Noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers

Abstract

Quantum computers have made extraordinary progress over the past decade, and significant milestones have been achieved along the path of pursuing universal fault-tolerant quantum computers. Quantum advantage, the tipping point heralding the quantum era, has been accomplished along with several waves of breakthroughs. Quantum hardware has become more integrated and architectural compared to its toddler days. The controlling precision of various physical systems is pushed beyond the fault-tolerant threshold. Meanwhile, quantum computation research has established a new norm by embracing industrialization and commercialization. The joint power of governments, private investors, and tech companies has significantly shaped a new vibrant environment that accelerates the development of this field, now at the beginning of the noisy intermediate-scale quantum era. Here, we first discuss the progress achieved in the field of quantum computation by reviewing the most important algorithms and advances in the most promising technical routes, and then summarizing the next-stage challenges. Furthermore, we illustrate our confidence that solid foundations have been built for the fault-tolerant quantum computer and our optimism that the emergence of quantum killer applications essential for human society shall happen in the future.

Experimental quantum simulation of a topologically protected Hadamard gate via braiding Fibonacci anyons

“…We use the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum register 21 13 C-labeled chloroform to construct the logical Hadamard gate. 22 The and spins serve as two physical qubits, each being controlled by a radio-frequency (rf) field.…”

Near-term distributed quantum computation using mean-field corrections and auxiliary qubits

“…In the near term, our distributed computing method with classical channels can be implemented by a single small simulator in sequence, or by a collection of small simulators that are either quantum or classical in nature. This permits the simulation of large system quantum dynamics without the noise and connectivity concerns of a large-scale quantum device [8], allowing experimentalists to address challenging problems in quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics [103,104]. As non-local operations on quantum hardware improve, our proposal for limited quantum information transfer can be implemented, enabling cross-simulator measurements and higher accuracy.…”

“…One prospective trajectory for quantum information hardware is distributed quantum computing [1][2][3], the quantum analog of the celebrated classical field [4][5][6][7]. Distributed quantum computing seeks to eliminate the need for large, monolithic quantum computers, which suffer from cooperative noise [8,9]. Instead, large-scale problems will be split among many smaller quantum computers that are in communication with each other via a quantum interconnect, a standardized form of quantum communication between remote quantum computing platforms [10,11].…”

Quantum Fourier Transform‐Based Arithmetic Logic Unit on a Quantum Processor

“…Quantum computing, a revolutionary field at the intersection of physics and computer science, harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics and has the potential to overcome the limitations of classical computing systems, also known as quantum supremacy. [1,2] In recent years, programmable NISQ (noisy intermediate-scale quantum) devices, [3][4][5][6] based on superconducting [7][8][9] and trapped ion [10][11][12] qubit technologies, have become accessible through cloud-based quantum computing services such as IBM quantum composer. [13] Quantum computer is capable of performing any computation that a conventional computer can execute as well.…”