Microsoft makes physics breakthrough that could enable new type of quantum chip

[Hamartia Antidote]

Microsoft makes physics breakthrough that could enable new type of quantum chip - SiliconANGLE

Microsoft makes physics breakthrough that could enable new type of quantum chip - SiliconANGLE

siliconangle.com

Microsoft Corp. today provided an update about its efforts to develop a topological quantum computer, a new type of quantum computer that could theoretically be faster and more reliable than current technologies.

Microsoft revealed that its researchers have recently cleared a “significant hurdle” toward building such a machine.

Current quantum computers are highly prone to making errors while carrying out calculations and, as a result, have limited practical applications. The reason for those calculation errors is that qubits, the basic building blocks of a quantum computer, frequently delete or modify information when they’re not supposed to. It’s difficult to process data if there is a risk that the data will be modified in an unexpected way.

A topological quantum computer, the type of quantum computer Microsoft is working to build, theoretically would be far less prone to calculation errors than current systems. That would make it easier to harness the technology for carrying complex computations. Microsoft believes the technology could be the key to facilitating the development of large-scale quantum computers.

In practice, however, building a topological quantum machine has proved highly difficult. Microsoft, in today’s update about its work to build such a machine, says its scientists have reached a research milestone that could significantly advance the effort.

A topological quantum machine uses quasiparticles called Majorana zero-modes to carry out calculations. A quasiparticle is a physical phenomenon that shares certain similarities with particles, such as electrons and atoms, but isn’t a particle. Microsoft said today that its researchers have found a way to produce the Majorana zero-modes necessary for topological quantum machines.

Microsoft also found a way to produce another physical phenomenon, known as the topological superconducting phase, with the help of its Majorana zero-modes. It’s a property of superconducting materials that emerges under certain conditions, and it’s necessary to facilitate the processing of data in a topological quantum computer.

According to Microsoft, its researchers produced quasiparticles and the topological superconducting phase using a specially-built device that combines a semiconductor with superconducting elements. The device operates inside an industrial refrigerator cooled to temperatures nearing absolute zero. Microsoft has made multiple versions of the device and also tested it in simulations, the company said.

To verify the effectiveness of its technology, Microsoft evaluated a property of the hardware called the topological gap, which provides an indicator of how reliability data can be processed. The ability to process data reliably is the main advantage that topological quantum computers are expected to have over other quantum machines. According to Microsoft, the results of the evaluation indicate that its technology could provide a viable path to commercialization.

“Our team has measured topological gaps exceeding 30 μeV. This is more than triple the noise level in the experiment and larger than the temperature by a similar factor. This shows that it is a robust feature,” Chetan Nayak, general manager of Microsoft’s quantum hardware group, wrote in a blog post.

“This is both a landmark scientific advance and a crucial step on the journey to topological quantum computation,” Nayak continued. “Our results are backed by exhaustive measurements and rigorous data validation procedures.”

The next step, the executive said, is to use the methods that Microsoft has developed as part of its research to build a topological qubit. Eventually, Microsoft plans to assemble a large number of such qubits into a functioning quantum computer. The company estimates that more than a million topological qubits could be placed on a single chip.

“With the underlying physics demonstrated, the next step is a topological qubit,” Nayak wrote. “We hypothesize that the topological qubit will have a favorable combination of speed, size, and stability compared to other qubits. We believe ultimately it will power a fully scalable quantum machine in the future, which will in turn enable us to realize the full promise of quantum to solve the most complex and pressing challenges our society faces.”

 

[imadul]

Thousands or millions of qbits with zero error correction shall be a big achievement.

Pakistan universities should be working on QC from yesterday.
For budding enthusiasts, these books may be helpful. I have only looked 1st one indirectly and searched other books listed below. I am going to buy #1 and then other books. So use your discretion if you want to buy any of these books:

1. Q is for Quantum, Terry Rudolph.
I have watched his video. U of Chicago offers a course based upon this book.

2. Dancing With Qbits, Robert S Suttor
3. Programming Quantum Computers, by wylie.
4. Quantum Computing, Jack D Hidary
5. Mathematics of Quantum Computing, Wolfgang Scherer.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

 

[V. Makarov]

Thousands or millions of qbits with zero error correction shall be a big achievement.

Pakistan universities should be working on QC from yesterday.
For budding enthusiasts, these books may be helpful. I have only looked 1st one indirectly and searched other books listed below. I am going to buy #1 and then other books. So use your discretion if you want to buy any of these books:

1. Q is for Quantum, Terry Rudolph.
I have watched his video. U of Chicago offers a course based upon this book.

2. Dancing With Qbits, Robert S Suttor
3. Programming Quantum Computers, by wylie.
4. Quantum Computing, Jack D Hidary
5. Mathematics of Quantum Computing, Wolfgang Scherer.

You seem knowledgeable. Must be a politician.

 

[imadul]

You seem knowledgeable. Must be a politician.

No, just a learner on 1st step.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

DARPA boosts Microsoft’s far-out effort to build topological quantum computer

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is laying down a bet on Microsoft's effort to create an industrial-scale quantum computer.

www.geekwire.com

DARPA boosts Microsoft’s far-out effort to build topological quantum compute​

Microsoft’s Azure Quantum team has engineered devices such as this one to pave the way for creating topological qubits and scalable quantum computers. (Microsoft Photo / John Brecher)

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is laying down a bet on Microsoft’s long-running effort to create an industrial-scale quantum computer that takes advantage of the exotic properties of superconducting nanowires.

Microsoft is one of three companies selected to present design concepts as part of a five-year program known as Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing, or US2QC. The DARPA program is just the latest example showing how government support is a driving force for advancing the frontiers of quantum computing — at a time when those frontiers are still cloaked in uncertainty.

“Experts disagree on whether a utility-scale quantum computer based on conventional designs is still decades away or could be achieved much sooner,” Joe Altepeter, US2QC program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, said in a news release. “The goal of US2QC is to reduce the danger of strategic surprise from underexplored quantum computing systems.”

Altepeter said DARPA put out the call for companies to get in touch if they had an approach that they thought would lead to the creation of a useful general-purpose quantum computer in less than 10 years. “We offered to collaborate by funding additional experts to join their team and provide rigorous government verification and validation of their proposed solutions to determine its viability,” he said.

The result could lead to a “win-win,” Altepeter said: The companies’ commercial technologies would get a boost, while the federal government’s national security community could “avoid being surprised” by potentially disruptive effects.

The other companies joining Microsoft in the US2QC program are Atom Computing, which is working to harness the quantum properties of optically trapped atoms; and PsiQuantum, which is exploring the capabilities of silicon-based photonics. Both those companies are based in California.

In the program’s initial phase, each of the companies will present a design concept describing their plans to create a utility-scale quantum computer. Those concepts would guide the development of more rigorous, full-fledged system designs, which would be evaluated by a DARPA-led test and validation team.

Topological trickiness​

The quantum quest involves an approach to computing that’s dramatically different from the traditional world of electronic ones and zeroes. Qubits, or quantum bits, can represent multiple values simultaneously until the results are read out. That makes quantum computing potentially more powerful for certain types of problems, such as sifting through large data sets to find optimal solutions.

Applications could include creating new chemicals for better batteries, more effective fertilizers or new types of drugs. Beyond chemistry, quantum computing could optimize systems ranging from traffic routes and interplanetary communication networks to financial services.

But what kind of hardware would be best suited for quantum computing? Microsoft has been exploring the potential of a topological qubit architecture for well more than a decade. Last year it reported a significant advance in its effort when it found evidence for an exotic phenomenon known as a Majorana zero mode.

A quantum computer based on Microsoft’s architecture would work by inducing and manipulating Majorana zero modes on the ends of topological superconducting wires. Demonstrating that such modes actually exist marked a big step toward turning Microsoft’s concept into reality.

Microsoft estimates that a quantum computer would have to have at least a million physical qubits in order to solve the sorts of problems that classical computers can’t handle. If those physical qubits aren’t the right size, the requisite hardware “could end up being the size of a football field,” Krysta Svore, vice president for advanced quantum development at Microsoft, said last week at the Northwest Quantum Nexus Summit.

“And so at Microsoft, we’ve been focusing on a qubit that’s just right, and that’s the topological qubit,” Svore said.

Last year’s findings boosted Microsoft’s confidence in its approach, but it’ll take much more research and development to produce a full-stack topological quantum computer. “We need the qubit that’s just right, and we need a system around it,” Svore said. “We need to integrate within the larger cloud, right? We need to integrate with an immense amount of classical computation. … At the same time, we need to also engineer and co-design software and hardware together.”

National security concerns​

The federal government is interested in quantum computing for several reasons.

“The first goal of the U.S. is to promote this technology,” Charles Tahan, director of the National Quantum Coordination Office in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said at last week’s summit. “We have to maintain our leadership in quantum information technology. That means more investment for R&D, more investment for workforce development programs, and more partnerships with the private sector but also [with] our international partners.”

Other goals relate to national security. “The one you would’ve seen in the news the most is moving the nation to quantum-resistant cryptography,” Tahan said.

Theoretically, quantum computers could solve challenges relating to large-number prime factorization, a branch of mathematics that plays a key role in secure online communications and financial transactions. “With the potential for a fault-tolerant quantum computer, if you had such a machine, you could break RSA and other forms of public-key cryptography,” Tahan said. “Given the time scales of how the nation must protect information for 25 years, even 50 years, it really is critical that we move to quantum-resistant cryptography now.”

Protecting information from quantum code-breaking is the flip side of figuring out how a quantum computer works. In the meantime, the federal government must protect U.S. technology from being stolen by global rivals, Tahan said.

“It’s going to take a decade or more to move to quantum-resistant cryptography, if we do it right,” he said. “While we’re doing that, we need to protect our investments, both for our economic security and our national security.”