QUANTUM SUPREMACY

QUANTUM SUPREMACY

The phrase “quantum supremacy” was invented in 2012 by John Preskill, a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech. It is the accomplishment that a programmable quantum system can solve a drag that no classical computer can solve in any conceivable amount of your time. The idea of quantum computers holding a plus over classical computers dates back to the first 1980s. Researchers see the quantum supremacy as a concept of quantum computers with a plus over classical computers.

A group of researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA, experimented referred to as a “Quantum supremacy” experiment in the research paper published on 23 Oct 2019 called “Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor, to render a computer that is both programmable and powerful enough to solve many technological difficulties inherent in engineering quantum systems.

They have built a new 54-qubit processor, “Sycamore,” made of fast, high-fidelity quantum logic gates. They noticed that in 200 seconds, their system performed, the goal calculation, which was the world’s fastest 10,000-year supercomputer to generate a comparable performance. The development of algorithms played an important role in this experiment. Since there is no structure that classical algorithms can take advantage of in random circuits, they developed algorithms with a small dictionary of elementary gate operations, each with a probability of error. Given that these programmers have no prior experience, they might produce what looks like a random sequence of gates, which one could think of as the “hello world” program for a quantum computer that usually requires a huge amount of classical supercomputer effort to simulate such quantum circuits.

Photograph of the Sycamore chip. Frank Arute et.al Nature | Vol 574 | 24 OCTOBER 2019 |

On the processor Sycamore, a completely programmable 54-qubit, the quantum supremacy experiment was performed. It consists of a two-dimensional grid where each qubit is linked to four other qubits. The chip, therefore, has enough connectivity that the qubit states communicate quickly in the entire processor, which then makes it difficult to effectively replicate the overall state with a classical computer. Using a new type of control knob that can switch off interactions between adjacent qubits, they have achieved this performance. In such a multi-connected qubit scheme, this significantly reduces errors.


The Sycamore quantum computer can run general-purpose quantum algorithms and is completely programmable. Their team is already focusing on near-term applications, including quantum physics simulation and quantum chemistry, as well as new applications in generative machine learning, among other fields, after achieving the results of quantum dominance last spring. Their success was due to our enhanced two-qubit gates with the enhanced parallelism that, even when operating several gates simultaneously, achieve record performance reliably.

Future reach, first to make the processors of the dominant class available in the future to collaborators and academic researchers, as well as businesses interested in creating algorithms and looking for applications for NISQ processors today. Second, to create a fault-tolerant quantum computer as quickly as possible. A series of useful applications are promised by such a system. For instance, we can imagine quantum computing, helping to develop new materials, lightweight batteries for cars and airplanes, new catalysts that can more effectively produce fertilizer.

A Google quantum computer

Reference: Arute, F., Arya, K., Babbush, R., Bacon, D., Bardin, J.C., Barends, R., Biswas, R., Boixo, S., Brandao, F.G., Buell, D.A. and Burkett, B., 2019. Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor. Nature, 574(7779), pp.505-510. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1666-5.

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