IBM is Rolling out the World's First Universal 'Quantum Computing' Service

sakkmesterke/Shutterstock.com

We're all excited about the potential of quantum computers - devices that will harness strange quantum phenomena to perform calculations far more powerful than anything conventional computers can do today.

Unfortunately, we still don't have a tangible, large-scale quantum computer to freak out over just yet, but IBM is already preparing for a future when we do, by announcing that they're rolling out a universal 'quantum-computing' service later this year.

The service will be called IBM Q, and it will give people access to their early-stage quantum computer over the internet to use as they wish - for a fee.

The big elephant in the room is that, for now, IBM's quantum computer only runs on five qubits, so it's not much faster (if any faster) than a conventional computer.

But their technology is improving all the time. The company has announced it hopes to get to 50 qubits in the next few years, and in the meantime, it's building the online systems and software so that anyone in the world can access the full power of its quantum computer when it's ready. IBM Q is a crucial part of that.

QuantumComputing. The three types of quantum computing. Credit: ExtremeTech

Unlike conventional computers, which use 'bits' of either 1 or 0 to code information, quantum computers use a strange phenomenon known as superposition, which allows an atom to be in both the 1 and 0 position at the same time. These quantum bits, or qubits, give quantum computers far more processing power than traditional computers.

But right now, qubits are hard to make and manipulate, even for more the most high-tech labs. Which is why IBM only has five qubits working together in a computer, despite decades of research. And those qubits have to be cooled to temperatures just above absolute zero in order to function.

Companies such as Google, and multiple university research labs, have also built primitive quantum computers, and Google has even used theirs to simulate a molecule for the first time, showing the potential of this technology as it scales up.

But instead of just focussing on the hardware itself, IBM is also interested in the software around quantum computers, and how to give the public access to them.

"IBM has invested over decades to growing the field of quantum computing and we are committed to expanding access to quantum systems and their powerful capabilities for the science and business communities," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president of Hybrid Cloud and director for IBM Research.

IBM Q universal quantum computer Credit: YouTube

The system builds on the company's Quantum Experience, which was rolled out last year for free to approved researchers. IBM Q will use similar cloud software, but will also be open to businesses - and, more importantly, any programmers and developers who want to start experimenting with writing code for quantum systems.

The goal is to have a functional, commercial, cloud-based service ready to go when a fully realised quantum computer does come online.

"Putting the machine on the cloud is an obvious thing to do," physicist Christopher Monroe from the University of Maryland, who isn't involved with IBM, told Davide Castelvecchi over at Scientific American. "But it takes a lot of work in getting a system to that level."

The challenge is that while, on paper, a five-qubit machine is pretty easy to simulate and program for, real qubits don't quite work that way, because you're working with atoms that can change their behaviour based on environmental conditions

"The real challenge is whether you can make your algorithm work on real hardware that has imperfections," Isaac Chuang, a physicist at MIT who doesn't work with IBM, told Scientific American.

In their announcement, IBM said that in the past few months, more than 40,000 users have already used Quantum Experience to build and run 275,000 test applications, and 15 research papers have been published based off of it so far.

And they predict that in future, the quantum service will become even more useful.

"Quantum computers will deliver solutions to important problems where patterns cannot be seen because the data doesn't exist and the possibilities that you need to explore to get to the answer are too enormous to ever be processed by classical computers," said IBM in its announcement.

There's no word as yet on how much IBM Q will cost to use, or how users will be approved. But we have to admit it'd be pretty cool to be among the first to play around with quantum computing.



Other articles on the same theme:

• Quantum computer simulates hydrogen molecule

• The new supercomputer “Minerva” has been put into operation at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute, AEI).

• IBM developed the first artificial neurons

• New Particle zoo in a quantum computer First experimental quantum simulation of particle physics phenomena

Story source:


The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Sciencealert . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Quantum computer simulates hydrogen molecule

A prototype quantum computer has been used to calculate the electronic structure of a hydrogen molecule for the first time, demonstrating the possibility of performing complex quantum-mechanical simulations of molecular processes on such devices.


Updated 02/05/2020

The quantum computer was constructed by researchers at Google’s research laboratories in California, US. Together with colleagues elsewhere in the US and in the UK, a team led by John Martinis used the device to perform electronic structure calculations that they say can be readily scaled up to more complex cases.1

IBM BrandVoice: The Quantum Computing Era Is Here. Why It Matters Forbes

The possibility of simulating quantum systems without the approximations necessary with classical computers was what prompted Richard Feynman to propose quantum computing back in 1982. As quantum computers have come closer to reality, much of the attention has been focused on the greater speed they should achieve relative to classical devices. But some feel that quantum simulation will end up being the ‘killer application’ that makes the effort worthwhile.

Roche - Quantum computers - Calculating the unimaginable

This is not the first time that a quantum-chemistry algorithm has been implemented on a proto-quantum computer. But previous efforts have not been able to exploit the full advantages of a quantum-based approach, because they have required costly ‘pre-computation’ steps on a classical computer, which limits the degree of complexity that can be handled this way. ’What is new here is that this work uses a scalable quantum computing architecture,’ says Matthias Troyer of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who was not involved in the research.


A combined approach

Google’s digital quantum computer uses superconducting devices for its quantum bits (qubits), in which information can be encoded in the quantum states of the supercurrent.2 To carry out the electronic structure calculation for a hydrogen molecule, the researchers used two different methods, called the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) and phase-estimation algorithm (PEA).

Wired Google's Quantum Victory Is a Huge Deal—and a Letdown

‘We might soon see quantum computers that outperform classical ones for certain problems’‘Both are efficient quantum algorithms for finding ground-state energies,’ says team member Peter O’Malley, ‘but they take different approaches and have different advantages and disadvantages.’ The PEA method can in principle get the answer with arbitrary precision, but only if there are no errors in the process.

In practice errors are always present, in which case the VQE method works better. This involves using a series of successive algorithms that gradually improve on an initial guess at the molecule’s wavefunction. By adjusting the parameters in the wavefunction, it is possible to compensate for errors incurred in the computational steps and still get an answer – for the dissociation energy, say – essentially the same as that obtained from a detailed classical simulation of the molecule.

The researchers say that it is already possible to simulate more complicated molecules than hydrogen with their device. ‘The benefit of quantum simulation is that you only need a quantum simulator roughly the size of the molecule you want to simulate,’ says O’Malley. The calculation used only a third of the available qubits, and the team is now building quantum chips that should be able to model small transition-metal complexes.


‘All of these problems are still trivial and the effort of just controlling the quantum computer is still much more than that of solving the problem classically,’ says Troyer. He adds that we may soon see quantum computers that outperform classical ones for certain problems, but that doing quantum-chemistry calculations beyond the power of classical computers will take a few years longer.

Other articles on the same theme:

• New Particle zoo in a quantum computer First experimental quantum simulation of particles

• New Solar System Internet Technology Debuts on the International Space Station

• Scientists convert carbon dioxide to create electricity

source: rsc

New Particle zoo in a quantum computer ! First experimental quantum simulation of particle physics phenomena

Researchers simulated the creation of elementary particle pairs out of the vacuum by using a quantum computer.

Credit: IQOQI/Harald Ritsch

Updated today 28/05/2021

Elementary particles are the fundamental buildings blocks of matter, and their properties are described by the Standard Model of particle physics. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the CERN in 2012 constitutes a further step towards the confirmation of the Standard Model. However, many aspects of this theory are still not understood because their complexity makes it hard to investigate them with classical computers. 

The Higgs boson CERN

Quantum computers may provide a way to overcome this obstacle as they can simulate certain aspects of elementary particle physics in a well-controlled quantum system. Physicists from the University of Innsbruck and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now done exactly that: In an international first, Rainer Blatt's and Peter Zoller's research teams have simulated lattice gauge theories in a quantum computer. They describe their work in the journal Nature.

IQOQI Innsbruck on Twitter: "Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller are awarded the #Micius Prize, which is presented for the first time this year. With Anton Zeilinger, Ignacio Cirac and Jian-Wei Pan, three

Simulation of particle-antiparticle pairs using a quantum computer

Gauge theories describe the interaction between elementary particles, such as quarks and gluons, and they are the basis for our understanding of fundamental processes. 

particle antiparticle

"Dynamical processes, for example, the collision of elementary particles or the spontaneous creation of particle-antiparticle pairs, are extremely difficult to investigate," explains Christine Muschik, theoretical physicist at the IQOQI. "However, scientists quickly reach a limit when processing numerical calculations on classical computers. For this reason, it has been proposed to simulate these processes by using a programmable quantum system." 

Particles & Antiparticles - Physics A-Level Revision Science

In recent years, many interesting concepts have been proposed, but until now it was impossible to realize them. "We have now developed a new concept that allows us to simulate the spontaneous creation of electron-positron pairs out of the vacuum by using a quantum computer," says Muschik. 

The quantum system consists of four electromagnetically trapped calcium ions that are controlled by laser pulses. "Each pair of ions represent a pair of a particle and an antiparticle," explains experimental physicist Esteban A. Martinez.

  "We use laser pulses to simulate the electromagnetic field in a vacuum. Then we are able to observe how particle pairs are created by quantum fluctuations from the energy of this field. By looking at the ion's fluorescence, we see whether particles and antiparticles were created. We are able to modify the parameters of the quantum system, which allows us to observe and study the dynamic process of pair creation."

Combining different fields of physics. With this experiment, the physicists in Innsbruck have built a bridge between two different fields in physics: They have used atomic physics experiments to study questions in high-energy physics. While hundreds of theoretical physicists work on the highly complex theories of the Standard Model and experiments are carried out at extremely expensive facilities, such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, quantum simulations may be carried out by small groups in tabletop experiments. "These two approaches complement one another perfectly," says theoretical physicist Peter Zoller . "We cannot replace the experiments that are done with particle colliders. However, by developing quantum simulators, we may be able to understand these experiments better one day."

Experimental physicist Rainer Blatt adds: "Moreover, we can study new processes by using quantum simulation. For example, in our experiment we also investigated particle entanglement produced during pair creation, which is not possible in a particle collider." The physicists are convinced that future quantum simulators will potentially be able to solve important questions in high-energy physics that cannot be tackled by conventional methods.

Foundation for a new research field.It was only a few years ago that the idea to combine high-energy and atomic physics was proposed. With this work it has been implemented experimentally for the first time. "This approach is conceptually very different from previous quantum simulation experiments studying many-body physics or quantum chemistry. The simulation of elementary particle processes is theoretically very complex and, therefore, has to satisfy very specific requirements. For this reason it is difficult to develop a suitable protocol," underlines Zoller. The conditions for the experimental physicists were equally demanding: "This is one of the most complex experiments that has ever been carried out in a trapped-ion quantum computer," says Blatt. "We are still figuring out how these quantum simulations work and will only gradually be able to apply them to more challenging phenomena." The great theoretical as well as experimental expertise of the physicists in Innsbruck was crucial for the breakthrough. Both Blatt and Zoller emphasize that they have been doing research on quantum computers for many years now and have gained a lot of experience in their implementation. Innsbruck has become one of the leading centers for research in quantum physics; here, the theoretical and experimental branches work together at an extremely high level, which enables them to gain novel insights into fundamental phenomena.

The scientists are financially supported by the University of Innsbruck, the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, the European Union and the Federation of Austrian Industries Tyrol, among others.

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Innsbruck. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Source : uibk