Adiabatic Quantum Computers in 2017: Huge Advance or All Hype?

prof. Mark A. Novotny William L. Giles Distinguished Professor, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, HPC^2 Center for Computational Sciences, Mississippi State University, USA

6.04.2017, 16:00 ,  room SAII IF Katowice

The availability of quantum annealing machines, also known as Adiabatic Quantum Computers (AQC), with about N>50 qubits would be a disruptive technology. A qubit is a quantum superposition of the 0 and the 1 bit at the heart of all binary technology. The ability of an AQC to perform calculations impractical for any binary computer is why governments and companies (including Google) are making substantial investments in AQC. D-Wave produces a quantum annealing machine with N>2000 qubits. An introduction to AQC machines will be presented. Questions addressed will include whether current AQC technologies: are adiabatic? are quantum? are a computer? If AQC are not all hype, it is an impactful new tool. As with any new tool three things should be done: 1) test the current tool, 2) understand applications enabled by the availability of the current tool and future advanced tools, 3) work to improve next generations of the tool. All three will be addressed in this lecture, including tests and applications of the D-Wave 2X with N>1000 qubits and the D-Wave 2000Q with N>2000 qubits