A NASA perspective on quantum computing: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

In the last couple of decades, the world has seen several stunning instances of quantum algorithms that provably outperform the best classical algorithms.For most problems, however, it is currently unknown whether quantum algorithms can provide an advantage, and if so by how much, or how to design quantum algorithms that realize such advantages. Many of the most challenging computational problems arising in the practical world are tackled today by heuristic algorithms that have not been mathematically proven to outperform other approaches but have been shown to be effective empirically. While quantum heuristic algorithms have been proposed, empirical testing becomes possible only as quantum computation hardware is built. The next few years will be exciting as empirical testing of quantum heuristic algorithms becomes more and more feasible. While large-scale universal quantum computers are likely decades away, special-purpose quantum computational hardware has begun to emerge that will become more powerful over time, as well as some small-scale universal quantum computers. * Rupak Biswas

A Variable Neighbourhood Descent Heuristic for Conformational Search Using a Quantum Annealer

“…Additional specifications of the quantum annealer include the annealing time, the scaling of the h and J values, and using gauges to compensate for errors due to noise. We refer the interested reader to [42] for more details on quantum annealers and their applications.…”

Improving PV Resilience by Dynamic Reconfiguration in Distribution Grids: Problem Complexity and Computation Requirements

“…Thus, a new computation paradigm is needed to find an optimal multiple-operation schedule. We propose the use of quantum computing to address this kind of problem [19,20]. Quantum computing has the potential to provide an exponential speed-up when compared to classical computing [21].…”

Leveraging quantum annealing for large MIMO processing in centralized radio access networks

“…Then, logical qubits 1-4 and 5-8 are all connected by means of the single unit cell [2,1]. The unit cell hosting the next four logical qubits 9-12 is placed at coordinates [3,3]. Two unit cells below, [3,1] and [3,2], are used for connections between 9-12 and 1-4, and 9-12 and 5-8 respectively.…”

“…Databases [66], Fault Diagnostics [55], Machine Learning [54], Finance [59], Data Analysis [47], Chemistry [31], and Space Sciences/-Aeronautics [3]. A Similar problem to ML detection, CDMA multiuser demodulation, was solved using quantum fluctuations controlled by the transverse field (similar as QA) in [53].…”