QuCoIn Seminar

Variational methods in quantum annealing

November 15 (Fri) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2019

Shunji Matsuura (Fundamental Researcher, Quantum Simulation Division, 1QBit, Canada)

The rapid progress in the manufacturing of quantum computing hardware has opened up the possibility of exploring its application in solving computationally challenging problems. In this work, we present variational methods in quantum annealing for solving problems more efficiently than the standard adiabatic methods. Important limitations common to all near-term quantum devices include the absence of error correction and the short coherence time, which restrict the computational power of these systems. Therefore, shortening the time taken to perform an individual run of a quantum algorithm and making the annealing process noise resilient is essential for successfully obtaining accurate results. The efficiency of the methods is demonstrated in the ground-state energy estimation of simple molecular systems. Compared with the standard annealing method, the variational algorithms show significant improvements in the annealing time required to achieve a high accuracy.

Venue: #433, Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

Introduction to 1QBit Open Software QEMIST "Quantum-Enabled Molecular ab Initio Simulation Toolkit"

October 17 (Thu) at 13:30 - 15:00, 2019

Shunji Matsuura (Fundamental Researcher, Quantum Simulation Division, 1QBit, Canada)

Venue: #433, Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

Introduction to Quantum Annealing: from Fundamentals to Applications

September 2 (Mon) - 3 (Tue), 2019

Hirotaka Irie (Visiting Scientist, iTHEMS / Assistant Manager, DENSO Corporation)

Sep. 2 (Mon) 10:30-12:00, 13:30-15:00, 15:30-17:00 Lecture 1: What is quantum annealing and quantum computation? Lecture 2: Quatum Ising models as flux-qubit degree of freedom Lecture 3: Basic usage of quantum annealer Sep. 3 (Tue) 10:30-12:00, 13:30-15:00, 15:30-17:00 Lecture 4: Optimization problems and computational complexity Lecture 5: Real-world applications Lecture 6: Some other topics Room: 435-437 (main research building): Sep.2 (Mon) am 424-426 (main research building): Sep.2 (Mon) pm & Sep.3 (Tue) am+pm Abstract: Quantum annealing is a quantum-computational scheme which tackles computationally hard optimization problems. Its quantum-mechanically implemented machine, called quantum annealer, is commercially manufactured by D-Wave Systems, Inc., and is currently available with more than 2000 quantum bits. In this two-day lecture, I would like to discuss fundamental aspects of quantum annealing (1st day) and its real-world applications (2nd day). In particular, I try to overview the current status of the machine and several problems which we should theoretically overcome. In the first day, I will start with discussing what is quantum annealing and then review how quantum Ising model is implemented with flux-qubit degree of freedom. Later on, I will discuss the basic usage of the quantum annealer as a preparation for applications. In the second day, I will first summarize several classes of optimization problems and their computational complexity, and then discuss examples of real-world applications of quantum annealing. Finally, if I have enough time, I would like to discuss other related topic on quantum annealing.

Venue: #435-437, Main Research Building / #424-426, Main Research Building

Event Official Language: English

Quantum physics and science with open-source software: QuTiP, the Quantum Toolbox in Python

June 13 (Thu) at 10:00 - 11:30, 2019

Nathan Shammah (Postdoctoral Researcher, Theoretical Quantum Physics Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR))

I will address the rise of open source software based on the Python language ecosystem in quantum physics research, in particular with relevance to quantum technology and quantum computing. I will introduce the Quantum Toolbox in Python, QuTiP, a very popular software in the quantum tech community, whose core development has revolved around Prof. F. Nori’s group at RIKEN since 2011. QuTiP is open-source software for simulating the dynamics of closed and open quantum systems, and is used for quantum information science and cavity quantum electrodynamics studies. The QuTiP ecosystem has grown considerably in the past years, with many quantum tech libraries using its functionalities, similarly to what has happened for AstroPy in the astrophysics community. Following the seminar, an interactive session will illustrate some features of this software package library. I will also show, drawing from recent research examples, how everyone can build its own library. Only a laptop with wifi working is required to join the hands-on session.

Venue: Nishina Hall

Event Official Language: English