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image: Dolev Bluvstein (from left), Mikhail Lukin, and Sepehr Ebadi have developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator. Evadi is adjusting the devices that make them possible to see More

Credits: Rose Lincoln / Harvard Staff Photographer

A team of physicists at the Harvard MIT Ultra-Cryogenic Atomic Center and other universities have developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator that can operate at 256 qubits or qubits.

The system sheds light on the host of complex quantum processes, ultimately helping to bring real-world breakthroughs in materials science, communications technology, finance, and many other areas. It shows a big step towards building. Overcome research hurdles beyond the capabilities of todays fastest supercomputers. Qubits are the basic building blocks of quantum computers and are the source of their enormous processing power.

This moves the field to a new territory that no one has ever been to, said Mikhail Lukin, a professor of physics at George Vasmer Leverett, co-director of the Harvard Quantum Initiative and one of the senior authors of the study. Stated.Published in the journal today Nature.. We are entering a whole new part of the quantum world.

According to Sepehr Ebadi, a physics student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard and the lead author of the study, the unprecedented combination of size and programmability of the system is at the forefront of the quantum computer competition. The mysterious nature of the substance on a very small scale greatly improves its processing power. Under the right circumstances, increasing the cue bit means that the system can store and process more information exponentially than the traditional bits on which a standard computer runs.

The number of quantum states possible with just 256 qubits exceeds the number of atoms in the solar system, Evadi explained the vast size of the system.

Already, the simulator allows researchers to observe some exotic quantum states that have never been experimentally realized, and is accurate enough to serve as an example in a textbook showing how magnetism works at the quantum level. Quantum phase transition research can be performed.

These experiments provide powerful insights into the quantum physics that underlie material properties and help scientists show how to design new materials with exotic properties.

The project uses a significantly upgraded version of the platform developed by researchers in 2017 that was able to reach a size of 51 qubits. The old system allowed researchers to capture ultra-low temperature rubidium atoms and place them in a particular order using a one-dimensional array of individually focused laser beams called optical tweezers.

This new system allows atoms to be assembled into a two-dimensional array of optical tweezers. This increases the achievable system size from 51 qubits to 256 qubits. Tweezers allow researchers to arrange atoms in a defect-free pattern and create programmable shapes such as squares, honeycombs, or triangular grids to design different interactions between cubits.

The flagship product of this new platform is a device called the Spatial Light Modulator, which is used to form the light wave front and generate hundreds of individually focused optical tweezers beams, Ebadi said. Mr. says. These devices are essentially the same as those used in computer projectors to display images on the screen, but we have adapted them as an important component of quantum simulators.

The initial loading of atoms into optical tweezers is random, and researchers need to move the atoms to place them in the shape of the target. Researchers use a second set of moving optical tweezers to drag the atom to the desired position, eliminating the initial randomness. Lasers give researchers complete control over the placement of atomic cubits and their coherent quantum manipulation.

Other senior authors of this study include Professors Svil Sachidef and Marcus Greiner of Harvard University, Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, and Insbrook University of Austria, who worked on the project with Professor Vladin Vretti of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Includes scientists. Austrian Academy of Sciences and QuEra Computing Inc. in Boston.

Our work is part of a very fierce, highly visible global competition to build larger, better quantum computers, said Harvard University Physics Researcher. Tout Wang, one of the authors of the paper, said. Overall effort [beyond our own] There are leading academic research institutes involved and major private sector investments from Google, IBM, Amazon, and many others.

Researchers are currently working on improving the system by improving laser control over qubits and making the system more programmable. They are also actively exploring how systems can be used in new applications, from exploring the exotic forms of quantum materials to solving challenging real-world problems that can be naturally encoded into qubits. doing.

This study enables a huge number of new scientific directions, Evadi said. We are far from the limits of what we can do with these systems.

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Harvard-led physicists have taken a major step in the competition with quantum computing

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