A selection of the most important recent news, articles, and papers about Quantum.
General News, Articles, and Analyses
1. Neutral atom innovations by quantum systems accelerator mark quantum computing milestones
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-neutral-atom-quantum-milestones.html
Author: Keri Troutman
(Friday, September 6, 2024) “Before quantum computers can solve complex problems, researchers must develop technologies that manage larger numbers of qubits (the building blocks of quantum computers) for extended periods. Neutral atoms play an important role in this effort and are promising for quantum computing because they offer a stable, controllable, and scalable platform for building qubits and implementing quantum operations.”
2. Department of Energy Announces $65 Million for Quantum Computing Research | Department of Energy
(Monday, September 9, 2024) “The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $65 million in funding in quantum computing for 10 projects, comprising a total of 38 separate awards.”
3. Quantinuum accelerates the path to Universal Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing; supports Microsoft’s AI and quantum-powered compute platform and “the path to a Quantum Supercomputer”
(Tuesday, September 10, 2024) “Quantinuum will achieve universal fault-tolerant quantum computing, built on foundations such as a universal fault-tolerant gate set, high fidelity physical qubits uniquely capable of supporting reliable logical qubits, and a fully-scalable architecture”
4. Microsoft, Quantinuum combine HPC, AI, quantum to solve real-world chemistry problem
Author: Linnea Ahlgren
(Tuesday, September 10, 2024) “Tech giant Microsoft and leading quantum computer developer Quantinuum have hit two more significant markers on the path towards scientific quantum advantage. They have successfully created 12 highly reliable logical qubits and demonstrated a hybrid end-to-end chemistry simulation, utilising a combination of HPC, AI, and quantum.”
5. Microsoft announces the best performing logical qubits on record and will provide priority access to reliable quantum hardware in Azure Quantum – The Official Microsoft Blog
Author: Jason Zander
(Tuesday, September 10, 2024) “At Microsoft, we’re ushering in a new era of computing on the path to unlocking scientific advantage and tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. This is why we’re building Azure Quantum — to create the first platform for reliable quantum computing and achieve the vision of quantum at scale.”
6. Quantum Source nabs $50M to develop practical, large-scale quantum computing – SiliconANGLE
Author: Kyt Dotson
(Tuesday, September 10, 2024) “Tel Aviv-based startup Quantum Source Labs Ltd. today announced that it has raised $50 million in early-stage funding with the aim to develop cost-effective, practical quantum computing solutions at large scale that can unlock the commercial potential for the new technology.”
Technical Papers, Articles, and Preprints
1. [2409.05846] An Introduction to Quantum Reinforcement Learning (QRL)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.05846
Author: Chen, Samuel Yen-Chi
(Monday, September 9, 2024) “Recent advancements in quantum computing (QC) and machine learning (ML) have sparked considerable interest in the integration of these two cutting-edge fields. Among the various ML techniques, reinforcement learning (RL) stands out for its ability to address complex sequential decision-making problems. RL has already demonstrated substantial success in the classical ML community. Now, the emerging field of Quantum Reinforcement Learning (QRL) seeks to enhance RL algorithms by incorporating principles from quantum computing. This paper offers an introduction to this exciting area for the broader AI and ML community.”
2. [2409.06159] Visual Analytics of Performance of Quantum Computing Systems and Circuit Optimization
https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06159
Authors: Chae, Junghoon; Steed, Chad A.; and Humble, Travis S.
(Tuesday, September 10, 2024) “Driven by potential exponential speedups in business, security, and scientific scenarios, interest in quantum computing is surging. This interest feeds the development of quantum computing hardware, but several challenges arise in optimizing application performance for hardware metrics (e.g., qubit coherence and gate fidelity). In this work, we describe a visual analytics approach for analyzing the performance properties of quantum devices and quantum circuit optimization. Our approach allows users to explore spatial and temporal patterns in quantum device performance data and it computes similarities and variances in key performance metrics. Detailed analysis of the error properties characterizing individual qubits is also supported. We also describe a method for visualizing the optimization of quantum circuits. The resulting visualization tool allows researchers to design more efficient quantum algorithms and applications by increasing the interpretability of quantum computations.”