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Part of a cryostat in Google\u2019s quantum-computing facility.<\/span>Credit: Google Quantum AI<\/span><\/p>\n Google researchers have made a fresh claim of quantum advantage \u2014 the ability of quantum computers to radically speed up calculations compared with their classical counterparts.<\/p>\n This is not the company\u2019s first such claim. But the researchers say their latest algorithm \u2014 dubbed quantum echoes \u2014 has the potential to solve scientific problems, including deriving the structures of molecules. It could also, in theory, be replicated on another quantum computer.<\/p>\n \u201cThis algorithm offers the opportunity for real-world applications,\u201d said Hartmut Neven, who heads Google\u2019s quantum-computing lab, in Santa Barbara, California, at a briefing for journalists ahead of the announcement. The firm is optimistic that in five years there will be practical uses for quantum computers, he added.<\/p>\n Google uncovers how quantum computers can beat today\u2019s best supercomputers<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But some researchers are cautious of the claim of quantum advantage, published in Nature on 22 October1. \u201cThe burden of proof should be high,\u201d says Dries Sels, a quantum physicist at New York University in New York City. And although the paper does a \u201cserious job\u201d of testing various classical algorithms, there is no proof that an efficient one doesn\u2019t exist. \u201cPersonally I don\u2019t think that\u2019s enough to make such a big claim,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Others say that the promise of practical use so soon is premature. The technical advance is impressive, says James Whitfield, a quantum physicist at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, but it is \u201ca bit of a stretch to think how this is going to suddenly solve some economically viable problem\u201d.<\/p>\n Google researchers and their collaborators fleshed out how they could apply the algorithm to simple molecules in a preprint study that they have submitted to arXiv. They were able to predict certain features of the molecules\u2019 structures using quantum simulations, and confirm their findings with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. But so far, they can only apply the method to molecules that can already be efficiently simulated classically, such as the aromatic liquid toluene.<\/p>\n Applying the quantum echoes algorithm to more complex systems will require less noisy hardware or methods to correct for errors that are still being worked on, said Tom O\u2019Brien, a research scientist at Google Quantum AI in Munich, Germany, at the briefing.<\/p>\n The demonstrations used Google\u2019s Willow chip, which harnesses 105 tiny superconducting circuits to store information as quantum bits, or qubits \u2014 the quantum equivalent of classical bits of information. <\/p>\n Fresh \u2018quantum advantage\u2019 claim made by computing firm D-Wave<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Google\u2019s algorithm is able to detect subtle quantum links between distant parts of the computer, which otherwise get scrambled and lost owing to interactions between the device\u2019s many quantum parts. The team likened their method to mapping a cave using echoes; it involves running a series of operations, perturbing a qubit, then running the operations in reverse. Measurements reveal traces of the single qubit\u2019s interactions throughout the system.<\/p>\n To apply the algorithm to molecules, researchers make qubits simulate \u2018spins\u2019 of atomic nuclei, the quantum property that makes each nucleus act like a tiny bar magnet. By measuring how these spins interact magnetically, NMR reveals a molecule\u2019s structure, but the technique fails when the nuclei are too far apart. By simulating spins using qubits, the quantum echoes algorithm can tease out long-distance interactions to give more structural information than is possible using NMR alone, said O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Part of a cryostat in Google\u2019s quantum-computing facility.Credit: Google Quantum AI Google researchers have made a fresh claim of quantum advantage \u2014 the ability of quantum computers to radically speed up calculations compared with their classical counterparts. This is not the company\u2019s first such claim. But the researchers say their latest algorithm \u2014 dubbed quantum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[14796,1891,2016,4361,5265,17603],"class_list":{"0":"post-29850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-advantage","9":"tag-claims","10":"tag-google","11":"tag-quantum","12":"tag-researchers","13":"tag-sceptical"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Echoing qubits<\/h2>\n