QSI Seminar: Prof Sergio Boixo, Google Research, LA, Quantum Supremacy, 05/04/2020

This talk explains the quantum supremacy milestone achieved by Google.

TITLE: Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor
SPEAKER: Prof Sergio Boixo
AFFILIATION: Google Research, Los Angeles, USA
HOSTED BY: Prof Michael Bremner, UTS Centre for Quantum Science and Information

ABSTRACT:
The promise of quantum computers is that certain computational tasks might be executed exponentially faster on a quantum processor than on a classical processor. A fundamental challenge is to build a high-fidelity processor capable of running quantum algorithms in an exponentially large computational space.
Here we report the use of a processor with programmable superconducting qubits to create quantum states on 53 qubits, corresponding to a computational state-space of dimension 2^53 (about 10^16). Measurements from repeated experiments sample the resulting probability distribution, which we verify using classical simulations.
Our Sycamore processor takes about 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times—our benchmarks currently indicate that the equivalent task for a state-of-the-art classical supercomputer would take approximately 10,000 years. This dramatic increase in speed compared to all known classical algorithms is an experimental realization of quantum supremacy for this specific computational task, heralding a much-anticipated computing paradigm.

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