Primitive Quantum Computers Are Already Outperforming Current Machines

Primitive Quantum Computers Are Already Outperforming Current Machines (+Video)

A team has used simple quantum processors to run “quantum walk” algorithms, showing that even primitive quantum computers can outperform the classical variety in certain scenarios—and suggesting that the age of quantum computing may be closer than we imagined.

Todd Jaquith | May 12, 2016

By now, most readers of Futurism are probably pretty well acquainted with the concept (and fantastic promise) of quantum computing.
For those who aren’t, the idea is fairly (!) simple: Quantum computers exploit three very unusual features that operate at the quantum scale—that electrons can be both particles and waves, that objects can be in many places at once, and they can maintain an instantaneous connection even when separated by vast distances (a property called “entanglement”).

(Google and NASA's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab. Published October 11, 2013). Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMdHDHEuOUE

<more at http://futurism.com/primitive-quantum-computers-already-outperforming-current-machines/; related articles and links: http://futurism.com/d-wave-computers-may-revolutionary-quantum-computers-tomorrow/ (D-Wave Computers May be the “Revolutionary Quantum Computers” of Tomorrow. April 25, 2016) and http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160505/ncomms11511/abs/ncomms11511.html (Efficient quantum walk on a quantum processor. Xiaogang Qiang, Thomas Loke, Ashley Montanaro, Kanin Aungskunsiri, Xiaoqi Zhou, Jeremy L. O’Brien, Jingbo B. Wang and Jonathan C. F. Matthews. Nature Communications 7, Article number: 11511 doi:10.1038/ncomms11511. [Abstract: The random walk formalism is used across a wide range of applications, from modelling share prices to predicting population genetics. Likewise, quantum walks have shown much potential as a framework for developing new quantum algorithms. Here we present explicit efficient quantum circuits for implementing continuous-time quantum walks on the circulant class of graphs. These circuits allow us to sample from the output probability distributions of quantum walks on circulant graphs efficiently. We also show that solving the same sampling problem for arbitrary circulant quantum circuits is intractable for a classical computer, assuming conjectures from computational complexity theory. This is a new link between continuous-time quantum walks and computational complexity theory and it indicates a family of tasks that could ultimately demonstrate quantum supremacy over classical computers. As a proof of principle, we experimentally implement the proposed quantum circuit on an example circulant graph using a two-qubit photonics quantum processor.])>