Quantum Computer Answers Can Now Be Checked for Accuracy

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 02 September 2021, 02:09 pm

A quantum computer can do a lot of things even the most powerful traditional supercomputers cannot. The only problem with them, however, is that they're extremely sensitive to external contamination. This makes them prone to errors despite their insane levels of processing capability.

This is what a team of researchers at the University of Vienna attempted to correct, and they might've just succeeded in finding ways to check if a quantum computer's answer is accurate, reports Phys.org.

To achieve their goal, the researchers devised and implemented a cross-check procedure that verifies the results of a calculation via a related (but different) calculation on another machine. In simpler terms, they're letting quantum computers check each other to verify that one machine's answers are correct.

Analyzing the work of the University of Vienna team, Martin Ringbauer from the University of Innsbruck states that the process involves asking different quantum computers to perform different calculations that look random and are vastly different from each other.

It works by leveraging the fact that two quantum computers "don't know" that there's an underlying connection between the varying calculations they're performing. Then with the use of a quantum computing model built on graph structures, the scientists can generate even more different computations from a single source. The end results may look random, but there will always be specific outputs that will always agree, which then proves that both machines are working well.

Quantum computing as a whole is still largely unreliable compared to traditional supercomputers, mainly because of their tendency to commit errors caused by external stimuli, according to Scientific American. But this breakthrough, perhaps they're going to start entering more regular service within the following years.

A Quantum Computer Checking Another Machine's Answer? Not the First Time

This "quantum computers checking each other's answers" thing is actually not the first time it's been observed. For years, scientists have racked their brains trying to make quantum computing more reliable because compared to a normal supercomputer, they're capable of doing so much more.

Back in 2019, a team of scientists from the University of Warwick tried a similar but fundamentally different approach to the whole "machines checking machines" concept: they developed a protocol for a quantum computer to measure how close its answers are to the correct ones, reports SciTechDaily.

Once the questions of accuracy and reliability are solved, the world will be free to unleash a quantum computer's almost unlimited processing potential to advance scientific research to heights previously unimaginable.

Why Does This Matter?

In the simplest terms, A quantum computer possesses processing power that not one, two, three, or even four powerful supercomputers can match. Case in point: China's Zuchongzhi quantum computer, which its creators say can dwarf the performance of Google's Sycamore machine at 66 qubits of theoretical performance. Sycamore can only manage 53 qubits.

In a head-to-head battle, the creators of Zuchongzhi claim that their machine is an insane 10 billion times faster than Sycamore. Here's some perspective for you: a problem that will take Sycamore 10,000 years to process can be solved by Zuchongzhi in over 3 minutes.

Imagine that kind of processing power being employed with little to no risk of wrong answers being given.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce