The reporter learned from the University of Science and Technology of China on May 8 that the team of academician Pan Jianwei of the school has recently successfully developed the quantum computing prototype “Zu Chongzhi”, which has the largest number of superconducting qubits in the world, and has manipulated 62 superconducting qubits. And on this basis, a programmable two-dimensional quantum walk is realized. A few days ago, the international authoritative academic journal “Science” published the research results.
As one of the major challenges at the frontier of world science and technology, quantum computers have become the focus of competition among all countries. In principle, quantum computers have ultra-fast parallel computing capabilities. It is expected that specific algorithms can provide exponential acceleration compared to traditional computers in fields such as password deciphering, big data optimization, weather forecasting, material design, and drug analysis.
There are many technical routes for the study of quantum computing in the international academic community. Superconducting quantum computing is one of the most promising candidates. Its core research goal is to increase the number of “manipulable” qubits, and improve the accuracy of manipulation, and ultimately apply it to practical problems.
Pan Jianwei, Zhu Xiaobo, Peng Chengzhi and others from the University of Science and Technology of China have been studying superconducting quantum computing for a long time, and have successively realized international cutting-edge achievements such as a 12-bit superconducting quantum chip with a fidelity of 70% and a 24-bit high-performance superconducting quantum processor. Recently, on the basis of their independent development of a two-dimensional superconducting qubit chip, they have successfully constructed the programmable superconducting quantum computing prototype “Zu Chongzhi” with the largest number of superconducting qubits in the world and containing 62 bits.
The research team observed the quantum walk phenomenon under single-particle and double-particle excitation on a superconducting qubit chip with a two-dimensional structure, and experimentally studied the propagation speed of quantum information on a two-dimensional plane, and at the same time modulated the topological structure of the qubit connection The Mach-Zehnder interferometer is constructed in a way to realize a programmable two-particle quantum walk.
It is reported that this achievement lays a technical foundation for realizing quantum superiority in superconducting quantum systems and for subsequent research on quantum computing with great practical value. In addition, the two-dimensional programmable quantum walk based on the “Zu Chongzhi” quantum computing prototype has potential applications in quantum search algorithms, general quantum computing and other fields, and will also be an important development direction in the future.
Zu Chongzhi was an outstanding mathematician and astronomer during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 AD) of China.
Source: Xinhuanet