So much has been happening on the quantum technology front in recent days that it would be unwise to try to cram it all into one wrap-up story… but we’re going to try anyway:
…While IBM has continued to raise the bar higher on the qubits front, announcing its 127-qubit Eagle processor last November, IBM also is developing more circuit knitting techniques–that is, finding ways to employ classical computing resources and capabilities to make quantum commuting more efficient. The latest of these techniques is entanglement forging, which enables researchers to simulate a given quantum system using only half as many qubits on a quantum computer, according to an IBM blog post.
Here’s the full explanation from IBM’s post:
Under most circumstances, if researchers wanted to simulate 10 spin-orbitals of a water molecule, they would need to do so using a quantum computer with at least 10 qubits. That’s because most quantum simulation techniques require one qubit for each relevant “feature” of the systems they simulate. With entanglement forging, IBM Quantum researchers were able to effectively split the problem in half. This means they separated the 10 spin-orbitals into two groups of five, and then processed each grouping using just five qubits.
Translation: Entanglement forging allows quantum computing users to tackle bigger,more difficult problems using fewer qubits. This could be especially impactful for the relatively smaller-qubit systems of today, putting them in position to address challenges that previously seemed like they would have to wait from much larger-qubit systems…
…ColdQuanta and Classiq have partnered on a plan to combine the capabilities of ColdQuanta’s Hilbert quantum computer and Classiq’s quantum algorithm design platform to enable clients to create, simulate and execute 100-qubit quantum circuits. The companies want to position these circuits to solve high-level use problems in areas such as finance, material science, supply chain, and machine learning challenges…
…Ready for the “quantum apocalypse?” That’s what a BBC report described as quantum computing’s rapidly evolving potential to obliterate current encryption methods. This is not a trivial concern at all, but it also is not at all a new one, as various experts have been talking about this eventuality for a while. It’s why NIST and other groups have been pushing the evolution of new post-quantum cryptography standards. What’s more concerning than a future apocalypse is the quiet disaster that already may be underway: Many quantum experts have warned that cyber attackers may already be stealing encrypted files with the hope that they can use quantum computing several years down the road to unlock them…
…Maybe a company like PQShield can be part of the solution. The U.K.-based start-up that was spun out of Oxford University and is said to be working on “future proof” cryptography announced $20 million in new funding recently…
…Multiverse Computing, a quantum company based in Spain that is focused on quantum computing applications for finance, has appointed Michel Kurek, an executive with a career background in finance, as the CEO of its Paris-based subsidiary…
…Finally, we’ve covered a lot of what’s been happening lately with the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. Now, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories is working with Microsoft’s Azure Quantum group to use “quantum-inspired algorithms” to help with the complex tasks associated with scheduling communication between various spacecraft, including the Webb Telescope, and Earth…