June 20, 2023

In a proof-of-principle experiment published on June 14th in the scientific journal Nature, IBM scientists demonstrated that their quantum computer may outperform classical computers at practical tasks such as computing material characteristics or fundamental particle interactions.

Using IBM’s Eagle quantum processor, the researchers simulated the behavior of a magnetic substance. A major breakthrough was achieved by avoiding quantum noise, which impairs computation precision, and so achieving dependable findings.

Katie Pizzolato, chief of IBM’s quantum theory department in Yorktown Heights, New York, underlined the importance of their “error-mitigating” approaches, which enable quantum calculations on a scale that would challenge conventional computers.

Abhinav Kandala, an IBM scientist, and his colleagues detected qubit noise and estimated the magnetic state of a two-dimensional solid without interference. They took advantage of all 127 qubits in the Eagle processor, outperforming prior quantum computing tests. IBM intends to release a 1,121-qubit Condor device shortly, as well as “utility-scale processors” with up to 4,158 qubits. By 2033, IBM hopes to have 100,000-qubit computers capable of error-corrected algorithms, but considerable engineering obstacles must be addressed.

Although the problem they attacked uses a much-simplified, unrealistic model of a material, “it makes you optimistic that this will work in other systems and more complicated algorithms,” says John Martinis, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who led the Google team to its 2019 milestone.

The sources for this piece include an article in Nature.