Microsoft and Quantinuum have announced a significant advancement in quantum computing through their collaborative Azure Quantum project. This partnership marks a considerable milestone in the development and application of quantum technology, with the companies claiming to have achieved a new generation of highly reliable logical qubits. These advancements are crucial for unlocking the practical applications of quantum computing, a field that holds the potential to revolutionise industries and scientific research.
In a recent update on their progress, Microsoft and Quantinuum successfully created 12 logical qubits from 56 physical qubits using Quantinuum’s H2 ion-trap machine. This marks a notable improvement from an earlier achievement, where four logical qubits were produced from 30 physical qubits. The current achievement boasts an impressive 99.8% fidelity in two-qubit operations, indicating a substantial increase in the reliability of quantum operations.
The collaboration between the two companies has resulted in the entanglement of logical qubits in a complex configuration known as the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state. This development achieved a circuit error rate of 0.0011, significantly lower than the physical qubits' error rate of 0.024. Such a low error rate highlights the progress towards fault-tolerant quantum computing, inching closer to the full capabilities of quantum technology.
Beyond the technical advancements, the partnership has demonstrated the practical utility of quantum computing in solving real-world scientific problems. In particular, Microsoft and Quantinuum applied their quantum technology to address a complex chemical problem. By integrating logical qubits with artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), they successfully estimated the ground state energy of a complex catalytic intermediate. This was achieved by first using HPC simulations to pinpoint the active space of the catalyst, followed by employing logical qubits to simulate its quantum behaviour. The simulation results trained an AI model, providing an accurate energy estimate.
This workflow illustrates a pioneering integration of quantum computing, AI, and HPC to tackle a scientific challenge, underscoring the potential of quantum technologies. Although the current breakthroughs do not yet represent a complete quantum advantage — the point where quantum computers outperform classical computers for particular tasks — they do reveal scenarios where quantum systems can surpass classical methods.
The Azure Quantum platform, a central hub developed by Microsoft, facilitates the convergence of quantum computing with AI and HPC, enabling seamless interactions between various technological architectures. Microsoft aims to continue advancing this platform, supporting a diverse array of qubit architectures such as neutral-atom qubits and topological qubits. This ongoing development seeks to enhance the reliability and scalability of quantum computing systems, potentially addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
Rajeeb Hazra, CEO of Quantinuum, highlighted the success of the project, emphasising the efficiency of their systems. “The ability of our systems to triple the number of logical qubits while less than doubling our physical qubits from 30 to 56 physical qubits is a testament to the high fidelities and all-to-all connectivity of our H-Series trapped-ion hardware," he stated. Hazra also acknowledged the significant role of Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization system in reaching Level 2 resilient quantum computing, which he credits as pivotal to driving further advancements when combined with AI and HPC tools via Azure Quantum.
The partnership between Microsoft and Quantinuum represents a meaningful step towards realising the potential of quantum computing, setting the foundation for more expansive future developments in the field.
Source: Noah Wire Services