Quantum Supremacy

Extracted Attributes

• Definition

  A milestone in quantum computing where a programmable quantum computer solves a problem that is infeasible for any classical computer to solve in a practical timeframe.

• Primary View

  Primarily a scientific achievement.

• Term Coined By

  John Preskill

• Term Coined Year

  2011

• Alternative Names

  Quantum advantage

• Key Characteristic

  Feasible with near-term quantum computers, does not require useful applications or advanced quantum error correction.

• Concept Originators

  Yuri Manin (1980), Richard Feynman (1981)

• Potential Limitation

  May be temporary or unstable due to advancements in classical computing.

• Proposed Demonstration Methods

  Boson sampling, sampling the output of random quantum circuits.

• Google's 2019 Experiment Processor

  Sycamore (53 qubits)

• USTC's 2020 Experiment Quantum Computer

  Jiuzhang (photonic quantum computer, 76 photons)

• USTC's 2020 Experiment Quantum Computation Time

  200 seconds

• Google's 2019 Experiment Quantum Computation Time

  200 seconds

• Xanadu's 2022 Experiment Quantum Computation Time

  2 minutes

• USTC's 2020 Experiment Classical Simulation Estimate

  2.5 billion years

• Google's 2019 Experiment Classical Simulation Estimate

  10,000 years on Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Summit supercomputer

• Xanadu's 2022 Experiment Classical Simulation Estimate

  7 million years

Timeline

• Yuri Manin proposes the concept of quantum computing, a foundational idea for quantum supremacy. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1980

• Richard Feynman proposes quantum computing, a foundational idea for quantum supremacy. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1981

• John Preskill coins the term 'quantum supremacy'. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2011

• John Martinis's team at Google's quantum lab in Santa Barbara achieves quantum supremacy using a 53-qubit Sycamore processor, completing a specific computation in approximately 200 seconds, which was estimated to take a classical supercomputer 10,000 years. (Source: related_documents, web_search_results)

  2019

• A group at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) led by Pan Jianwei achieves quantum supremacy by implementing Gaussian boson sampling on 76 photons with their photonic quantum computer, Jiuzhang. They estimated a classical supercomputer would require 2.5 billion years to generate the same number of samples in 200 seconds. (Source: web_search_results)

  2020-12

• Canadian-based Xanadu announces its achievement of quantum advantage (quantum supremacy), solving a math problem in two minutes that a classical computer would have taken seven million years to solve. (Source: web_search_results)

  2022

Quantum supremacy

In quantum computing, quantum supremacy or quantum advantage is the goal of demonstrating that a programmable quantum computer can solve a problem that no classical computer can solve in any feasible amount of time, irrespective of the usefulness of the problem. The term was coined by John Preskill in 2011, but the concept dates to Yuri Manin's 1980 and Richard Feynman's 1981 proposals of quantum computing. Conceptually, quantum supremacy involves both the engineering task of building a powerful quantum computer and the computational-complexity-theoretic task of finding a problem that can be solved by that quantum computer and has a superpolynomial speedup over the best known or possible classical algorithm for that task. Examples of proposals to demonstrate quantum supremacy include the boson sampling proposal of Aaronson and Arkhipov, and sampling the output of random quantum circuits. The output distributions that are obtained by making measurements in boson sampling or quantum random circuit sampling are flat, but structured in a way so that one cannot classically efficiently sample from a distribution that is close to the distribution generated by the quantum experiment. For this conclusion to be valid, only very mild assumptions in the theory of computational complexity have to be invoked. In this sense, quantum random sampling schemes can have the potential to show quantum supremacy. A notable property of quantum supremacy is that it can be feasibly achieved by near-term quantum computers, since it does not require a quantum computer to perform any useful task or use high-quality quantum error correction, both of which are long-term goals. Consequently, researchers view quantum supremacy as primarily a scientific goal, with relatively little immediate bearing on the future commercial viability of quantum computing. Due to unpredictable possible improvements in classical computers and algorithms, quantum supremacy may be temporary or unstable, placing possible achievements under significant scrutiny.

Web Search Results

• Quantum supremacy - Wikipedia

  In quantum computing, quantum supremacy or quantum advantage is the goal of demonstrating that a programmable quantum computer can solve a problem that no classical computer can solve in any feasible amount of time, irrespective of the usefulness of the problem. The term was coined by John Preskill in 2011, but the concept dates to Yuri Manin's 1980 and Richard Feynman's 1981 proposals of quantum computing. [...] Conceptually, quantum supremacy involves both the engineering task of building a powerful quantum computer and the computational-complexity-theoretic task of finding a problem that can be solved by that quantum computer and has a superpolynomial speedup over the best known or possible classical algorithm for that task. [...] In December 2020, a group based in the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) led by Pan Jianwei reached quantum supremacy by implementing gaussian boson sampling on 76 photons with their photonic quantum computer Jiuzhang "Jiuzhang (quantum computer)"). The paper states that to generate the number of samples the quantum computer generates in 200 seconds, a classical supercomputer would require 2.5 billion years of computation.

• How Far Away Is Quantum Supremacy? - Communications of the ACM

  Stefan Leichenauer, vice president of engineering at AI solutions company Sandbox, said quantum supremacy means achieving a task with a quantum computer that would be functionally impossible with a conventional computer. He explained that such tasks require more resources than are available on an ordinary computer, meaning it could only be achieved with a quantum computer. [...] Several years ago, Canadian-based Xanadu announced its achievement of quantum advantage, a term now used interchangeably with quantum supremacy, with a demonstration of measurements that correspond to drawing a sample from a distribution. Google made a similar declaration of quantum supremacy in 2019, although there was a fair amount of controversy about the claim, with IBM publicly stating that quantum supremacy had not been reached. [...] Christian Weedbrook, CEO and founder of Xanadu Quantum Technologies, whose team announced quantum supremacy in 2022, agrees that their achievement was solving a math problem, not a business problem. A classical computer would have taken seven million years to solve the math problem, which was accomplished in two minutes by the quantum computer, the company said. Each quantum supremacy demonstration shows the increasing power of quantum computing, Weedbrook said.

• Google and NASA Achieve Quantum Supremacy

  The achievement of quantum supremacy means that the processing power and control mechanisms now exist for scientists to run their code with confidence and see what happens beyond the limits of what could be done on supercomputers. Experimentation with quantum computing is now possible in a way it never has been before. [...] “Achieving quantum supremacy means we’ve been able to do one thing faster, not everything faster,” said Eleanor Rieffel, co-author on the paper on this result, published today in Nature, and the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Lead at Ames. “And even though that one thing isn’t terribly useful, that it has been done at all is groundbreaking.” [...] Reaching quantum supremacy opens up the ability to experiment and develop quantum processing technology far more rapidly across the board – largely because of the unprecedented degree of control over the quantum operations possible in Google’s hardware.

• What is quantum supremacy? - Live Science

  Quantum computers are expected to solve some problems beyond the reach of the most powerful supercomputers imaginable. Reaching this milestone has been dubbed "quantum supremacy." But whether quantum supremacy has been achieved yet and what it would mean for the field remain unsettled. The term "quantum supremacy" was coined in 2012 by John Preskill, a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech, to describe the point at which a quantum computer can do something that a classical one cannot. [...] As a result, efforts to demonstrate quantum supremacy have focused on highly contrived problems designed to favor the quantum computer. Google's 2019 experiment involved a 54-qubit processor carrying out a series of random operations. Although the output would be fundamentally useless, the researchers estimated that it would take roughly 10,000 years to simulate the process on Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Summit supercomputer, the most powerful classical machine in the world at the time. [...] Crossing this threshold has become a guiding star for the tech companies that are building large-scale quantum computers. In 2019, in a paper published in the journal Nature, Google became the first to declare it had achieved quantum supremacy. Other groups have made similar claims in recent years. However, several of these assertions, including Google's, have since been rejected, after researchers developed novel classical algorithms that go toe-to-toe with quantum computers.

• The Case Against Google's Claims of “Quantum Supremacy”: A Very ...

  The 2019 paper “Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor” asserted that Google’s Sycamore quantum computer, with 53 qubits and a depth of 20, performed a specific computation in about 200 seconds. According to Google’s estimate, a state-of-the-art classical supercomputer would require approximately 10,000 years to complete the same computation. The Google experiment had two major components: [...] Thus, from the quantum supremacy point of view, Sycamore’s role in the race between classical and quantum computers has largely been eclipsed by Willow, making Sycamore less relevant for demonstrating quantum supremacy. Effectively it is out of the race… Willow re-establishes and dramatically expands the quantum advantage, making Sycamore’s supremacy demonstration less relevant in the current competitive landscape. Willow’s advancements in error correction and real-world application push [...] A.3) The 2019 Google paper states, “Quantum processors have thus reached the regime of quantum supremacy. We expect that their computational power will continue to grow at a double-exponential rate.” It is surprising to encounter such an extraordinary claim in a scientific paper. ### B) The “Fidelity” Assertions: Statistically Unreasonable Predictions Indicating Methodological Flaws

• Instance Of

  Q7725634