Quantum Ready: The State of Quantum Computing in 2021: Part 3 of 4

Can Quantum Noise Be Hushed?

Organizational leaders, in my personal experience over 30 years of corporate and SME involvement, need to be convinced of a new technologies’ stability, accuracy, speed and reliability before investing and placing their clients or brand at risk. An enormous amount of progress has been made over the last five decades in the field of quantum computing. Yet, since the early days of quantum research, quantum noise’s contribution to computing error meant exposure to such risks and constructed investment barriers.

What is Quantum Noise?

Today we are in the era of “noisy intermediate-scale quantum” or NISQ computers. What does this mean? Well, so-called noisy qubits may return biased and/or erroneous results for early quantum algorithm applications. In fact, according to Joel Wallman, a researcher at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and assistant professor of applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo,“The intrinsic noise in quantum computers makes their output unreliable.” As John Preskill, an American theoretical physicist known for coining the term “quantum supremacy” noted, “noise in quantum gates will limit the size of quantum circuits that can be executed reliably.”

Optical communications often use amplitude modulation. In the case of lasers, electrical field amplitude and phase can contribute to quantum noise. Quantum noise refers to the “uncertainty of a physical quantity that is due to its quantum origin or said differently the error of the description of any physical system within classical (not quantum) theory”. Industrial noise, vibrations, gases, voltage fluctuations and thermal disturbances being experienced/suppressed can impact quantum computer accuracy

One such quantum computing challenge occurs with readout errors which traditionally arise from either measurement times being significant in relation to qubit decoherence times (where the state decays during measurement) or a small probability of measuring the opposite qubit value. Researchers like Nachman et al continue to investigate a “potential tool for correcting readout errors from universal gate-based quantum computers.”

Are We Making Progress in 2021?

Wallman is also the co-founder of IQC startup Quantum Benchmark. He and other colleagues recently improved upon previous error assessment protocols which were only effective in detecting errors on a small subset of the qubits. Detecting error correlations and providing an estimate of the effective noise within arbitrary sets of qubits offers greater accuracy potential based on their new method.

Cambridge Quantum Computing announced in 2020 a collaboration with CERN to “to explore the application of quantum technologies to particle physics” with a view to “help the members of the CERN openlab project team to work across multiple platforms to achieve optimal results even on today’s noisy quantum hardware.”

In more macro terms, Cape Town, South Africa is scheduled to host the upcoming ICQNI 2021: 15 or International Conference on Quantum Noise and Information on April 15–16, 2021. The conference brings together a diverse group of scholarly events (geared towards industry researchers, academics and students) allowing participants to exchange ideas, trends and issues related to the field of quantum noise. It is from conferences like these where leading voices can progress the effort to hush such noise. According to ICQNI, “the peer-reviewed conference proceedings are indexed in the Open Science Index, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Zenedo, OpenAIRE, BASE, WorldCAT, Sherpa/RoMEO, and other index databases.”

D-Wave Hardware Example

If you’ve cozied up to quantum computing articles, posts, or white papers in the past few years, like I have, you’ve heard about noise, errors, and interference all of which impact the pure processing and accuracy of quantum processors. A walkthrough of the D-Wave Advantage hardware illustrates how the various shield levels address those issues.

In the simplest terms, deep cold removes noise, hard vacuums remove gases, and Farraday cages remove electromagnetic disturbances. In terms of noise protection, D-Wave’s quantum chip operates in an environment of 15 milliKelvins or less above absolute zero at the bottom of the ‘chandelier’ with several stages above that reducing the temperature from 50 Kelvins (K) to 3K to 1 K and so on. Shielding in the form of a ‘vacuum can’ operates around the system to eliminate external gases/gas molecules from the dilution fridge/chamber. Electromagnetic interference or disturbances are eliminated by a Farraday cage. All in the pursuit of noise reduction.

Measuring Progress

While many are pursuing the challenge of hushing noisy qubits (or more accurately the noise that is impacting qubits), others are attempting to measure the progress. IBM suggests that “quantum volume” is a more accurate measure of quantum computing capability as it incorporates the “measure of the circuits’ quality; the higher the quality, the more complex circuits can be run on a quantum computer” in this case “2 to the power of the size of the largest circuit with equal width and depth that can pass a certain reliability test involving random two-qubit gates.”

IonQ, a global leader in trapped ion quantum computers, argues that algorithmic qubits is a better measure that either straight qubits or qubit volume. They even provide an algorithmic qubit calculator on their website which factors in physical qubits, average 2Q fidelity, and error correction overhead.

Conclusion

If you’re a student of quantum computing progress, you’ll see dozens of media articles talking about the number of qubits from tens to thousands, yet what really matters is the usable qubit, and the ability to leverage accurate computations from this new technology. The future is bright for quantum comuting but in 2021, there’s still lots of work to do.

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Brian’s upcoming book “Quantum Boost: Using Quantum Computing to Supercharge Your Business” is available for pre-order on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.ca

Copyright 2021, 2020 Aquitaine Innovation Advisors

Brian Lenahan is the author of four Amazon-published books on artificial intelligence including the Bestseller “Artificial Intelligence: Foundations for Business Leaders and Consultants”. He is a former executive in a Top 10 North American bank, a University Instructor, and mentors innovative companies in the Halton and Hamilton areas. Brian’s training in quantum computers comes from CERN/University of Oviedo, and Technische Universiteit Delft, and he writes extensively on quantum computing. His new book “Quantum Boost: Using Quantum Computing to Supercharge Your Business” will be released in early 2021.

Email: ceo@aquitaineinnovationadvisors.com

Aquitaine Innovation Advisors: www.aquitaineinnovationadvisors.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-lenahan-innovation/