On Oct. 23, Google’s Quantum AI research team published their research results in the international journal Nature, demonstrating performance 13,000 times faster than Frontier, the world’s highest-performing supercomputer, using their latest quantum computing chip Willow and quantum algorithm Quantum Echoes. This comes just 10 months after Google unveiled the 105-qubit Willow last December, now developing a tailored algorithm for practical applications and demonstrating specific performance. Notably, this research involved Michel Devoret, Google Quantum AI’s chief scientist and recent Nobel Physics laureate, adding to its credibility.

Google conducted the random circuit sampling (RCS) experiment, a standard test for measuring quantum computer performance. The results showed that Willow, equipped with Quantum Echoes, could perform the simulation (calculation) in 2.1 hours. In contrast, Frontier would take 3.2 years, indicating that Willow can reduce the time by a factor of 13,000. Quantum Echoes is an algorithm that applies the time-reversed order correlator (OTOC) calculation method, which amplifies necessary energy signals like sound and its echo meeting and amplifying.

Google emphasized that this algorithm achieved “verifiable quantum supremacy” for the first time in the world. Quantum supremacy refers to quantum computer performance surpassing supercomputers. Achieving quantum supremacy is a prerequisite for commercializing quantum computers. Although several quantum computers worldwide, including Google’s Sycamore in 2019, have claimed quantum supremacy, the academic community remains divided on its authenticity. This is because research teams worldwide have been designing their own experiments to measure quantum computer performance, leaving room for debate over experimental conditions. In this regard, Google claimed that even non-Google quantum computers could consistently demonstrate superior performance to supercomputers if equipped with the Quantum Echoes algorithm.

Google also showed that quantum computers can perform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis, a physics problem for predicting material structures, at or above supercomputer levels. NMR is a phenomenon where atoms emit energy through specific reactions in a magnetic field. By analyzing this energy, one can understand the structure of how atoms are bonded without directly observing the material. Willow successfully predicted the structures of toluene’ (15 atoms) and dimethylbiphenyl (DMBP) (28 atoms) molecules more precisely than before.

This means that Google’s quantum computer can perform practical problems in industrial settings beyond academic problems like RCS. Choi Jae-hyuk, director of the Quantum Technology Research Institute at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, explained, “Existing quantum computers are at the level of analyzing the structure of two-atom hydrogen,” adding, “This is a significant advancement as an intermediate step towards analyzing complex substances like proteins.” Han Sang-wook, head of the Quantum Information Research Group at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), also said, “It is significant that quantum computers have solved practical problems, not just problems for the sake of problems.”

Source: BusinessKorea