ERCIM News 128
January 2022
Special theme E-values:Quantum Computing
Guest editors Shaukat Ali (SIMULA) and Sølve Selstø (Oslo Metropolitan University)
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by Shaukat Ali (SIMULA) and Sølve Selstø (Oslo Metropolitan University)
The development of quantum theory, which started early last century, has had an impact that can hardly be overestimated. Within the fields of physics and chemistry, it has been a true game changer; but its impact is broader than this. Our new knowledge about the nature of matter has had vast implications for our understanding of nature itself. And quantum theory has brought about new technology – such as microscopy and metrology with unprecedented resolution, lasers, spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and semiconductor-based technology, to name a few.
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by Sebastian Bock, Raphael Seidel, Colin Kai-Uwe Becker (Fraunhofer FOKUS)
Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that are currently not tractable. In order to leverage this potential, the article presents concepts of a high-level quantum programming language and corresponding software layers to pave a way for efficient and interoperable programming of quantum computers.
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by Jukka K. Nurminen, Arianne Meijer, Ilmo Salmenperä and Leo Becker (University of Helsinki)
As quantum computers are developing, the need for quantum software is becoming increasingly important. To take advantage of the new hardware, software developers are faced with new questions: Can quantum computing be useful for my problem? How do I formulate my problem to a quantum computer and interpret its answer? How do I integrate, test, monitor, and maintain quantum software? Our research at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki is investigating these questions.
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by Ferruccio Damiani, Luca Paolini and Luca Roversi (Università di Torino, Italia)
We point out the relevant features of the incoming quantum devices in a programming perspective. Then, we outline some issues that programming languages should face and some solution attempts. We conclude arguing how quantum programming language will ease the quantum spreading in the information and communications technology world.
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by Mogens Dalgaard (Aarhus University), Felix Motzoi (Forschungszentrum Jülich) and Jacob Sherson (Aarhus University)
Achieving high-performing control of quantum systems is a formidable challenge that is being addressed by physicists around the world. Pushing beyond the current frontier could help realise quantum technologies within communication, sensing, drug design, machine learning, optimisation, and computation. Our work demonstrates that the state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithm, AlphaZero, initially designed for playing board games such as chess, can also control a quantum system.
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by Tao Yue (Simula Research Laboratory), Paolo Arcaini (National Institute of Informatics, Japan) and Shaukat Ali (Simula Research Laboratory)
Quantum software testing provides systematic and automated ways to test quantum programs to guarantee their correctness and dependability. Such a guarantee is critical to delivering the pledged revolutionary quantum computing applications to the world.
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by Sergiy Denysov (OsloMet), Sølve Selstø (OsloMet) and Are Magnus Bruaset (Simula Research Laboratory)
Emulations of quantum algorithms on classical computers remain the key part of the benchmarking of the present-day quantum computers. The continuous growth of the number of qubits in these prototypes makes the corresponding simulations very resource intensive. When preparing to perform them on a cluster, we must make good use of classical high performance computing techniques, like multithreading and GPU acceleration, as well as take into account the particular architecture of the cluster. In this situation, the question posed in the title becomes highly relevant.
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by Peter Rakyta (ELTE), Ágoston Kaposi, Zoltán Kolarovszki, Tamás Kozsik (ELTE), and Zoltán Zimborás (Wigner)
We are at the start of an exciting era for quantum computing, in which we are learning to manipulate many quantum degrees of freedom in a controlled way. At this point, it is vital for us to develop classical simulators of quantum computers to enable the study of new quantum protocols and algorithms. As the experiments move closer to realising quantum computers of sufficient complexity, their work must be guided by an understanding of what tasks we can hope to perform. Within the framework of the Quantum Information National Laboratory of Hungary [L1], we have developed a highly efficient photonic quantum computer simulator system, which is composed of Piquasso [L2], a flexible user-friendly general simulator of photonic quantum computers and of Piquasso Boost [L3], a high-performance simulator software stack. We report about this software system’s performance for simulating the Boson Sampling protocol focusing on Piquasso Boost and on its enhancement by a data-flow engine based permanent calculator device developed in a collaboration with Maxeler Technologies [L4].
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by Gábor Ivanyos, Attila Pereszlényi and Lajos Rónyai (ELKH SZTAKI, BME)
The Theory of Computing Research Group of the Informatics Laboratory at ELKH SZTAKI has studied quantum algorithms for various computational problems. We outline two projects in this area: one in computational algebra and one in machine learning.
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by Maxime Garnier and Harold Ollivier (Inria)
Delegation, privacy and integrity of quantum computations are prerequisites for quantum computing to have a real-world economic impact. Companies will not buy machines but rather access services on demand through service providers. In doing so, they need to be confident that the computations are executed correctly while not putting their data and intellectual property at risk. The recently introduced protocol of [1] is the first practical solution towards achieving this goal as it provides security through disentangled single qubit quantum communications without hardware overhead on the provider's side while also being robust to noise. As a result, it is considered a blueprint use case for quantum networks and can provide design guidelines for security for quantum computers.
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by François Fillion-Gourdeau (Institute for Quantum Computing and Infinite Potential Laboratories)
Quantum algorithms have been developed to solve two important classes of partial differential equations: the Dirac equation and linear symmetric hyperbolic systems of equations. These algorithms can be much more efficient than their classical counterparts.
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by Barbora Hrdá (Fraunhofer AISEC)
Quantum technologies are seen as a great opportunity for a wide variety of fields: from optimization problems to machine learning and encryption, many use cases are always cited to produce revolutionary things. In order to make quantum computing widely applicable, more and more quantum platforms are easily accessible for everyone via cloud interfaces. The data and algorithms running on these systems are important assets that need to be protected. But who ensures the confidentiality and integrity of data running on quantum computers?
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by Ilias K. Savvas and Ilias Galanis, (University of Thessaly)
Our world will be shaken if and when quantum computing becomes reliable and accessible to the majority of researchers. Almost all branches of science will be affected by this new technology. From Chemistry and Pharmacology to the prediction of climate change and Geology, quantum computing promises fast-paced and instantaneous solutions to problems that are still considered unsolvable. But has this promising technology arrived? Are today's quantum computers ready and above all reliable?
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by Ioannis G. Karafyllidis (Democritus University of Thrace)
The quantum walk model of quantum computation can be used to conceive and develop new quantum algorithms for real-life practical applications.
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by Pascal Halffmann (Fraunhofer ITWM), Niklas Hegemann (JoS QUANTUM GmbH), Fred Jendrzejewski (KIP University of Heidelberg) and Steve Lenk (Fraunhofer IOSB-AST)
Today’s energy economy is a highly cost-sensitive and fast-moving market comprising a complex system of power units and grids. The complexity of the system presents challenges when it comes to planning energy generation – a task that is further exacerbated by weather-induced uncertainties with the increasing reliance on renewable energy. With quantum computing on the rise, a team of researchers at Fraunhofer, the University of Heidelberg, and the startup JoS QUANTUM is investigating whether and how quantum computing can improve problem solving in the energy industry, both in quality and computation time.
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by Valeria Bartsch, Matthias Kabel and Anita Schöbel (Fraunhofer ITWM)
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, in cooperation with IBM, has established a national competence network in the research field of quantum computing as described in [L1].The aim is to develop quantum-based computing strategies for the next generation of quantum computers. A competence centre on quantum computing has been established at Fraunhofer ITWM [L2] which aims to develop and optimise quantum algorithms for realistic industrial challenges. In this article, we describe our work on testing, evaluating, and optimising the quantum Fourier transform (QFT) in three industrial application scenarios.
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by Christian Tutschku and Chiara Stephan (Fraunhofer IAO)
Quantum computing (QC) has attracted great interest in recent years. The long-term potential of quantum computing in industrial applications is well-known, but contemporary quantum solutions need to incorporate all the characteristic hardware restrictions that define the computers of today’s noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) era. The main goal of the applied research project SEQUOIA [L1] is to develop near-term, hybrid quantum solutions for industrial use cases in close collaboration with companies of its enterprise network. As such, the SEQUOIA project directly elaborates on the path from the quantum computing theory towards near-term industrial applications.
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by Mikael Johansson (CSC – IT Center for Science) and Göran Wendin (Chalmers University of Technology)
The Nordics shift into high quantum gear, as the Nordic-Estonian Quantum Computing e-Infrastructure Quest, NordIQuEst, begins in early 2022. The three-year project will connect world-leading traditional high-performance computing resources and quantum computers across national borders, establishing a quantum computing platform customised to the needs of the region.
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by Lise Steen Nielsen (University of Copenhagen)
n the years to come, quantum computing will find applications in different industries - from IT and finance to transportation. Within the medical industry, quantum technology has the potential to reduce the time it takes to develop new drugs as well as speed up the computationally demanding tasks of analysing and interpreting large amounts of biological data. The new Novo Nordisk Foundation Center Quantum for Life based at the University of Copenhagen has taken up this challenge. But new quantum hardware alone will not get us there. It will require the development of an entirely new type of software – quantum software.
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by Enrique Arias (University of Castilla-La Mancha), José Ranilla and Elías F. Combarro (University of Oviedo)
Qspain is a new think tank that was created to foster and promote the development of quantum computing and its applications from Spain. It acts as a bridge between quantum computing research groups and companies, with the goal of bringing together critical masses to form multidisciplinary teams to solve the challenges of companies and society.
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by Claudio Cicconetti Marco Conti and Andrea Passarella (IIT-CNR, Italy)
A new quantum era is dawning, full of exciting possibilities and new applications. At IIT-CNR we are working on quantum networks, which extend to geographical distance interactions between quantum systems. We are aiming to develop secure identification and communication, distributed computation, and tighter integration with classical computing systems. The long-term vision we are working towards is a quantum internet, where quantum components co-exist with legacy-Internet components, or the entire network may be exclusively built out of quantum devices.
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by Kim Behlau and Hannah Venzl (Fraunhofer Competence Network Quantum Computing)
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is embracing the challenge of using quantum computing in real-life industrial applications. The Fraunhofer Competence Network Quantum Computing was founded for this purpose; it provides a means for experts from various Fraunhofer Institutes to collaborate and network with partners from research and industry. Within this framework, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft provides access to the first quantum computer installed in Germany, the IBM Q System One in Ehningen.
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by Vivija Simić and Barbora Hrdá (Fraunhofer AISEC)
The demand for qualified professionals with knowledge in quantum computing is increasing as the technology matures. New courses of study and continuing education offerings are more important than ever. To quickly meet this demand, Fraunhofer is working on a high-quality continuing education program in consultation with industry with the first successfully implemented training courses already in place.
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by Berit Bungum (NTNU) and Sølve Selstø (OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University)
The fast-developing field of quantum computing has consequences for higher education in computer science, and initiates a new field for physics education research: What do future computer scientists need to know about quantum mechanics? The project Quantum Computing vs. Physics uses perspectives and methods from educational research and the philosophy of technology to identify a basis of knowledge and skills in quantum mechanics to be included in engineering study programs for computer science students without a background in physics.
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by Ioannis Thanopulos, Dionisis Stefanatos, Nikos Iliopoulos and Emmanuel Paspalakis (University of Patras)
Entanglement, one of the most intriguing features of quantum mechanics, has many applications in quantum information technologies. An area of ongoing research is to understand and control the dynamics of entanglement between two qubits at the nanoscale by tuning their interaction with photonic nanostructures. Similarly, further work is needed on the fast and robust generation of entanglement in various quantum systems frequently encountered in quantum technologies using state of the art quantum control methods.
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by George Mitrikas (Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”)
Atomic hydrogen is useful in quantum computing applications, owing to its simple atomic structure and the lack of complex magnetic interactions – a characteristic that is crucial for preserving the fragile electron spin coherence. Trapped in proper molecular nanocages, the otherwise highly reactive hydrogen atom becomes stable even at room temperature. This article discusses the aims of the active INN research project, “Spin-Based Quantum Computing”, along with the recent developments in the design and characterisation of encaged atomic hydrogen as spin qubit.