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Monday, December 19, 2022
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Future Applications, Problems, And Explanation Of Quantum Computing.
Many believe that a forthcoming generation of computer technology may someday double the computational power that is currently available to humans by factors of thousands or perhaps million. The pace at which we can do many important jobs, including finding and testing new medications or comprehending the effects of climate change, might be greatly accelerated if this occurs.
In a limited sense, quantum computing is already here. But in the next five to ten years, it may break into the mainstream, much like how traditional computers did in the 1970s and 1980s when they went from being used just in research laboratories and huge enterprises to be used in households and businesses of all sizes.
Computers have greatly expanded our capabilities, but they have also forced us to confront a fresh set of issues, particularly those related to the dangers they bring to security and encryption. And given their complexity and the small number of jobs for which they have been demonstrated to be more effective than classical computer technology, some people believe that quantum computers may really never be useful at all.
So, with the help of my most recent podcast guest, Lawrence Gasman, co-founder and president of Inside Quantum Technology and author of more than 300 research publications, I've put up a summary of where we are with quantum computing now and where we want to go in the future.
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Liquid-Like Electrons Could Boost Quantum Computing.
The development of parafermions, which are collections of electrons that act like liquids in a unique state of matter, may have just given the area of quantum computing a boost in coherence and error prevention. When electrons sustain temperatures near to absolute zero, researchers from Singapore's Nanyang Technical University have exhibited experimental results that they anticipate may result in parafermions (-273 degrees Celsius). By proving that there are circumstances in which electrons can have powerful interactions—something that scientists had only speculated up until now—the discovery made a significant advance.
Electricity is the product of the coordinated motion of electrons. However, although appearing to move in this "ordered" manner, electrons are actually traveling randomly. Because they are negatively charged, electrons resist one another, moving separately and randomly (like a gas) as opposed to as a cohesive unit. They may arrive at their destination with a few "bumps" along the route, similar to drunk drivers. But when electrons act like a liquid, it's like replacing the reckless drivers with courteous ones who respect each other's space, speed, and direction to avoid disputes and travel more efficiently.
Obviously, such drivers are the focus of considerable theoretical discussion, but at least the existence of strong electron interactions has now been shown experimentally.
There are fewer particle interactions and energy transfers between electrons and the system when they are forced to behave in a "helical Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid," as the name suggests. Thus, the amount of ambient and systemic interference that frequently leads to mistakes and collapsed quantum states in quantum systems is reduced. Another crucial component is the electrons having been previously cooled to almost absolute zero. This allows some materials to reach the state of a superconductor, where electrons flow freely across their surface with no electrical resistance, further reducing the likelihood of environmental interference. Particles are forced to slow down to the point where they practically become immobile as a result of the system being chilled to absolute zero (in the experiment, down to 4.5 Kelvin or -269 degrees Celsius).
For quite some time, electrons (and their spin characteristic) have been exploited as quantum-programmable particles. Improvements in electron control that result in fewer disturbances, therefore, mean fewer mistakes and greater coherence, which results in a longer lifespan for the real qubits that may store or process information. In reality, superconducting qubits are already used in a few quantum systems, including IBM's Quantum One and Quantum Two.
In this instance, researchers employed an atom-thick graphene substrate to install tungsten ditelluride crystals, a nearly two-dimensional substance known as a "quantum spin Hall insulator," which insulates gravity on the inside while having electrons on the outside. The study team assembled the graphene/tungsten ditelluride substrate, cooled it to absolute zero, and then placed it under a scanning tunneling microscope that was only one nanometer away from its surface. This is smaller than a DNA strand and smaller than any transistor ever created (even when looking at the ones powering the latest best graphics cards).
The scientists found that the electrons in the graphene/tungsten substrate enhanced their repulsion when placed under the scanning tunneling microscope and cooled to absolute zero. The interaction between the repulsion fields of each electron caused their mutual attraction to be so intense that the electrons were compelled to travel as a group. The scientists measured a Luttinger value between 0.21 and 0.33. When this value approaches 1, particle interactions are at their lowest. This parameter measures the intensity of particle interactions.
The electrons are propelled into collective motion when the Luttinger value is less than 0.5, indicating strong interactions. According to Assistant Professor Weber, this is the domain in which parafermions are projected to occur. The Luttinger value can only vary between 0 and 1, therefore this is a genuinely exceptional range of fluctuation, he said. "In no helical Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid has control of the Luttinger parameter been observed previously at such low levels."
By utilizing the recently constructed Ultra-Low Vibration Laboratory at NTU Singapore, the team is now aiming to lower temperatures even further. Researchers will be able to conduct tests in the laboratory at 150 millikelvins (mK), which is even lower than absolute zero and should allow them to observe parafermion groups in person and observe increased electron repulsion.
It's interesting to note that it appears that the researchers' strategy is partly related to Microsoft's own race to build so-called topological qubits and their necessary (but yet absent in operation) Majorana modes.
Sunday, September 4, 2022
So what can quantum computing do better than classical computing?
There isn't presently a use case for quantum computers that can't be done with classical computers, thus the fact is that classical computers can already solve every problem that quantum computers will be able to.
Gasman informs me that the issue is that it will take traditional computers so long to resolve them that anyone beginning to seek the solution today would already be deceased!
They might be especially helpful for a class of issues known as optimization difficulties. Imagine a traveling salesperson who needs to visit several cities in any sequence, without going backward, and who must do so while traveling the least distance (or taking the lowest amount of time) feasible. Elementary maths can demonstrate that the number of possible routes increases dramatically once there are more than a few towns, on the order of millions or billions. This implies that, if we're using traditional binary computing, calculating the distance and time required for each of them in order to identify the fastest can use a significant amount of processing power.
This has implications for a variety of fields, including tracking and routing financial transactions across international financial networks, creating new materials by modifying their physical or genetic characteristics, and even figuring out how the environment is affected by changing climatic patterns.
"The ones that have the most potential are, I'd say, in extremely major institutions," Gasman says to me. Do you really want Goldman Sachs to entrust a billion dollars in your care to some cutting-edge technology, though, if you're a large corporation? There will need to be some degree of trust built up. However, each of the major banks today has its own quantum team looking at possibilities for the next five to ten years.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum computing is a difficult subject to grasp, much like anything else involving the quantum (sub-atomic) world. Fundamentally, the phrase refers to a new (or upcoming) generation of incredibly fast computers that process information as "qubits" (quantum bits) as opposed to the standard bits — ones and zeroes — of classical computing.
Since they are built on electrical circuits and switches that can be turned on (one) or off, traditional computers are actually simply very sophisticated versions of pocket calculators (zero). They can store and analyze any information by connecting a bunch of these ones and zeros. The fact that big data requires a lot of ones and zeroes to represent it, however, means that its performance is constantly constrained.The qubits of quantum computing can exist in a wide variety of states as opposed to just plain ones and zeroes. They could be able to exist as both one and zero at the same time due to the peculiar features of quantum physics (quantum superposition). In addition, they can be in any condition between one and zero.
According to Gasman, "That means you can accomplish some tasks significantly quicker on a quantum computer because you can handle a lot more information on a quantum computer. Whoopee I can do this in two hours instead of two days isn't always as important as whoopee I can do this in two hours instead of nine million years".
According to some predictions, quantum computers would function 158 million times faster than the fastest supercomputers now in use. Nine million years may sound like the kind of statistic that people only use when they are exaggerating.
There is one significant limitation, though: At the moment, only a small number of applications truly take advantage of quantum computers. You shouldn't anticipate being able to just put a quantum processor into your Macbook and perform all of your current tasks millions of times faster.
Future, Applications, And Challenges Of Quantum Computing
There is an upcoming generation of computer technology that many believe may someday double the computational power accessible to humanity by times of hundreds or perhaps million. If this occurs, we may be able to do many important activities much more quickly, including the research and testing of new medicines and the comprehension of the effects of climate change.
The computing capacity available to humans might potentially be multiplied by hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions in the future thanks to an emerging generation of computer technology. If this happens, we could be able to do a number of crucial tasks more rapidly, such as understanding the consequences of climate change and researching and testing novel medications.
Computers have greatly expanded our capabilities, but they have also forced us to confront a fresh set of issues, particularly those related to the dangers they bring to security and encryption. And given their complexity and the small number of jobs for which they have been demonstrated to be more effective than classical computer technology, some people believe that quantum computers may really never be useful at all.
So, with the help of my most recent podcast guest, Lawrence Gasman, co-founder and president of Inside Quantum Technology and author of more than 300 research publications, I've put up a summary of where we are with quantum computing now and where we want to go in the future.
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