The Daily Qubit

🧊 You won't find error-correcting codes in Flatland; many-hypercube error-correcting code achieve high-encoding rates. Plus, the first demonstration of quantum memory in the hard x-ray range.

Author

Cierra Choucair
September 06, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Friday, September 6th, 2024

Enjoy a nice cup of freshly brewed quantum news ☕️ 

Today’s issue includes:

  • An team of researchers from the Helmholtz Institute and Texas A&M University, successfully demonstrated the first quantum memory in the hard X-ray range by storing and releasing X-ray pulses at the single-photon level.

  • Scientists at RIKEN and Toshiba Corporation developed a new family of high-rate quantum error-detecting codes known as many-hypercube codes.

  • IBM Quantum and MIT developed Stochastic Quantum Signal Processing to cut the complexity of quantum algorithms by half.

And even more research, news, & events within quantum.

QUICK BYTE: An team of researchers from the Helmholtz Institute and Texas A&M University, successfully demonstrated the first quantum memory in the hard X-ray range by storing and releasing X-ray pulses at the single-photon level.

DETAILS: 

  • A team of researchers successfully demonstrated the first quantum memory in the hard X-ray range by storing and releasing X-ray pulses at the single-photon level.

  • Conducted at PETRA III in Germany and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, this work presents new possibilities for quantum memory in challenging spectra.

  • The team used a frequency comb protocol, relying on moving nuclear absorbers to re-emit absorbed photons with a delay, enabling constructive interference and efficient photon storage.

  • Future efforts will focus on exploring the on-demand release of photon wave packets, which could enable entanglement between X-ray photons.

QUICK BYTE: Scientists at RIKEN and Toshiba Corporation developed a new family of high-rate quantum error-detecting codes known as many-hypercube codes.

DETAILS: 

  • Many-hypercube codes, a new family of high-rate quantum error-detecting codes, are designed to promote fault-tolerant quantum computing through encoding multiple logical qubits into a geometrical hypercube structure.

  • These codes improved error correction, achieving high encoding rates of up to 30% and enabling parallel execution of logical gates with reduced resource overheads.

  • In addition, the team developed high-performance decoders and fault-tolerant zero-state encoders for these codes, achieving high error thresholds for bit-flip errors and logical CNOT gates in a circuit-level noise model.

  • Many-hypercube codes provide a potential scalable solution for fault-tolerant quantum computing, relevant to various quantum systems, including ion-trap and neutral-atom setups.

Researchers from MIT, Infleqtion, NSF, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and other institutions proposed a hybrid oscillator-qubit processor framework to simulate strongly correlated fermions, bosons, and gauge fields more efficiently while also bypassing the overheads associated with qubit-based hardware. This improves simulation accuracy and gate complexity through exact decompositions of particle interactions, such as density-density terms and gauge-invariant hopping. Additional benefits of the framework include ancilla-free error detection and ground state energy estimation while reducing computational overhead, especially in superconducting hardware.

Researchers from IBM Quantum and MIT developed Stochastic Quantum Signal Processing, which integrates randomized compiling to reduce errors and cut the complexity of quantum algorithms by half. Through randomization, the framework quadratically suppresses errors, allowing for more accurate and efficient quantum computations without adding overhead. This method applies to various quantum algorithms, such as Hamiltonian simulation, phase estimation, and matrix inversion, reducing their query complexity and making them more feasible for quantum hardware. As a result, Stochastic QSP lowers the cost of QSP-based algorithms.

👩‍🔬 The Quantum Systems Accelerator, led by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, have made developments, and ongoing, in creating scalable quantum systems using neutral atom arrays. Key innovations, such as reconfigurable atom arrays and high-fidelity quantum gates, have advanced error correction techniques and improved the robustness of quantum processors.

💻️ Andrea Morello, a Scientia Professor of Quantum Engineering at UNSW and ARC Laureate Fellow, is actively working towards encoding quantum information within silicon chips. Morello's work uses the spin of subatomic particles, such as electrons, to represent qubits in place of traditional transistors, enabling superposition and entanglement for exponentially faster problem-solving. His team's most recent development, implanting phosphorus atoms in silicon, demonstrated the potential to use existing microelectronic technologies for quantum computing.

💼 Experts in the quantum field, including Abbie Bray and Araceli Venegas-Gomez, emphasize the growing opportunities for graduates as the quantum industry expands beyond academia. Bray advises students to explore both academic and industrial pathways, highlighting the need for physicists in policy, consulting, and teaching roles. Venegas-Gomez underscores the skills gap, urging graduates to develop interdisciplinary expertise and soft skills like communication and teamwork. Both stress the importance of flexibility, gaining practical experience, and building a versatile skill set to succeed in the rapidly evolving quantum job market.

LISTEN

Friday tunes — dystopian quantum labs.

ENJOY

A quantum experiment may enable secure messages to be embedded in holograms and selectively erased even after being sent. Using a specially engineered 2D metasurface, Jensen Li and his team encoded quantum holograms by altering the quantum state of photons, with entangled partners revealing or erasing parts of the holographic image via polarization filters.


WATCH

Quantum book recommendations from IBM’s Oliva Lane:

cubes, cubes, everywhere 📸: midjourney