No Arabic abstract
We present an algorithm for compiling arbitrary unitaries into a sequence of gates native to a quantum processor. As accurate CNOT gates are hard for the foreseeable Noisy- Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices era, our A* inspired algorithm attempts to minimize their count, while accounting for connectivity. We discuss the search strategy together with metrics to expand the solution frontier. For a workload of circuits with complexity appropriate for the NISQ era, we produce solutions well within the best upper bounds published in literature and match or exceed hand tuned implementations, as well as other existing synthesis alternatives. In particular, when comparing against state-of-the-art available synthesis packages we show 2.4x average (up to 5.3x) reduction in CNOT count. We also show how to re-target the algorithm for a different chip topology and native gate set, while obtaining similar quality results. We believe that empirical tools like ours can facilitate algorithmic exploration, gate set discovery for quantum processor designers, as well as providing useful optimization blocks within the quantum compilation tool-chain.
We provide an explicit construction of a universal gate set for continuous-variable quantum computation with microwave circuits. Such a universal set has been first proposed in quantum-optical setups, but its experimental implementation has remained elusive in that domain due to the difficulties in engineering strong nonlinearities. Here, we show that a realistic three-wave mixing microwave architecture based on the SNAIL [Frattini et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 222603 (2017)] allows us to overcome this difficulty. As an application, we show that this architecture allows for the generation of a cubic phase state with an experimentally feasible procedure. This work highlights a practical advantage of microwave circuits with respect to optical systems for the purpose of engineering non-Gaussian states, and opens the quest for continuous-variable algorithms based on few repetitions of elementary gates from the continuous-variable universal set.
Before quantum error correction (QEC) is achieved, quantum computers focus on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) applications. Compared to the well-known quantum algorithms requiring QEC, like Shors or Grovers algorithm, NISQ applications have different structures and properties to exploit in compilation. A key step in compilation is mapping the qubits in the program to physical qubits on a given quantum computer, which has been shown to be an NP-hard problem. In this paper, we present OLSQ-GA, an optimal qubit mapper with a key feature of simultaneous SWAP gate absorption during qubit mapping, which we show to be a very effective optimization technique for NISQ applications. For the class of quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), an important NISQ application, OLSQ-GA reduces depth by up to 50.0% and SWAP count by 100% compared to other state-of-the-art methods, which translates to 55.9% fidelity improvement. The solution optimality of OLSQ-GA is achieved by the exact SMT formulation. For better scalability, we augment our approach with additional constraints in the form of initial mapping or alternating matching, which speeds up OLSQ-GA by up to 272X with no or little loss of optimality.
Starting from the idea of Quantum Computing which is a concept that dates back to 80s, we come to the present day where we can perform calculations on real quantum computers. This sudden development of technology opens up new scenarios that quickly lead to the desire and the real possibility of integrating this technology into current software architectures. The usage of frameworks that allow computation to be performed directly on quantum hardware poses a series of challenges. This document describes a an architectural framework that addresses the problems of integrating an API exposed Quantum provider in an existing Enterprise architecture and it provides a minimum viable product (MVP) solution that really merges classical quantum computers on a basic scenario with reusable code on GitHub repository. The solution leverages a web-based frontend where user can build and select applications/use cases and simply execute it without any further complication. Every triggered run leverages on multiple backend options, that include a scheduler managing the queuing mechanism to correctly schedule jobs and final results retrieval. The proposed solution uses the up-to-date cloud native technologies (e.g. Cloud Functions, Containers, Microservices) and serves as a general framework to develop multiple applications on the same infrastructure.
High-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates are essential building blocks for a fault-tolerant quantum computer. While there has been much progress in suppressing single-qubit gate errors in superconducting qubit systems, two-qubit gates still suffer from error rates that are orders of magnitude higher. One limiting factor is the residual ZZ-interaction, which originates from a coupling between computational states and higher-energy states. While this interaction is usually viewed as a nuisance, here we experimentally demonstrate that it can be exploited to produce a universal set of fast single- and two-qubit entangling gates in a coupled transmon qubit system. To implement arbitrary single-qubit rotations, we design a new protocol called the two-axis gate that is based on a three-part composite pulse. It rotates a single qubit independently of the state of the other qubit despite the strong ZZ-coupling. We achieve single-qubit gate fidelities as high as 99.1% from randomized benchmarking measurements. We then demonstrate both a CZ gate and a CNOT gate. Because the system has a strong ZZ-interaction, a CZ gate can be achieved by letting the system freely evolve for a gate time $t_g=53.8$ ns. To design the CNOT gate, we utilize an analytical microwave pulse shape based on the SWIPHT protocol for realizing fast, low-leakage gates. We obtain fidelities of 94.6% and 97.8% for the CNOT and CZ gates respectively from quantum progress tomography.
Farhi and others have introduced the notion of solving NP problems using adiabatic quantum com- puters. We discuss an application of this idea to the problem of integer factorization, together with a technique we call gluing which can be used to build adiabatic models of interesting problems. Although adiabatic quantum computers already exist, they are likely to be too small to directly tackle problems of interesting practical sizes for the foreseeable future. Therefore, we discuss techniques for decomposition of large problems, which permits us to fully exploit such hardware as may be available. Numerical re- sults suggest that even simple decomposition techniques may yield acceptable results with subexponential overhead, independent of the performance of the underlying device.