Quantum Computing in the NISQ era and beyond

Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) technology will be available in the near future. Quantum computers with 50-100 qubits may be able to perform tasks which surpass the capabilities of today's classical digital computers, but noise in quantum gates will limit the size of quantum circuits that can be executed reliably. NISQ devices will be useful tools for exploring many-body quantum physics, and may have other useful applications, but the 100-qubit quantum computer will not change the world right away --- we should regard it as a significant step toward the more powerful quantum technologies of the future. Quantum technologists should continue to strive for more accurate quantum gates and, eventually, fully fault-tolerant quantum computing.Comment: 20 pages. Based on a Keynote Address at Quantum Computing for Business, 5 December 2017. (v3) Formatted for publication in Quantum, minor revision

Differential Evolution for Many-Particle Adaptive Quantum Metrology

We devise powerful algorithms based on differential evolution for adaptive many-particle quantum metrology. Our new approach delivers adaptive quantum metrology policies for feedback control that are orders-of-magnitude more efficient and surpass the few-dozen-particle limitation arising in methods based on particle-swarm optimization. We apply our method to the binary-decision-tree model for quantum-enhanced phase estimation as well as to a new problem: a decision tree for adaptive estimation of the unknown bias of a quantum coin in a quantum walk and show how this latter case can be realized experimentally.Comment: Fig. 2(a) is the cover of Physical Review Letters Vol. 110 Issue 2

QFlow lite dataset: A machine-learning approach to the charge states in quantum dot experiments

Over the past decade, machine learning techniques have revolutionized how research is done, from designing new materials and predicting their properties to assisting drug discovery to advancing cybersecurity. Recently, we added to this list by showing how a machine learning algorithm (a so-called learner) combined with an optimization routine can assist experimental efforts in the realm of tuning semiconductor quantum dot (QD) devices. Among other applications, semiconductor QDs are a candidate system for building quantum computers. The present-day tuning techniques for bringing the QD devices into a desirable configuration suitable for quantum computing that rely on heuristics do not scale with the increasing size of the quantum dot arrays required for even near-term quantum computing demonstrations. Establishing a reliable protocol for tuning that does not rely on the gross-scale heuristics developed by experimentalists is thus of great importance. To implement the machine learning-based approach, we constructed a dataset of simulated QD device characteristics, such as the conductance and the charge sensor response versus the applied electrostatic gate voltages. Here, we describe the methodology for generating the dataset, as well as its validation in training convolutional neural networks. We show that the learner's accuracy in recognizing the state of a device is ~96.5 % in both current- and charge-sensor-based training. We also introduce a tool that enables other researchers to use this approach for further research: QFlow lite - a Python-based mini-software suite that uses the dataset to train neural networks to recognize the state of a device and differentiate between states in experimental data. This work gives the definitive reference for the new dataset that will help enable researchers to use it in their experiments or to develop new machine learning approaches and concepts.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 3 table