Description:

Dr. Nicolas Didier, Rigetti Computing

Title: Hybrid quantum/classical computing on a 19-qubit processor based on parametrically-activated entangling gates.

Abstract:

Superconducting devices are one of the most promising platforms for building quantum computers, but demonstrating fault-tolerance on any quantum computing implementation remains a challenge. In recent years new hybrid quantum/classical algorithms targeting near-term devices have been proposed, focusing on short-depth parameterized quantum circuits and using quantum computation as a subroutine embedded in a larger classical optimization loop, without the immediate need for fault-tolerance. Rigetti Computing has built a flexible computing platform targeting precisely such hybrid applications, relying on custom entangling gates based on parametrically-activated interactions. In this talk I will explain the physics behind these two-qubit gates, how it enables the implementation of two distinct classes of entangling operations, and describe many features that make this architecture attractive from a scalability perspective. Finally, I will present how this gate architecture was used to demonstrate a hybrid algorithm for an unsupervised machine learning task known as clustering on a 19-qubit processor.

References: arXiv:1712.05771; Science Advances 4, eaao3603 (2018) [arXiv:1706.06570]; arXiv:1706.06562; Phys. Rev. A 97, 022330 (2018) [arXiv:1706.06566]; arXiv:1608.03355; www.rigetti.com

Host: Peter Groszkowski