DARPA Probing Quantum Computing Capabilities.

• Author: Roaten, Meredith
• Position: Algoithmic Warfare

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently funded the second phase of a quantum computing project that aims to expand the utility of emerging technology, according to one of the lead researchers on the project.

The second phase of the Georgia Tech Research Institute-led project received $9.2 million in funding for the scientists to run additional experiments on a quantum computing system configured to potentially string together more computing units than ever.

The DARPA project--Optimization with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices--aims to "demonstrate the quantitative advantage of quantum information processing by leapfrogging the performance of classical-only systems in solving optimization challenges."

Researcher Creston Herold said one of the classic problems of optimization that quantum computing systems could solve is called the traveling salesperson.

"One famous one is this traveling salesperson problem, where you have a list of addresses you need to take a path and packages to for delivery, for example," he said. "And you want to find the most efficient route, whether that's in time or distance traveled, or fewest left turns made, or at least gas used."

This type of problem shows up in a wide variety of logistics issues in defense and other government business, he noted.

Quantum computers utilize basic units known as qubits rather than 1s and 0s like traditional computers. Its computing power stems from the potential for each qubit to be both 1 and 0 simultaneously, rather than being restricted to one or the other. As a result, a quantum computer could run more complicated algorithms and operate much faster than a traditional computer.

This research aims to goes beyond most quantum computing advances made so far, Herold explained. Quantum computers exist today, but they are as big as the early traditional computers and haven't yet developed the computing power to rival their conventional counterparts.

While most quantum computing systems use magnetic traps to isolate ions, one of the team's researchers, Brian McMahon, developed a "unique" configuration optimized for a more efficient process.

The trapping process--called a Penning trap--uses a combination of a magnetic field and an electric field to confine two-dimensional ion crystals that perform quantum operations.

"The use of rare earths is actually in the permanent magnets, which form the trap," Herold said. "There are magnets like neodymium or samarium cobalt...