Quantum Computing Report by GQI - Week 52, 2023

Kipu Quantum Raises a €10.5 Million ($11.5M USD) Seed Round

Kipu Quantum, a German quantum software company, has successfully raised a seed round funding of 10.5 million EUR. This funding will be used for the further development of their hardware-specific quantum algorithms. The financing round was led by HV Capital and DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF) with additional participation from existing shareholders, Entrada Ventures, Quantonation, and First Moment Ventures, and also new investors Onsight Ventures and QAI Ventures. The funds will be used to expand their team of quantum scientists, researchers, and engineers, with the goal of reducing the time to industrially-useful quantum computers by several years.

Kipu Quantum’s unique approach involves the development of massively compressed algorithms that allow the use of today’s quantum processors across multiple industries without waiting for larger quantum computers. These algorithms are based on a unique compression technology that requires significantly less quantum processor resources to solve a given problem than comparable approaches. This approach has led them to set a new performance world record for protein folding, beating the previous record by IBM. The company is currently testing its technology with customers in the pharmaceutical, chemical, logistics, and financial industries. They have announced several collaborations this year including ones we previously reported on with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), University of Santiago de Chile, QuEra, and Pasqal

A press release provided by Kipu Quantum announcing this new funding is available here.

QuantaMap Receives €1.4 Million ($1.5M USD) in Early Stage Venture Funding

QuantaMap, a Dutch quantum technologies startup, has secured €1.4 million in early-stage funding to improve the production of quantum computer chips. The funding round was led by QDNL Participations and will be combined with a grant for SMEs provided by the Quantum Delta NL foundation. The funds will be used to further develop the technology and scale production capabilities.

Quantum computing has the potential to solve complex problems in various fields, but the production of quantum chips is challenging. QuantaMap has developed a novel microscope that allows quantum researchers and chip manufacturers to closely inspect each chip to assure and improve its quality. The company’s technology combines cryogenic scanning with quantum sensors, tailored specifically for quantum applications.

The technology is designed to address specific issues that affect quantum chip performance and production yields. It identifies the origin of losses and impurities at the nanometer scale by imaging local temperature rise, electric currents, and magnetic fields, all at low temperatures to maintain the chip’s operating conditions during imaging.

QuantaMap was founded in November 2022 by Johannes Jobst, Kaveh Lahabi, Milan Allan, and Jimi de Haan. The quantum sensor at the heart of QuantaMap’s products was invented by Lahabi and his research team at Leiden University. The startup aims to become the standard for chip R&D and quality assurance in the quantum computing industry and sees potential in helping the traditional semiconductor industry embrace cryogenic computing technology in data centers.

Additional information is available in a LinkedIn posting made by the company here.

PsiQuantum and Microsoft Selected to Move on to Phase 2 of DARPA’s Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC)?Program

About a year ago, the Defense Advanced Project Research Agency announced a new program called Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC). Its purpose is to provide some funding for?underexplored and revolutionary approaches to quantum computing that might achieve progress faster than some of the more conventional QC approaches being taken. (In other words, superconducting and ion trap developers need not apply!). As we reported in January, DARPA selected three manufacturers to participate in Phase 1 of this program including PsiQuantum (photonic based), Microsoft (topological qubit based), and Atom Computing (neutral atom based). In this phase, each participant worked to develop and ?present a design concept describing their plans to create a utility-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer.

In Phase 2, the goal for PsiQuantum and Microsoft will be to build and demonstrate a system design for a fault-tolerant prototype. This will be a smaller scale system that will contain all the design concepts and operate as intended. It will include identifying all the required components and sub-systems and associated specifications needed to meet the performance goals. Phase 2 will last until March 2025 and at completion the government experts will evaluate the results for design viability.

DARPA has issued a news release announcing the Phase 2 US2QC participant selections and you can find it here.

Infleqtion Joins Japan’s Quantum Moonshot Program, Pioneering Neutral Atom Quantum Computing Advancements

Infleqtion, a leading quantum information company, has been chosen by Japan’s Science and Technology Agency for the Quantum Moonshot program, positioning itself as the sole foreign quantum computing partner. This collaboration signifies a groundbreaking moment for Infleqtion’s quantum computing platform. Working under the guidance of Professor Kenji Ohmori, a global authority in ultrafast atom control for quantum computing, Infleqtion will contribute to the development of a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer based on atomic qubits. Professor Ohmori’s recent achievement of an ultrafast 2-qubit gate between single atoms has dramatically accelerated the operation of neutral atom quantum computers.

The Quantum Moonshot program aims to advance Japan’s technological landscape and transform its economy, industry, and security by 2050. Infleqtion, known for its neutral atom quantum computing platform, brings years of expertise to the program, offering a scalable solution with high-quality qubits. Notably, neutral atom technology exhibits exceptional coherence times, robust connectivity, scalability, and reduced complexity in comparison to other modalities.

Professor Ohmori expresses anticipation in leveraging Infleqtion’s expertise to push the boundaries of quantum computing, marking a significant advancement for Japan. Scott Faris, CEO of Infleqtion, acknowledges the honor in contributing to Japan’s Quantum Moonshot program, emphasizing the transformative potential of this collaboration. This marks a pivotal moment for Infleqtion’s quantum computing platform, with the partnership promising to achieve new heights in quantum capabilities for Japan.

For additional information, you can access a press release the company has provided here.

Alice & Bob Tapes Out New Chip with Error Correction in Quest to Achieve a 0.0001% Logical Qubit Error Rate

The chip is codenamed Helium 1 and contains 16 qubits to test out Alice & Bob’s cat qubit architecture for achieving a very high fidelity logical qubit. The term “tape out” means that the company has finished the design and sent the design files to a fabrication facility for construction. After the chip has been built, it will undergo extensive testing, characterization, and calibration by the company’s engineering team to realize the optimum performance and then made available for external use by the company’s customers. Any lessons learned during this process will be utilized in the design of the next chip so that even better characteristics can be achieved.

Alice & Bob’s cat qubit approach is different from what other companies are pursuing. In a quantum computer there are two basic types of errors that can occur, bit-flips and phase-flips. So conventional quantum error codes, like the surface code, need to be design to correct both types of errors. In the Alice & Bob architecture, the bit flips are nearly eliminated by the hardware architecture that they use so that their error codes only need to correct for phase flips. A key advantage of this approach is that it could significantly reduce the number of physical qubits needed to produce a logical qubit by as much as 60 times and enable much smaller machines to achieve quantum utility on real world problems. Assuming this chip is successful in meeting its goals, it will represent just one of a series of many more steps that will be needed to achieve a truly useful fault tolerant quantum computer.

A press release announcing the tape out of the Helium 1 chip can be accessed here.

Japan Unveils Third Superconducting Quantum Computer at Osaka University

A groundbreaking collaboration led by the Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology at Osaka University has successfully unveiled Japan’s third superconducting quantum computer. Partnering with key institutions such as RIKEN, NTT Corporation, and Amazon Web Services, and a consortium including e-trees.Japan, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, QuEL, Inc., QunaSys Inc., and Systems Engineering Consultants Co.,LTD, the consortium leveraged a 64-qubit chip from RIKEN, showcasing a commitment to utilize Japanese domestic components. Set to be accessible via cloud services starting December 22, 2023, this achievement marks a significant stride in quantum computing accessibility.

This quantum leap positions the research team, featuring luminaries like Dr. Masahiro Kitagawa (Osaka University), Dr. Makoto Negoro (Osaka University), Dr. Yasunobu Nakamura (Riken), Dr. Shintaro Sato (Fujitsu), and others, to explore quantum algorithms, enhance software operations, and remotely delve into applications spanning machine learning, material development, and drug discovery. With an emphasis on sustainability, the quantum computer, equipped with components manufactured in Japan, serves as a test bed for advancing the nation’s quantum capabilities.

Noteworthy is the consortium’s dedication to progress, evidenced by plans to refine software, optimize cloud workload processing, and drive advancements in quantum algorithms. The anticipated outcomes include breakthroughs in machine learning and quantum algorithm development, as well as solutions for optimization problems with environmental implications.

This development was supported by grants from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Quantum Leap Flagship Program, the Japan Science and Technology Agency ERATO’s “Nakamura Macroscopic Quantum Machine Project”, and the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program.

A press release containing additional information about this project has been posted on Fujitsu’s website and can be accessed here.

Riverlane Partners with Rolls-Royce and NQCC to Explore Accelerating Materials Design Using Quantum Computing

Riverlane, Rolls-Royce, and the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) have partnered to accelerate materials discovery using quantum computing. The collaboration aims to build computational tools to simulate large, complex materials on a quantum computer, a task that is currently challenging for classical algorithms.

The Quantum Accelerator for Materials Design (QuaMaD) project, building on Riverlane’s existing algorithms research, will significantly reduce the number of qubits (quantum bits) required for the quantum simulation of new materials. This is crucial as modern pharmaceutical, chemical, and materials companies rely on simulation to develop new materials and medicines.

Riverlane’s Quantum Error Correction Stack, which sits between the qubit and application layers of the quantum computing stack, reduces the errors at the qubit level, thereby reducing the number of qubits required to run complex algorithms. The QuaMaD project addresses this challenge, allowing materials design experts to benefit sooner from quantum computers.

Leigh Lapworth, Rolls-Royce Fellow in Computational Science, highlighted the potential of quantum computing to revolutionize the understanding and design of new materials. This is particularly relevant for Rolls-Royce, as jet engines operate at temperatures beyond the melting point of the materials used, creating a hostile environment for its components.

Dr. Simon Plant, Deputy Director for Innovation at NQCC, emphasized the project’s aim to harness the power of quantum computing for industrially relevant applications in the fault-tolerant era. The methodologies developed in this project will be integrated into Riverlane’s Quantum Error Correction Stack, Deltaflow, for quantum computers.

The QuaMaD project is funded by Innovate UK, aligning with the UK National Quantum Strategy objectives to solve problems of interest for leading technology businesses and promote the adoption of quantum computing in key sectors of the UK economy. A press release announcing provided by Riverlane announcing this effort can be found here.

Quantum South’s Automatic Package Selection and Ordering (APSO) is Now Available on the International Air Transportation Association’s (IATA) Open API Hub

Quantum-South’s product, Automatic Package Selection and Ordering (APSO), is a quantum-inspired optimization tool that increases cargo load factors in load planning scenarios. It considers multiple optimization objectives and constraints to return optimal load plans for each container. APSO is now available on the International Air Transportation Association’s (IATA) Open API Hub, a hub which allows airline industry organizations to discover and collaborate with APIs from trusted providers. It is a Software as a Service (SaaS) designed to optimize package selection during loading scenarios for airlines, cargo handlers, and warehouse operators. It addresses capacity utilization challenges in the air cargo industry, enabling optimal selection and ordering of packages within Unit Load Devices (ULDs). The APSO API token on the IATA Hub is limited for free demo testing. Quantum-South has conducted Proof-of-Concepts with industry leaders like IAG Cargo and Amerijet International, increasing capacity utilization by up to 30%. Additional information is available in a blog posted on the Quantum South website here and also a product page for APSO which can be seen here.

Rydberg Technologies Demonstrates Ultra Sensitive, High Bandwidth RF Quantum Sensing to the U.S. Army

Rydberg Technologies, a leader in Rydberg quantum technologies and radio frequency (RF) quantum sensing, has successfully demonstrated the world’s first long-range radio communications with an atomic quantum sensor. The demonstration took place at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) C5ISR Center Network Modernization Experiment 2023 (NetModX23) event. The Rydberg atomic receiver device showed exceptional sensitivity across high-frequency (HF) to super high-frequency (SHF) bands and set new industry standards in size, performance, and environmental resilience. The device’s unique features include high sensitivity, selectivity, and wideband coverage using a single atomic detector element. This technology has the potential to revolutionize RF surveillance, safety, communications, and networking capabilities. The development of the Rydberg Atomic Receiver was supported by the National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC) funding initiative. A press release from Rydberg Technologies announcing this successful demonstration can be accessed here.

Qubitekk and Qunnect?Demonstrate Quantum Networking Interoperability on the EPB Quantum Network

Quantum technology companies Qubitekk and Qunnect have successfully demonstrated the first interoperability of equipment on a commercial quantum network, EPB Quantum Network?, marking a significant milestone in the quantum technology industry. The demonstration involved Qunnect’s Automatic Polarization Controller (QU-APC), which was tested for compatibility with Qubitekk’s entangled photon source. The QU-APC performed fast channel stabilization, maintaining 99% fidelity with 99%+ channel uptime. This collaboration paves the way for the integration of diverse quantum technologies for enhanced communication capabilities and is a crucial step towards identifying solutions for aerial fiber quantum networks or hybrid buried/aerial networks. Qunnect was just recently added as a user onto the EPB network with a goal of testing interoperability and this is the first result of their testing. A press release with additional details about these tests is available on the EPB website here.

Quantum Collaboration Advances HVAC Design: VINCI Energies, QuantumBasel, and D-Wave Lead Sustainable Innovation

An international collaboration between VINCI Energies, QuantumBasel, and D-Wave has achieved a breakthrough in sustainable building design using quantum computing. Spearheaded by VINCI Energies | DIANE, uptownBasel | QuantumBasel, and D-Wave, the project focused on optimizing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for complex buildings. In the first phase, the team successfully translated the HVAC network generation problem into a constrained quadratic model (CQM), poised for efficient resolution by D-Wave’s quantum-classical hybrid solvers. This marked a significant departure from conventional methods towards a more innovative quantum-classical hybrid approach. The implementation phase saw the CQM translated into Python code and processed by D-Wave’s hybrid solvers. Results showcased superior HVAC network designs, surpassing traditional data-driven methods. Notably, these designs offered quicker solutions with reduced duct lengths and construction elements, validated by VINCI Energies’ experts. Moving forward, the project aims to translate technical improvements into tangible business impact, promising reduced computation time and less manual engineering effort. A press release with additional information about this project has been posted on D-Wave’s website here.

Research Roundup for December 2023

By Dr Chris Mansell, Senior Scientific Writer at Terra Quantum

Shown below are summaries of a few interesting research papers in quantum technology that we have seen over the past month.

Hardware

Title: Logical quantum processor based on reconfigurable atom arrays Organizations: Harvard University; QuEra Computing Inc.; NIST/University of Maryland; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Rydberg interactions enable logic gates to be performed between ultracold atoms. The infidelity of such gates has decreased exponentially from above 0.1 over a decade ago to well below 0.01 currently. Some of the recent success has arisen from making the atoms colder, placing them closer together and subjecting them to fewer, higher-power laser pulses. In this paper, the high-fidelity gates were crucial, as was the ability to coherently move many atoms in parallel from one end of the atom array to the other. The headline result is that 280 atoms were used to make up to 48 logical qubits and demonstrate various quantum error correction protocols. Future work will involve technical improvements to the system that may allow repetitive error correction to be performed during a logical quantum algorithm. Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06927-3

Title: Breaking the Entangling Gate Speed Limit for Trapped-Ion Qubits Using a Phase-Stable Standing Wave Organization: University of Oxford One of the DiVincenzo criteria for qubits is that their coherence time must be much longer than the average duration of their logic gates. Experimental measurements of trapped-ion qubits put their coherence time to gate duration ratio at about one million. This is better than the other leading quantum computing platforms by several orders of magnitude. However, all other things being equal, shorter gate durations are better. Even though the logic gates between trapped ions have very high fidelities, they are considerably slower than their rivals. In this paper, the researchers use standing waves to experimentally implement fast gates between ions. This approach could be extended to mitigate the leading source of error in one of their prior schemes for fast, high-fidelity gates based on Raman transitions. Link: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.220601

Title: Vacuum Beam Guide for Large Scale Quantum Networks Organizations: University of Chicago; LIGO Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; Stanford University Which is more impressive: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory(LIGO)?that allows us to detect ripples in the fabric of space-time or the billions of kilometers of optical fiber that have transformed the way information is sent across the globe? Quantum technologists are always on the lookout for whatever is most effective and in the case of quantum communication, the attenuation coefficient of today’s optical fibers is too high. With the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere limiting the range of satellite-based quantum channels, the authors of this preprint suggest that the way forward is to repurpose the incredible tools and techniques employed by LIGO. In particular, they calculate that high-precision optical elements placed into a long-distance vacuum enclosure would let quantum information propagate with an attenuation coefficient three orders of magnitude smaller than fibers. With such little attenuation, a continental-scale quantum network could be established without relying on quantum repeaters. Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.09372

Title: Reconstructing Complex States of a 20-Qubit Quantum Simulator Organizations: University of Calgary; University of Oxford; Russian Quantum Center; Technology Innovation Institute, Abu Dhabi; Universit?t Innsbruck; Alpine Quantum Technologies GmbH; ?sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften; National University of Science and Technology “MISIS” Quantum state tomography is the task of fully characterising an unknown quantum state given many independent copies of it. When there is no guarantee that this unknown state belongs to a particular class of states, exponentially many copies are needed. In practice, however, an experimenter will typically know that the quantum state was produced by, say, a one-dimensional quantum processor with nearest-neighbour interactions. In such a scenario, one could describe the unknown state using a parameterized ansatz. In this paper, the researchers considered data from a 20-qubit ion trap experiment and employed ansatzes based on either neural networks or matrix product states. They found that the latter was superior for the data in question. They attributed this to a couple of positive attributes of the ansatz but cautioned that it would not work well if the quantum processor were to produce states with volume-law entanglement scaling.? Link: https://journals.aps.org/prxquantum/abstract/10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.040345

Software

Title: Does provable absence of barren plateaus imply classical simulability? Or, why we need to rethink variational quantum computing Organizations: Los Alamos National Laboratory; Oak Ridge; Universidad Nacional de La Plata; University of Strathclyde; Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Donostia International Physics Center; University of Waterloo; Vector Institute; Chulalongkorn University; Caltech At first glance, variational quantum algorithms appear easier to design than conventional algorithms. However, experience has shown that barren plateaus are so prevalent that this is not the case. As the title of the paper suggests, we may need to rethink variational quantum computing. The authors of the paper argue that making a variational quantum algorithm easier to train inadvertently makes it easier to classically simulate. There are a few caveats. Firstly, the classical computer simulating the algorithm may still need access to some data generated by an initial run of a quantum computer. This means that even though the variational aspect of the model is no longer needed, quantum computers still play an important role. Secondly, there is the possibility that, just like with classical neural networks, things will work better in practice than they do in theory. In particular, the results of the paper only apply to models where we can prove that there aren’t barren plateaus. This means that when we cannot prove anything about the model, it may be easy to train but nevertheless hard to simulate. Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.09121

Title: Quantum Multiple Kernel Learning in Financial Classification Tasks Organizations: IBM; HSBC Popular machine learning methods usually process one data point at a time (e.g., supervised learning using either a quantum circuit or a classical neural network). However, kernel-based machine learning protocols accept pairs of data points and evaluate how similar they are. This makes them well suited to classification tasks because the data points in one class should be similar to each other but different from those belonging to another class. In this paper, a quantum multiple kernel algorithm was used for financial classification tasks. It was run on IBM quantum hardware and error mitigation was employed, with promising results being demonstrated for up to 20 qubits. Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00260

Title: Statistical Phase Estimation and Error Mitigation on a Superconducting Quantum Processor Organizations: Riverlane; University of Sheffield; Astex Pharmaceuticals Quantum phase estimation is a quantum algorithm for calculating the ground-state energy of molecules. The authors of this paper proposed a new way to do this that improves the accuracy by one to two orders of magnitude compared to earlier theoretical results. Using seven qubits of a Rigetti superconducting quantum processor, they applied their method to chemicals that have active spaces with up to four electrons in four spatial orbitals. They used error mitigation techniques and found the correct energies to within chemical precision. Link: https://journals.aps.org/prxquantum/abstract/10.1103/PRXQuantum.4.040341

Title: Quantum Optimization: Potential, Challenges, and the Path Forward Organizations: Quantum Optimization Working Group Computers are devices that reliably carry out logical, mathematical operations and, as such, their capabilities are extremely amenable to theoretical analysis. They are also highly engineered, physical systems that can be empirically tested in numerous ways. Both approaches are responsible for the computing industry’s incredible progress. This review paper on quantum optimization reviews insights from computational complexity theory before discussing the practicalities of noisy quantum hardware and the importance of benchmarks. From finance to sustainability, the impact that improved optimization algorithms could have on our world at large is clear. The likelihood that these improvements could come from quantum algorithms is the central question that this paper comprehensively explores. Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.02279

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