Quantum Computing

Quantum Computing Becomes Even More Important

• International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, the UN has declared as 2025.
• Quantum computing has made it a global race among government and private investments.
• From medicine to chemistry, AI, materials, to cryptography, these computers might be the key for change.

What Is a Quantum Chip?

• Quantum chips, on the contrary, allow qubits that can be in a superposition-both 0 and 1 at the same time, whereas the conventional computer is working with bits (0 or 1).
• There are different approaches to implementing qubits, for example, superconducting devices, semiconductors, and photonics.
• Key Players
  • Superconducting qubits-IBM, Google, QueRa
  • Semiconductor qubits-Intel, Diraq, SQC
  • Photonic qubits-PsiQuantum, Xanadu

Qubit Quality vs. Quantity

• A large number of low-quality qubits will be worthless. What is needed for actual applications are high-fidelity qubits.
• Challenges
  • Qubits are very susceptible to noise from the environment.
  • Quantum error correction is necessary to enhance fidelity.

Research Advances in Quantum Error Correction

• Researchers have constructed “logical qubits” that use several imperfect qubits to cancel errors.
• New developments in quantum error correction will be unveiled in 2024 by Google, QueRa, IBM, and CSIRO.
• To date, only a few single logical qubits have been demonstrated successfully-the next challenge is to build a network of logical qubits.

Quantum Supremacy and Future Applications

• Quantum supremacy is defined as the point at which a quantum processor is performing better than classical ones.
• In late 2024, quantum supremacy was shown for a hard computational problem by Google’s Willow quantum chip.
• Envisaged future applications include:
  • Medical breakthroughs: New drug discovery and understanding of genetic diseases.
  • AI and Cybersecurity: Fortifying encryption mechanisms and making AI decision making better.
  • Material Science: Creating advanced novel materials that have new properties.

What Is Happening in 2025?

• Expect the quantum chips to scale up to be able to accommodate logical qubits and allow for stable computation.
• Quantum software and algorithms will get developed whilst anticipating actual quantum applications.
• The field needs to push simultaneously in terms of hardware, fidelity, error correction, and algorithms.

This year 2025 is poised to mark a watershed moment in quantum computing, with predictions of breakthroughs being made in scalability, error correction, and applicable real-world uses.
The fully functioning quantum computer is still a distant goal, but the imminent preparations for it will build the foundation for tomorrow’s computers.

Source: The Hindu