Quantum supremacy: Benchmarking the Sycamore processor (QuantumCasts)

Quantum supremacy: Benchmarking the Sycamore processor talk is presented by Research Scientist Kevin Satzinger for the APS March Meeting 2020. The promise of quantum computers is that certain computational tasks might be executed exponentially faster on a quantum processor than on a classical processor. A fundamental challenge is to build a high-fidelity processor capable of running quantum algorithms in an exponentially large computational space. Here we report the use of a processor with 53 programmable superconducting qubits. In our Sycamore processor, each qubit interacts with four neighbors in a rectangular lattice using tunable couplers. A key systems engineering advance of this device is achieving high-fidelity single- and two-qubit operations, not just in isolation but also while performing a realistic computation with simultaneous gate operations across the entire processor. We benchmark the Sycamore processor using cross-entropy benchmarking, a scalable method to evaluate system performance. Our largest system benchmarks feature circuits that are intractable for classical hardware, culminating in the demonstration of quantum supremacy. Furthermore, the fidelities from full-system benchmarks agree with what we predict from individual gate and measurement fidelities, verifying the digital error model and presenting a path forward to quantum error correction. Nature 574, 505-510 (2019) Watch every episode of QuantumCasts here → https://goo.gle/QuantumCasts Subscribe to the TensorFlow channel → https://goo.gle/TensorFlow