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Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

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Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#61
I'm seeing a lot of comments claiming this claim can't be trusted because there's no useful computation being done.

There are many competing proposals to test for quantum supremacy: Boson Sampling, Fourier Sampling, IQP, Random Circuit Sampling. The computation needs to meet certain requirements. Worst case hardness, average case hardness, anti-concentration. Also there needs to be a way to test to see if the output of the computation is correct. This is easier said than done. RCS is the only one that meets all three and can be verified.

What's happening here is a test of RCS: A general quantum gates are being programmed to generate a random circuit. Think about randomly connecting some components on a breadboard and then simulating what would happen. Except this is done programmatically. The question is to then predict the output with a classical computer. This can't be done easily.

For a deeper dive into RCS, see this paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.04402.pdf

>> In this paper we study both the hardness and verification of RCS. While RCS was defined with experimental realization in mind, we show complexity theoretic evidence of hardness that is on par with the strongest theoretical proposals for supremacy. Specifically, we show that RCS satisfies an average-case hardness condition – computing output probabilities of typical quantum circuits is as hard as computing them in the worst-case, and therefore #P-hard. Our reduction exploits the polynomial structure in the output amplitudes of random quantum circuits, enabled by the Feynman path integral. In addition, it follows from known results that RCS satisfies an anti-concentration property, making it the first supremacy proposal with both average-case hardness and anti-concentration.

Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#62

So funny that everyone is shitting on this or claiming it's incremental/trivial. It's not! Science almost always starts with clean benchmarks like the one developed here, and from my read and limited knowledge, it's clear this is a big deal and a qualitative leap forward. Congrats to the team on great work. Looking forward to more to come.

> Science is almost always incremental

FTFY.

It is good work. But let's not kid ourselves. Science is made by small steps while standing on the shoulders of giants, not in leaps and bounds.

Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#63
post #58
post #52

Here's a Twitter thread that sounds like this is a very unusual take on "quantum supremacy": https://twitter.com/isislovecruft/status/1175557089067823104 I'm not deep enough into the topic to judge. Thoughts?

Here's the relevant part of the twitter rant- seems interesting but I can't tell myself whether it makes sense or not :) "they repeatedly asked the quantum processor for outputs to a random circuit, and the “quantum supreme computation” was that the outputs were not actually random, but subject to bias due to quantum interference, which they check by solving the path integral in classical simulation which, to me, is…

This is just nonsense. It equivocates between two separate things by calling both of them "quantum interference":

1) A quantum computer uses computational gates to very deliberately orchestrate interference patterns. This is the reason quantum computers are faster than classical ones at certain problems.

2) On top of (1), there's a ton of undesired interference because of dirty real-world constraints. Quantum computers are not fully isolated from their environment, and executing a gate cannot be done without also affecting qubits that are not supposed to be part of the gate.

> subject to bias due to quantum interference, which they check by solving the path integral in classical simulation

This is an instance of (1)

> because quantum interference is EXACTLY WHY WE CAN’T USE CURRENT QUANTUM PROCESSORS TO “BREAK ALL CRYPTO” IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE WE CANNOT DO EFFICIENT QUANTUM ERROR CORRECTING CODES

This is an instance of (2).

Quantum supremacy is all about showing that you can implement (1) with enough fidelity even in the presence of (2). Now keep this in mind while reading the rant again, and you'll quickly realize it's absolute nonsense.

Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#64
post #28

"However, realizing the full promise of quantum computing (e.g. Shor’s algorithm for factoring) still requires technical leaps to engineer fault-tolerant logical qubits" This is NOT how the media has chosen to report on this. It's always quite frustrating to figure out how a paper diverges from the press it gets.

Well I mean it's still pretty big though. We know for a fact now that there are only technicalities like fault tolerance in our way. Still you're right though, the race for "fist post" by the media definitely exaggerates scientific breakthroughs. To the science specific literate they can sift through the hype but others get it in their head it's something else. Like investors for example, those guys are big dreamers…

>We know for a fact now that there are only technicalities like fault tolerance in our way.

We understand the theory behind nuclear fusion, we have plenty of hydrogen, we have the capability to initiate fusion reactions in the lab, so there are only technicalities in our way to powering our electricity needs through fusion. So it has been for 70 years.

Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I mean it's still pretty big though. We know for a fact now that there are only technicalities like fault tolerance in our way. Still you're right though, the race for "fist post" by the media definitely exaggerates scientific breakthroughs. To the science specific literate they can sift through the hype but others get it in their head it's something else. Like investors for example, those guys are big dreamers…

>We know for a fact now that there are only technicalities like fault tolerance in our way. We understand the theory behind nuclear fusion, we have plenty of hydrogen, we have the capability to initiate fusion reactions in the lab, so there are only technicalities in our way to powering our electricity needs through fusion. So it has been for 70 years.

Nailing down issues with fault tolerances are a whole lot different than pioneering methods and sciences of uncharted territory. I didn't generalize all technicalities, I specified fault tolerance for a reason, because it's trivial compared to what it took to get to this point. The system works, just not as well as it will take to get to reliable wide spread usage.

Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We know for a fact now that there are only technicalities like fault tolerance in our way. We understand the theory behind nuclear fusion, we have plenty of hydrogen, we have the capability to initiate fusion reactions in the lab, so there are only technicalities in our way to powering our electricity needs through fusion. So it has been for 70 years.

Nailing down issues with fault tolerances are a whole lot different than pioneering methods and sciences of uncharted territory. I didn't generalize all technicalities, I specified fault tolerance for a reason, because it's trivial compared to what it took to get to this point. The system works, just not as well as it will take to get to reliable wide spread usage.

It is widely believed that implementing useful quantum error correction (if possible at all) will be orders of magnitude more difficult than what was done so far. To my knowledge, there is no realistic proposal how to implement it on any of the current platforms.

Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#68

What use will quantum computers have? Can they do things other than factoring large numbers quickly?

Yes, they can do stuff like fast simulations of quantum mechanics, that should change everything from material sciences and electronics up to medicine.

Re: Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor

#69
The Joshua Tree Quantum Computer Achieves Quantum Supremacy: Dr. Elliot McGucken's research group hath created a quantum computer capable of simulating over five sextillion atoms in the form of water molecules, performing massively complex calculations in a fraction of a second, leveraging quantum entanglement in the Hilbert Space, thusly tapping into the power of higher dimensions and the space of parallel universes. These highly complex many-body calculations would take classical computers over a trillion trillion trillion years to solve and simulate. The JT Quantum Computer leverages the quantum multiverse to generate random numbers and pattern distributions via the entangled interactions of five sextillion atoms.

Atoms in a drop of water = 3 atoms/molecule x 1.67 x 10^21 molecules = 5.01 x 10^21 atoms, or five sextillion atoms.

The patent-pending Joshua Tree Quantum Computer works as follows:

One obtains an eye-dropper and a glass of water.

One takes up a drop of water in the eye-dropper.

One drops said drop of water onto a flat piece of glass.

Immediately one achieves and observes the random pattern distribution based on the entangled interactions between the over 5.01 x 10^21 atoms (five sextillion atoms), as the combined wave function collapses and the universe splits a trillion trillion times. Using a classical computer, one would be unable to simulate this calculation even after a trillion trillion trillions years. The JT Quantum Computer leverages the entangled quantum interactions between the atoms, thusly mining the Hilbert Space of parallel universes and the multiverse in a manner that is at least several sextillion times faster than IBM's leading SUMMIT super computer.

And so the Joshua Tree Quantum Computer hath achieved quantum supremacy.

The Wright Brother's first flight lasted under a minute, and already we have crossed far further than that, with big plans for the future, and multitudinous commercial applications. A new era hath dawned.

We are currently seeking $200 million in funding to complete the design of the Redwood Quantum Computer, which will involve an entire bucket of water and which will be able to leverage the many worlds of Sean Carroll.

dx4/dt=ic friends, dx4/dt=ic :) :)

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