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Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor

Frank Arute, Kunal Arya, Ryan Babbush · Google AI Quantum and collaborators; 77 authors total. Frank Arute is the lead author; John M. Martinis is the senior/corresponding author.

Published 23 October 2019 · Nature · Journal article

Summary

Google's team uses a 53-qubit programmable superconducting processor (Sycamore) to perform random quantum circuit sampling, a task chosen to be classically hard. They report sampling the output of a pseudo-random circuit in about 200 seconds, estimating that a leading classical supercomputer would need an impractically long time for the equivalent task, thereby claiming the first demonstration of quantum computational supremacy.

Key findings

  • Demonstrates random circuit sampling on a 53-qubit Sycamore processor as a benchmark for quantum advantage.
  • Reports completing the sampling task in ~200 seconds versus an estimated ~10,000 years for classical simulation (an estimate later disputed by IBM and subsequent classical algorithms).
  • Validates high-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates and demonstrates scalable cross-entropy benchmarking.

Subjects & keywords

Cite this paper

APA

Frank Arute, Kunal Arya, & Ryan Babbush [Google AI Quantum and collaborators; 77 authors total. Frank Arute is the lead author; John M. Martinis is the senior/corresponding author.] (2019). Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1666-5

BibTeX
@article{arute2019quantum,
  author    = {Frank Arute and Kunal Arya and Ryan Babbush and {Google AI Quantum and collaborators; 77 authors total. Frank Arute is the lead author; John M. Martinis is the senior/corresponding author.}},
  title     = {Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor},
  journal   = {Nature},
  year      = {2019},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41586-019-1666-5},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1666-5}
}

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