew Whitaker in Physics World, “opened up the possibility of experimental philosophy, the study of what are normally thought of as philosophical issues in experiments. Not only do these experiments probe the deepest and most profound aspects of quantum theory, they also provide information on the fundamental nature of the universe.”

At the time, Bell’s theorem could not be tested in a lab. That would come in the late 1960s and early 1970s when experimentalists such as John Clauser began to show that the weirdness Bell had described on paper actually occurred in the real world. Which, at the time, was considered quite rude. One eminent physicist “was highly offended by my impertinent effort and told me that it was tantamount to professing a disbelief in quantum physics,” Clauser later recalled.

He and other apostates continued their work because he found some of the predictions “sufficiently bizarre that I could not accept them without seeing experimental proof”. Working with leftover lab equipment – “physics department scrap” – he went on to provide experimental evidence that refuted even Einstein’s theories. “I was very sad to see that my own experiment had proven Einstein wrong,” he said. Clauser would go on to win the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics alongside Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger for their groundbreaking experiments with so-called “entangled” particles.

Quantum physicists still despair at the difficulties of explaining their weird world to outsiders. “Many writers fall back on boilerplate that makes physicists howl in agony,” wrote computer scientist Scott Aaronson in The New York Times in 2019. Unfortunately, says Gerard Milburn, a quantum physicist from the University of Queensland, “The quantum world lies beyond the reach of natural language.”

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But we’ll give it a go. Chiefly, particles in the quantum realm aren’t tied down to being in one place or state in the way bigger things are in the outside world, such as cats, which tend to be in one place at once. They obey different rules entirely. The first way to understand this oddness harks back to high-school science and how light can behave as both a particle and a wave. Photons – bursts of light – can act like ball bearings, with position and momentum. Yet light also behaves like a wave washing over a beach in a way that a ball bearing can’t. That’s a quantum physics party trick.

What is Schrödinger’s cat?

The most famous primer for quantum mechanics is the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, a mind experiment devised by Schrödinger in 1935. A hypothetical cat goes into a box with a vial of poison gas, which has a 50-50 chance of killing it. You close the box and can’t see inside. So, without opening the box, you can’t know whether the poison has killed the cat or not. Therefore, posited Schrödinger, puss is neither dead nor alive but both – until you open the box.

In quantum mechanics, this state is called “superposition”. It’s impossible to describe properly without a background in higher-level mathematics, which we lack, but it generally means not knowing whether, say, an electron is over here, or over there, or – cat-like – in both places at the same time. Another way of looking at it is to visualise a coin spinning on its side. Until it stops and lands on one side or another, it’s not heads or tails but both.

At least, kind of.

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“Every explanation we give in lay terms is in some way wrong,” says Stephen Bartlett, a theoretical quantum physicist and director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute. “People often say a quantum superposition is in the value zero and the value one at the same time. That’s sort of right, and sort of not right.” Says Morello: “This is where language is failing us, right? If you’re trying to say that in plain English, it sounds really weird. But if you actually think about, you know, the mathematics of it, and the actual physical embodiment of that, it actually makes perfect sense.” Suffice to say, a real cat cannot find itself in “superposition”: this is a state that can exist only in the subatomic world.

How is this useful (and what’s a qubit)?

In a conventional computer, information is encoded as voltages that pass around the system thanks to millions of tiny transistors – essentially, gates or switches that turn on and off. A quantum computer is similar except that instead of using transistors as switches it uses subatomic particles, such as electrons or photons, that can have many more states than simply on or off, according to their position, momentum, spin direction and polarisation. Once harnessed – and there are many ways of doing that – these particles-as-switches are called “qubits”, a play on the word “bit”, the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store.

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Information can be encoded on qubits in various ways: for his computers, Morello uses silicon and strong magnetic fields like those found in MRI machines. “The stuff that I build in my lab is actually a small silicon chip the size of a fingernail,” he says, “but the whole infrastructure around it is quite fancy. It’s a very powerful refrigerator that cools down the chip to [just] above absolute zero.

Critically, qubits can relate to other qubits in a state called “entanglement”. This enables quantum computers to perform multiple calculations simultaneously – which is their superpower. Schrödinger described entanglement as “the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought”. Sceptical Einstein called entanglement “spooky action at a distance”. Gerard Milburn says entanglement is great for building a computer “because if you want to have all these switches, having them strongly correlated is exactly what you want. And if you can control those correlations, you can do computation.”

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It’s these characteristics that have scientists and engineers excited. Not because quantum computers will necessarily take over from the conventional miracles we so rely on today but because they can do some particular things that transistor-based machines either struggle with or fail at completely. Today’s supercomputer might try to simulate molecular behaviour with “brute force”, says IBM’s quantum department. “But as it moves past the simplest, most straightforward molecules available, the supercomputer stalls. Quantum algorithms take a new approach to these sorts of complex problems, creating multidimensional computational spaces.”

‘Calculations that are completely impossible … would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer.’

This might include modelling how a drug might affect a virus, how new materials in aeroplanes might react to stress, or the exact process necessary to create a perfect chemical reaction.

“Calculations that are completely impossible – not just on present-day conventional computers but any conceivable future conventional computer – would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer,” says Andrew Doherty, professor of physics at Sydney University. “These are things where the application of that computer would be transformative to people’s lives without every home, you know, having a laptop quantum computer.”

Whether quantum computing will also revolutionise artificial intelligence is less certain. AI works by drawing from a huge amount of data, which is not something that naturally fits on a quantum computer, says Morello. “The problem with quantum computers in general and, in particular, with applications to AI is that loading data into them and reading data out of them is slow and cumbersome and prone to errors. It’s a bottleneck.”

Why is it so hard to build quantum machines?

Creating the qubits is hard, whatever material you start with. Interfacing with them via tiny wires like the golden lattice in IBM’s machines is hard. Getting accurate information from them is hard: “noise”, in the form of vibration or spurious electromagnetic signals, makes them behave badly and give poor results – “decoherence”, in physics speak.

Much of Andrew Doherty’s team’s work these days is in figuring out how to reduce this noise to acceptable levels and compensating for the errors that noise produces. “Compared to our conventional computers, quantum technology [computers] are very noisy devices,” he says. “They go wrong one time in 1000 as opposed to one time in an astronomically huge number of uses of [normal computers].”

Teams around the world are working on multiple approaches both to building the machines and compensating for their eccentricities, from labs in Australia to the tech giants Google, Microsoft and IBM – its Quantum Lab relies on superconducting qubits made from aluminium and niobiumand the Chinese government.

Some versions, such as IBM’s and Morello’s, chill the atoms to keep them as stable as possible. In contrast, the Australian company Quantum Brilliance is working with synthetic diamonds because they work at room temperature. “Unlike other materials,” says co-founder Marcus Doherty (no relation to Andrew), “diamond’s incredible hardness means that even at room temperature, there isn’t enough thermal energy in the environment to create vibrations that destroy the quantum properties of qubits.”

‘People are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack.’

Another key moment in the quantum timeline came in 1994 when US mathematician Peter Shor showed that a quantum computer could crack encryption standards safeguarding everything from national intelligence systems to bank accounts. “He devised an algorithm, in theory, that he would need to run on a quantum computer,” says Bartlett. “And if you could build a quantum computer of sufficient size, then yeah, all information security falls apart.” Cybersecurity experts call that scenario Q-Day. “At the moment, people are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack,” says Bartlett.

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In 2001, IBM made a seven-qubit device controlled through radio frequency pulses to demonstrate Shor’s Theorem. IBM’s prototype wasn’t given a huge task, managing to calculate that three times five was … wait for it ... 15. Yet this was considered a great success, even if it had shades of the famous supercomputer Deep Thought from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which ponders the question of “life, the universe and everything” for thousands of years before giving the answer: 42.(Adams also dreamed up the Infinite Improbability Drive for a spaceship called the Heart of Gold, which used quantum theory to allow it to cross through every point in the universe simultaneously, allowing interstellar travel without all that “tedious mucking about in hyperspace”.)

Then, in 2019, Google claimed its 54-qubit Sycamore processor had performed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years – a breakthrough some breathlessly likened to the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903. Others were more sceptical, saying it would be many more years before quantum computers would have enough qubits – and be stable enough – to do anything actually useful. IBM said it could simulate Google’s experiment in two-and-a-half days on a “normal” computer, albeit if it had access to the Oak Ridge Summit supercomputer, a beast occupying an area the size of two basketball courts. IBM’s shimmering Eagle, meanwhile, had just 127 qubits; its successors, Osprey and now Condor, have pushed the bar to over 1000 and it plans for 1386 qubits in its Kookaburra in 2025.

Yet most of these devices are still basically proofs of concept, says Morello, the first step to manufacturing and miniaturising, as we saw with today’s transistor-based computers, which started out as rooms full of valves and cables. In the post-World War II era, says Andrew Doherty, “computers took up office floors of buildings in Manhattan and people put paper cards into them to program them. Out came numbers that even my childhood pocket calculator could have calculated right.” Many hundreds of billions of dollars have gone into developing computer technology, in packaging it for convenience and getting the components to work reliably, he says. “That whole engineering thing has got to grow up around these quantum technologies.”

Already, Marcus Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance has installed a quantum computer at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth and is about to export computers, at this stage for customers to experiment with quantum computing and work out how to make it useful. In the future, finding commercial applications for a quantum computer will require tailoring it, at least initially, says UNSW’s Maja Cassidy, a former quantum researcher for Microsoft. “People have to go in and understand a company’s problem, how they’re using classical computing and … work out what section might be enhanced by the quantum computer.”

Who is leading the quantum race?

China is the only other nation giving the United States a run for its money. Its leader, Xi Jinping, put accelerating quantum technology in his 2021 five-year plan. McKinsey & Company estimates China has spent at least $15.3 billion in public funds on quantum research. That partly came to fruition in April with the Chinese Academy of Science’s unveiling of a 504-qubit chip, still half the size of IBM’s biggest.

For its part, Australia got a head start with quantum research in the 1990s. Today, two major spinoffs from UNSW research are pursuing silicon-based quantum computing: Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), led by Professor Michelle Simmons, and Diraq, led by Professor Andrew Dzurak. SQC’s approach involves embedding phosphorus atoms within a wafer of silicon. Dzurak’s approach involves trapping electrons on silicon transistors. Both have the advantage of silicon chips already being ubiquitous. “Today, in our phones and our laptops, the silicon chips that are in those have upwards of a billion transistors on them,” says Dzurak. “The benefit of the technology that we’ve developed is that we are also able to get millions, and ultimately billions, of quantum bits onto a single silicon chip.”

‘Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.’

Other leading players in Australia include Q-CTRL, which is working on controlling and enhancing quantum hardware; quantum security company QuintessenceLabs; and Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance, which used its synthetic diamonds in the world-first integration of a two-qubit quantum device into a supercomputer at room temperature in 2022.

Meanwhile, out of the University of Queensland came early gains in “photonic” quantum computing, which harnesses particles of light – photons – as qubits. In April, the federal and Queensland governments jointly set aside $940 million in share purchases, grants and loans for PsiQuantum, a Silicon Valley company whose founders include Australian professors Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph. Unlike ions or electrons, photons are not charged, Bartlett says, so are not sent haywire by electromagnetic forces – but they are hard to manipulate and measure.

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Another approach involves “trapped ion” quantum computing, pursued by US company IonQ: physicists take an atom, flick off an electron so it is positively charged, then suspend the resulting ion within an electromagnetic field and manipulate the ion with lasers. But Bartlett says this approach will be hard to scale, given the technology to suspend millions of ion qubits doesn’t yet exist.

In April, the federal government also announced $18 million for the University of Sydney to establish Quantum Australia, a research consortium between several universities headed by Bartlett. “It used to be a small research community,” he says. “You absolutely needed to speak the common language of everyone else, which were the rules of physics. Now we are really seeing quite a bit of specialisation.”

Even if quantum computers develop practical uses, they will likely live in vast, super-cooled server farms where land and power are cheap. We’ll communicate with them through our everyday devices, much as we download and upload data from cloud servers, Netflix, TikTok, DropBox, whatever, today. The real challenge for quantum computing, says Morello, is that the alternative is “really, really good”. “Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.”

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How much have countries and blocs invested in quantum computing?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

IBM leads in quantum computing, advancing industrial applications and planning a 4,000-qubit system by 2025.

Title:

Content: IBM’s Quantum Computing Moves Could Put Industrial Space in Demand

IBM's quantum computing advancements and industrial collaborations are set to boost demand for specialized industrial spaces, transforming sectors like materials science and supply chain logistics.

IBM’s aggressive expansion in quantum computing is set to significantly impact various industries, potentially increasing the demand for industrial space. The company has been at the forefront of quantum research and development, advancing both its hardware and software capabilities. IBM’s recent developments in their Qiskit software stack, which includes over 100 updates, are aimed at enhancing the performance and usability of quantum circuits. These advancements are crucial for the optimization and execution of quantum algorithms, making them more accessible and practical for industrial applications.

Key Partnerships and Industrial Applications

IBM has partnered with major industry players to explore practical applications of quantum computing. For instance, Bosch has joined forces with IBM to utilize quantum computing for materials science research. This collaboration aims to develop new materials for applications such as electromobility and renewable energy, areas where classical computers fall short. The potential to design materials with higher energy efficiency and reduced resource consumption could revolutionize these sectors.

Impact on Supply Chain and Logistics

Quantum computing is poised to transform supply chain management by enhancing modeling capabilities. The complexity of supply chain models, which involve numerous variables, can be better managed with quantum computing. This technology promises to optimize logistics, improve data sharing security, and facilitate digital twin simulations. IBM’s quantum advancements could thus lead to more efficient and resilient supply chains, further driving the demand for industrial space to house these advanced computing facilities.

The Future of Quantum Computing

IBM’s roadmap includes the development of a 4,000-qubit system by 2025, which underscores the company’s commitment to scaling quantum computing capabilities. This modular architecture will enable the integration of quantum and classical computing resources, opening new frontiers in high-performance computing. As these systems become operational, industries will increasingly require specialized facilities to host and manage these advanced quantum computers, driving a surge in demand for industrial real estate.

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What are important areas in quantum research?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

Google has achieved quantum supremacy with its Sycamore processor and is developing new error correction algorithms.

Title:

Content: Google confirms quantum computing breakthrough – more computing power with fewer errors
On the pages of our site you can find a lot of information about quantum computers, so regular readers know that quantum bits, qubits, are very sensitive to external interference.
Light, heat and electromagnetic waves cause errors during calculations, which makes the results of these calculations less reliable.
And, the more qubits are included in the quantum computing system, the higher, naturally, the error rate becomes.
However, representatives of the group of developers of quantum systems Google announced that they managed to “see the light at the end of the tunnel ”.
In their latest work, they used new algorithms for quantum error correction, which allowed them to increase the dimension of the qubit array, while even lowering the error rate.
Previously, Google specialists combined qubits into logical groups of 17 qubits, but the new design of a logical qubit with 49 qubits allowed to implement a more effective mechanism for correcting errors.
According to the available data, this case is the first in the history of quantum informatics, when the size of an array of qubits was increased while reducing the error rate.
And this is a very big and important step towards the creation of a real universal quantum computer.
However, the creation of a large logical qubit with a small error rate in itself entails the need to modify the hardware and software of a quantum computing system.
At present, Google specialists are already working towards the creation of a new system of cryogenics and electronic control.
When all this is ready, it will be embodied in the form of a new processor for the next generation quantum computer Sycamore 2, which will replace the previous computer and will be used as a cloud service for the development of new drugs, battery technologies, new materials, etc.
Key words:
Google, Quantum, Computer, Processor, Cubit, Error, Odds, Sycamore
Primary source
Other news on the topic:
Google begins to introduce the first technologies of error correction in the field of quantum computing
Google predicts the emergence of full-fledged quantum computers capable of self-learning within the next ten years
Intel begins development of silicon qubits, which will become the basis of scalable quantum computers with millions of qubits
A new type of quantum logic element will allow you to create quantum computers that do not allow errors
Matrix of five superconducting qubits - a prototype of the future quantum processor
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What are important areas in quantum research?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What have been the landmark achievements in quantum computing?

Google's Sycamore quantum supremacy experiment

China has invested $15.3 billion in quantum technologies, has the world's largest quantum laboratory, and holds 52.3% of global patents.

Title:

Content: Quantum technology, known as the powerful engine of next-generation technology, has become increasingly competitive in recent years. According to an article published by Korean media on quantum information technology, quantum technology is not only fiercely competitive, but the scale of investment is also rapidly increasing.
However, according to statistics, in addition to sweeping half of the world's quantum technology patents, China ranks first in the world in the scale of investment in quantum information technology.
According to a South Korean media report, China's basic science and system research and development force of quantum information technology is rapidly growing and has become a competitor on par with the United States and Europe.
And to achieve this kind of technological leap, can not be separated from huge investment.
The data shows that China ranks first in the world in terms of investment in quantum information technology and has built the world ’ s largest quantum laboratory.
As of 2022, China ’ s investment in quantum information technology has reached $15.3 billion, far exceeding Europe ’ s $8.4 billion and the United States ’ $3.7 billion.
South Korean media cited China's often used "curve overtaking" strategy, and pointed out that the rapid development of electric vehicles in recent years as an example, in the 1980s, mainland enterprises officially entered the commercial vehicle industry, and imitated Germany, the United States and other developed countries.
However, with the fastest perception of automotive electrification trends and bold push, China has successfully entered the leading group of global electric vehicles.
The article pointed out that if it is said that in the field of electric vehicles, China and the United States and Europe have launched a parallel competition, in the field of quantum information technology as a future technology, China is also playing a competitive role with the United States and Europe.
Judging from the global patent application volume on quantum information technology, China is leading the world with its huge investment.
At present, China's patent applications account for 52.3%, which has an absolute advantage.
After China, it is followed by Japan (13.8%), the European Union (13.8%), the United States (10%), and South Korea (3.6%).
Looking at the breakdown, China has an absolute advantage in quantum computer patents (52.8% of the world's total), quantum communication (43.2% of the world's total), and quantum sensing (56.6% of the world's total), especially in quantum cryptographic communication.
Source: China has swept half of the world ’ s quantum technology patent investment scale is the world ’ s first
# Quantum # Technology # China # Patent # Quantity

How much have countries and blocs invested in quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

The UK has allocated £2.5 billion for quantum research and published a 10-year vision for quantum technology.

Title:

Content: While the UK considers where to channel investment, we need to ensure that quantum technology is at the forefront of those considerations.

Quantum will not only drive our economy, but will also help create new opportunities in different sectors, ranging from healthcare to agriculture.

At the Global Investment Summit (GIS) last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a three-fold increase, up to £29.5bn, from the world’s leading investors in new UK projects and capital.

These funds will be channelled into “high-growth projects” in the UK, including quantum technology.

It is great to see quantum being recognised as a potential game changer in the future of the UK economy, and it is important that we continue this momentum.

Quantum’s economic and social value

Quantum provides an exciting opportunity for the economy because the technology has a wide range of possible applications.

The last decade has seen an 81% growth in the quantum sector and now contributes an estimated £1.7bn to the UK economy. Financial services, healthcare and climate change - all major sectors in the UK ecosystem - are just three of the areas that will be enhanced by quantum.

The ability to optimise complex financial portfolios in real-time or simulate molecular interactions with unprecedented accuracy could reshape sectors in their entirety. Molecular interaction simulation can assist the healthcare industry to an immense extent.

Possibilities include being able to improve the process of accurately modelling how new drugs will impact different types of conditions and diseases - leading to breakthroughs in serious and harder-to-treat illnesses.

This technology will also help us in the battle against climate change, specifically in its ability to predict weather more accurately. Current computational power for measuring CO2 does not always predict the correct climate outcome, as we saw with the MET office’s prediction for Storm Ciaran.

As quantum technology is introduced into these sectors, it will forecast weather more accurately than our current conventional methods, therefore enhancing the precision of new data.

However, in order to see these possibilities realised, quantum needs investment from the government; it needs further development and innovation to be able to reach its potential.

Nurturing this sector is crucial not only to cement the UK as a leader in this technology, but to enable us to develop the tools that can tackle pressing global issues, whether that is developing more solar farms or investing in nuclear energy.

Investment moves to boost growth

Earlier in 2023, the UK government published its 10-year vision, the National Quantum Strategy. This outlines £2.5bn of public and private investment into the rapidly growing quantum sector.

At the GIS, Oxford Quantum Circuits stated its intention to raise £85m for research and development projects, while SBI Investment - Japan’s foremost venture capital fund - is leading the raise. This raise will be the largest for Series B in quantum computing ever in the UK, supporting the need for investment to empower growth.

Quantum computers need to be developed and operated by the brightest minds in the field to solve the world’s most pressing challenges – from climate change to accelerated drug discovery.

It is crucial that we make investments that induce growth in all sectors, combating concerns about additional capital in quantum being 'snake oil'.

Investment in devices and systems which rely on quantum mechanics will provide capabilities that classical machines cannot; it is just a matter of time.

Facilitating long-term growth

While investment in quantum has not always led to growth, with several smaller enterprises struggling in the short term, it is important that we are supporting research and innovation in this sector in order to facilitate long-term growth.

Quantum technology has a unique power to solve problems that classical computers cannot manage.

When performing complex calculations, quantum is able to pinpoint a more precise answer among the billions of alternate possibilities.

Therefore, with the potential for groundbreaking advancements and transformative applications, quantum computing is set to drive innovation, reshape industries, and unlock new possibilities we can hardly fathom today, culminating in growth.

Graeme Malcolm OBE is the chief executive and founder of M Squared

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

The quantum computing market is expected to reach $234.06 billion by 2032, with applications in healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy, and major players like IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell.

Title:

Content: Quantum Computing Market was valued at nearly USD 234.06 billion by 2032

Prudour Private Limited

Updated · Mar 06, 2023

Quantum Computing Market Overview

Published Via 11Press: Quantum computing is a rapidly developing market that is revolutionizing how we approach computing and data processing. By employing principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations, quantum computers are capable of solving problems that classical computers may find impossible or impracticable to resolve.

The global quantum computing market size is forecast to reach USD 234.06 billion by 2032 from USD 10.13 billion in 2022, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.89% during the forecast period.

At present, the quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell. These firms are investing heavily in quantum computing research and development as well as creating quantum computing hardware and software systems.

The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on industries such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy. Some key applications of quantum computing include drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling, and climate modeling.

Though the quantum computing market is promising, it still faces several obstacles such as high costs of hardware, a shortage of skilled experts in this area, and technical difficulties when building large-scale quantum computers. With ongoing research and development efforts, however, these problems should be overcome within the coming years, leading to even greater growth and innovation in this space.

Key Takeaways

  • The global quantum computing market size was valued at USD 234.06 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 36.89% from 2022 to 2032.
  • Quantum computing is capable of solving problems that would be intractable or impossible for classical computers to solve.
  • The quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players, including IBM, Google, Microsoft and Honeywell.
  • The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on numerous industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics and energy.
  • Quantum computing has many important applications such as drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling and climate modeling.
  • The quantum computing market remains plagued by several obstacles, such as the high cost of quantum computing hardware, lack of qualified quantum computing experts and technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computing systems.
  • Research and development are expected to overcome these obstacles within the next couple of years, propelling even greater growth and innovation in the quantum computing market.

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Regional Snapshot

  • North America: North America is currently the leading market for quantum computing, with the United States playing a major role. Major companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft are driving this growth through their presence and investment in research and development activities related to quantum computing. This region boasts numerous key players such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft which are driving demand within this region.
  • Europe: Europe is an increasingly important market for quantum computing, with countries such as the UK, Germany, and France investing heavily in research and development. Through partnerships between quantum computing companies and other technology firms as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries, this region’s market is experiencing rapid expansion.
  • Asia Pacific: The quantum computing market in Asia Pacific is expected to experience significant growth over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development by countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. Furthermore, there have been an increasing number of collaborations between companies using quantum computing with academic institutions as well as its increasing adoption across industries like healthcare and finance – all contributing factors for market expansion within this region.
  • The Rest of the World: Countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and the UAE are expected to experience significant growth in the quantum computing market over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development efforts as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries. These factors are fueling this region’s meteoric rise in this region.

Drivers

  • Quantum Computing Gaining Adoption in Various Industries: Quantum computing is seeing an uptick in popularity across a range of industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy – as companies seek to use their power to solve complex problems and gain an edge in competition.
  • Investments in Quantum Computing Research and Development: Governments, academic institutions, and private companies have made substantial investments in quantum computing research and development, spurring innovation and progress within the field.
  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: There has been an uptick in partnerships and collaborations between quantum computing companies and other technology firms, as well as academic institutions and research organizations. This trend is propelling the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems, as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Increasing Access to Cloud-Based Quantum Computing Services: The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services is making it simpler for companies and researchers to utilize this cutting-edge technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.

Restraints

  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: Unfortunately, there is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing specialists, making it challenging for companies to construct and sustain quantum computing systems.
  • Technical Challenges in Building and Maintaining Large-Scale Quantum Computing Systems: The development of large-scale quantum computing systems is still in its early stages, so there are numerous technical obstacles that must be overcome, such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability.
  • Limited Quantum Computing Applications: Although the list of potential applications for quantum computing is growing, the number of practical ones that have been developed and implemented remains limited. This can make it challenging for companies to justify investing in quantum computing technology.
  • Regulatory Challenges: Quantum computing technology may face regulatory restrictions, particularly around data privacy and security. This could create additional obstacles to the adoption and investment in the technology.

Opportunities

  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: The growing number of partnerships and collaborations among quantum computing companies, other technology firms, academic institutions, and research organizations is creating opportunities for the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Advancements in Quantum Computing Hardware and Software: With the rapid progress being made in the development of quantum computing hardware and software, new opportunities will present themselves for applying this technology across various industries and fields.
  • The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services: Cloud-based quantum computing services are making it simpler for companies and researchers to access and utilize quantum computing technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.
  • Growth of Quantum Computing as a Service: As more companies and researchers embrace the potential of quantum computing, cloud-based quantum computing services are creating exciting new business opportunities for those offering these solutions.
  • Potential for Breakthroughs in Areas such as Drug Discovery, Finance, and Energy: Quantum computing holds the potential to unravel complex issues in fields like drug discovery, finance, and energy – leading to major breakthroughs and advances. This presents companies with unique opportunities for those who can develop and implement quantum computing solutions in these sectors.

Challenges

  • Technical Challenges in Constructing and Running Large Quantum Computing Systems: As quantum computing systems continue to emerge, numerous technical obstacles must be overcome such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability. These issues make it challenging for companies to construct and run these massive quantum computers efficiently.
  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: There is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing professionals, making it difficult for companies to construct and maintain quantum computing systems. This shortage could potentially restrict the growth of this industry in the coming years.
  • Quantum computing Applications: While quantum computing has many potential uses, the number of practical applications that have been created and implemented remains limited. This could make investing in quantum computing technology and research on practical applications an attractive prospect.

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Recent Developments

  • Google Claims Quantum Supremacy: In 2019, Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy by performing a calculation on its quantum computer that even the most powerful supercomputers would take thousands of years to complete. This was seen as an important milestone in the advancement of quantum computing technology.
  • IBM Launches Quantum Computing Program for Students: In 2020, IBM unveiled a quantum computing program specifically tailored towards students that provides them with access to IBM’s resources and tools, as well as a platform for learning and collaboration.
  • Honeywell Achieves Quantum Computer Record Performance: On March 20, 2021, Honeywell revealed its creation of a quantum computer with an astonishing quantum volume of 512. This feat marked an amazing advancement in quantum computing technology and demonstrated how rapidly progress has been made since then.
  • Amazon Web Services Announces Quantum Computing Service: On June 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the launch of its own quantum computing service called Amazon Bracket. This offering gives customers access to various vendors’ hardware as well as tools and resources for developing and testing quantum algorithms.

Key Market Segments

Type

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Services

Application

  • Defense
  • Healthcare & pharmaceuticals
  • Chemicals
  • Banking & Finance
  • Energy & power

Key Market Players

  • D-Wave Systems
  • Google
  • IBM
  • Intel
  • Microsoft
  • 1QB Information Technologies
  • Anyon Systems
  • Cambridge Quantum Computing
  • ID Quantique
  • IonQ
  • QbitLogic
  • QC Ware
  • Quantum Circuits
  • Qubitekk
  • QxBranch
  • Rigetti Computing

Nature Insights

  • Progress is being made in the development of quantum computing hardware: Despite the challenges facing large-scale quantum computing systems, progress is being made on quantum computing hardware. This includes creating quantum processors with increasingly more qubits and creating new materials suitable for use in quantum computers.
  • Quantum computing software is still in its early stages: While progress is being made with quantum computing hardware, software development for quantum computation remains at a standstill. This presents an immense challenge to the industry as developing efficient quantum algorithms is essential to realizing its full potential.
  • Collaboration is essential to the advancement of quantum computing: Collaboration between companies, academic institutions, and research organizations is essential for progress in this industry. This includes joint efforts to develop new hardware and software systems as well as collaborations that promote quantum computing across various industries.

Report Scope

Report Attribute Details
The market size value in 2022 USD 10.13 Bn
Revenue forecast by 2032 USD 234.6 Bn
Growth Rate CAGR Of 36.89%
Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and the Rest of the World
Historical Years 2017-2022
Base Year 2022
Estimated Year 2023
Short-Term Projection Year 2028
Long-Term Projected Year 2032

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FAQ.

What is quantum computing?

Quantum computing is a type of processing data using quantum mechanics. It relies on principles such as superposition, entanglement, and interference which enable quantum computers to perform calculations that would be impossible with classical computers.

What are some potential applications of quantum computing?

Quantum computing holds great promise for revolutionizing industries such as drug discovery, finance, energy, and logistics. Potential uses include creating new drugs and materials, optimizing supply chains and logistics networks, and even improving weather forecasting models with greater precision.

What are some of the challenges facing the quantum computing market?

The quantum computing market faces numerous obstacles, such as technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computers, high costs associated with quantum computing hardware, a scarcity of highly qualified quantum experts, and an absence of practical applications developed and deployed.

Who are some of the major players in the quantum computing market?

Major companies operating within this space include IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, Intel, and Rigetti Computing. These firms are actively developing and commercializing quantum computing hardware and software systems.

What is the outlook for the quantum computing market?

Overall, analysts anticipate a bright future for quantum computing, with continued investment and innovation anticipated in the coming years. Though still in its early stages of development, its potential advantages are immense - leading to rapid industry growth over the coming years.

Prudour Private Limited

The team behind market.us, marketresearch.biz, market.biz and more. Our purpose is to keep our customers ahead of the game with regard to the markets. They may fluctuate up or down, but we will help you to stay ahead of the curve in these market fluctuations. Our consistent growth and ability to deliver in-depth analyses and market insight has engaged genuine market players. They have faith in us to offer the data and information they require to make balanced and decisive marketing decisions.

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Quantum computing can solve complex problems in fields like healthcare, finance, and logistics, with applications in drug discovery, supply chain optimization, and climate modeling.

What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

extremely fast calculations
extremely complex calculations

What fields can quantum computers advance?

climate change solutions
logistics
finance

Quantum computing faces challenges like qubit stability and error reduction, with companies like IBM and Google developing new techniques to address them.

What are important areas in quantum research?

new types of qubits
implementations of quantum processors

What are the challenges in quantum computing research?

Quantum error correction is crucial for practical quantum computers, with companies like IBM and Google developing new techniques to improve reliability.

Title:

Content: New Codes Could Accelerate the Advent of Practical Quantum Computing

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for quantum computers is their tendency to be error-prone and the massive computational overhead required to clean up their mistakes. IBM has now made a breakthrough by dramatically reducing the number of qubits required to do so.

All computers are prone to errors, and even the computer chip in your laptop runs code designed to fix things when a bit flips accidentally. But fragile quantum states are far more vulnerable to things like environmental noise, which means correcting errors in quantum processors will require considerable resources.

Most estimates predict that creating just a single fault-tolerant qubit, or logical qubit, that can carry out useful operations will require thousands of physical qubits dedicated to error correction. Given that today’s biggest processors have just hundreds of qubits, this suggests we’re still a long way from building practical quantum computers that can solve real problems.

But now researchers at IBM say they’ve discovered a new approach that slashes the number of qubits required for error correction by a factor of 10. While the approach currently only works on quantum memory rather than computation, the technique could open the door to efficient new approaches to creating fault-tolerant devices.

Practical error correction is far from a solved problem,” the researchers write in a blog post. “However, these new codes and other advances across the field are increasing our confidence that fault tolerant quantum computing isn’t just possible, but is possible without having to build an unreasonably large quantum computer.”

The leading approach to error correction today is known as the surface code, which involves arranging qubits in a specially configured 2D lattice and using some to encode data and others to make measurements to see if an error has occurred. The approach is effective, but it requires a large number of physical qubits to pull off—as many as 20 million for some key problems of interest, according to IBM.

The new technique, outlined in a preprint on arXiv, comes from the same family of error-correction approaches as the surface code. But while each qubit in the surface code is connected to four others, the new technique connects them to six others, which makes it possible to encode more information into the same number of physical qubits.

As a result, the researchers say they can reduce the number of qubits required by an order of magnitude. Creating 12 logical qubits using their approach would require only 288 physical qubits, compared to more than 4,000 when using the surface code.

There are some significant caveats, though. For a start, it’s currently impossible to achieve the kind of six-way connectivity the team envisages. While the surface code operates on a single plane and can therefore be easily implemented on the kind of flat chip already found in quantum processors, the new approach requires connections to distant qubits that aren’t located on the same surface.

The researchers say this isn’t an insurmountable barrier, and IBM is already developing the kind of long-range couplers required to make these kinds of corrections. The technologies needed are certainly plausible, Jérémie Guillaud at French quantum computing startup Alice & Bob told New Scientist, and could be here in just a matter of years.

A bigger open question, though, is the fact that so far the approach only works with a small number of logical operations. This means that while it works for reading and writing to a quantum memory in a fault-tolerant way, it wouldn’t support most quantum computations.

But the IBM researchers say the techniques they’ve unveiled are just a stepping stone that points toward a rich new vein of even better error-correction approaches. If they’re right and scientists are able to find more efficient alternatives to the surface code, it could significantly accelerate the advent of practical quantum computing.

Image Credit: IBM

Edd Genthttp://www.eddgent.com/
I am a freelance science and technology writer based in Bangalore, India. My main areas of interest are engineering, computing and biology, with a particular focus on the intersections between the three.
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What are important areas in quantum research?

What are the challenges in quantum computing research?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

The choice of quantum error correction protocol depends on the application, with surface codes and concatenated codes being popular approaches.

Title:

Content: The Extra Complexity of Quantum Mechanics: How Quantum Computers Will Correct Errors in the Future
2021 / 11 / 29 10: 31: 12 Source: Sina Technology Author: Ren Tianren Editor: Gucheng
Beijing time November 29 news, according to foreign media reports, the topic of quantum error correction is far less than "quantum hegemony", for the application of quantum computers, quantum error correction is far more important than quantum hegemony.
So, what kind of error correction will a practical quantum computer take? Recently, researchers demonstrated on a real machine.
The state of a single qubit needs to be changed to 9 qubits for error correction.
In 1994, Peter Shore, a mathematician at Bell Labs in New Jersey, proved that quantum computers could solve some problems much faster than classical machines, even exponentially.
The question is, can we build a quantum computer?
Skeptics argue that the quantum state is so fragile that the environment will inevitably confuse the information in a quantum computer so that it is not a quantum state at all.
A year later, Peter Shore responded.
The classic error correction scheme is to correct errors by measuring a single bit, but this method is not suitable for qubits, because any measurement will destroy the quantum state and thus interfere with quantum computing.
Shure found a way to detect if an error occurred without measuring the state of the qubit itself.
This approach marks the beginning of the field of quantum error correction.
As the field flourished, most physicists began to see Shur ’ s algorithm as the only way to build practical quantum computers.
Without this approach, there is no way to improve the performance of quantum computers so that they can solve really difficult problems.
As with normal quantum computing, developing error correction code is one thing, and implementing it in a working machine is another.
However, in early October 2021, a research team led by University of Maryland physicist Chris Monroe reported that they successfully demonstrated multiple elements necessary for Shur ’ s error correction circuit to operate.
So, how did Peter Shore solve this problem?
In short, he took advantage of the extra complexity of quantum mechanics.
Repeated comparison
Peter Shore modeled the code for classical repeaters when designing error correction codes, which involved copying each bit of information and then periodically checking those copies.
If one of these bits is different from the other, the computer can correct the error and proceed with the calculation.
In the quantum error-correcting coding designed by Shure, he used three separate “physical ” qubits to encode a single qubit of information, namely“ logical ” qubits.
Of course, his quantum relay encoding cannot be exactly the same as the classical version.
The advantage of quantum computing essentially comes from the fact that qubits can exist in a “superposition ” of 0 and 1 at the same time.
Since measuring the quantum state disrupts this superposition, there is no direct way to check if an error has occurred.
The classic error correction scheme is to correct errors by measuring a single bit, but this method is not suitable for qubits, because any measurement will destroy the quantum state and thus interfere with quantum computing.
In order to solve this problem, quantum error correction coding needs to find another way to detect the state of the qubit.
Instead, Shure found a way to tell if the three physical qubits were in the same state.
If one of the qubits is different, it indicates that an error has occurred.
Checking whether a qubit has gone wrong is not much different from solving a simple logic puzzle.
If you were given three balls that looked exactly the same, but one of them might have different weights; and if you were given a simple balance, what measure would you use to determine if there were balls of different quality? If so, which ball?
The answer is, first pick out the two balls and compare their weights, then replace one of them with the remaining balls, and check again.
If the balance is balanced twice, then all the balls are the same weight; if the balance is balanced only once, then the ball being replaced or the ball being replaced is of different weight; if the balance is not balanced twice, then the ball that is still is of different quality.
The Shur code replaces the balance with two additional "auxiliary" qubits.
First, compare the first auxiliary qubit with the first and second physical qubits; then, compare the other auxiliary qubit with the second and third physical qubits.
By measuring the state of these auxiliary qubits, it is possible to know whether they are in the same state without interfering with the three physical qubits containing information.
This code prevents what ’ s called a “bit flip ” — the only error that can occur in classical computing.
However, qubits have another potential source of error.
Superposition is the key to quantum computing, but what matters is not just the value of the qubits, but the relative “phases ” between the qubits are also important.
You can imagine the phase as a wave, which describes the position of the crest and trough of the wave.
When two waves are in phase, their ripples are synchronized.
If two waves collide, they will produce constructively interfere, merging into a wave twice as large; but if two waves are inverse, then when one wave is at its peak and the other at its lowest, they will cancel each other out, that is, destructive interference.
The quantum algorithm uses the phase relationship between qubits to set a situation in which the correct result of the calculation is interfered for a long time, thereby being amplified, and the wrong result is eliminated by the cancellation interference.
However, if an error causes a phase reversal, the cancelling interference becomes a phase long interference, and the quantum computer begins to amplify the wrong result.
Peter Shure discovered that he could correct phase errors using a principle similar to that of bit-flipping.
Each logical qubit is encoded into three qubits, and the auxiliary qubit checks if one of the phases is flipped.
Shure then combined the two codes to obtain a code that could convert a logical qubit into nine physical qubits, correcting bit flips and phase errors.
fault-tolerant
Shur's coding can, in principle, protect a single logical qubit from error.
But what if the error measurement itself is wrong?
In this case, when you try to correct an error that doesn ’ t exist, there may be a bit flip that unknowingly introduces a real error.
In some cases, this can cause an error cascade to propagate into the code.
Shur ’ s coding also didn ’ t consider how to operate a quantum computer built from logical qubits.
In 1996, after three years of pioneering research, Peter Shore proposed the concept of fault tolerance.
Fault-tolerant coding can handle errors introduced by the environment, errors introduced by imperfect manipulation of these qubits, and even errors introduced by the error correction step itself – provided that these errors occur less frequently than a certain threshold.
Just in October 2021, a team of researchers announced that they had successfully used the Bacon-Shor code — a fail-safe version of the Shor code — to demonstrate almost all the tools needed for a fully fault-tolerant quantum computer.
They encoded a logical qubit into a quantum state of nine ions and then used four auxiliary qubits to demonstrate that all the single-qubit operations required for quantum computing can be performed under fault-tolerant conditions.
The results show that fault-tolerant quantum computers are feasible.
However, this is still a long way off, and we will only see the advantages of error correction when the quantum computer reaches about 100 logical qubits.
Such a machine requires about 1,300 physical qubits, because each logical qubit requires nine physical qubits plus four auxiliary qubits (the largest quantum processor at the moment is IBM ’ s newly released Eagle, which has 127 physical qubits), and only then can we start building a qubit factory and then introduce error correction coding.
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Key word: quantum computer
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Quantum computing has the potential to drive innovation and growth, with countries and companies investing heavily in its development.

Title:

Content: Quantum computers have great potential for transportation finance
R & D accelerated in 10 years is expected to scale development
Executive Edition 2021 / 08 / 19
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Quantum computing is regarded as a breakthrough technology in computer technology in the future. According to people in the technology industry, quantum computing is still in its early stage, but the scientific and technological community, enterprises and academia have also actively studied what fields it can be used in, including transportation and logistics management, medical research, and manufacturing.
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