The study was co-led by Mikhail Lukin, the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics at Harvard and co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative, Markus Greiner, George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Physics, and Vladan Vuletic, Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics at MIT. [1]

Figure 1. The Scientists observe quantum speed-up in optimization problems

Figure 1 shows Previously, neutral-atom quantum processors had been proposed to efficiently encode certain hard combinatorial optimization problems. In this landmark publication, the authors not only deploy the first implementation of efficient quantum optimization on a real quantum computer, but also showcase unprecedented quantum hardware power.

The calculations were performed on Harvard’s quantum processor of 289 qubits operating in the analog mode, with effective circuit depths up to 32. Unlike in previous examples of quantum optimization, the large system size and circuit depth used in this work made it impossible to use classical simulations to pre-optimize the control parameters. [2]

This combination of system size, circuit depth, and outstanding quantum control culminated in a quantum leap- problem instances were found with empirically better-than-expected performance on the quantum processor versus classical heuristics. The identification of classically challenging problem instances with quantum-accelerated solutions paves the path for applying quantum computing to cater to real-world industrial and social needs. [3]

"These results represent the first step towards bringing useful quantum advantage to hard optimization problems relevant to multiple industries.," added Alex Keesling CEO of QuEra Computing and co-author on the published work. "We are very happy to see quantum computing start to reach the necessary level of maturity where the hardware can inform the development of algorithms beyond what can be predicted in advance with classical compute methods. [4]

References:

1. https://vervetimes.com/collaborators-observe-quantum-speed-up-in-optimization-problems/
2. https://techiai.com/scientists-observe-quantum-speed-up-in-optimization-problems/
3. https://www.timesofnation.com/scientists-observe-quantum-speed-up-in-optimization-problems/
4. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220505150340.htm

Cite this article:

Thanusri swetha J (2022), The Scientists observe quantum speed-up in optimization problems, Anatechmaz, pp.45