https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-light-based-quantum-computer-jiuzhang-supremacy
Named Jiuzhang after an ancient Chinese mathematical text, the new quantum computer can perform a calculation in 200 seconds that would take more than half a billion years on the world’s fastest non-quantum, or classical, computer.
“My first impression was, ‘wow,’” says quantum physicist Fabio Sciarrino of Sapienza University of Rome.
Google’s device, called Sycamore, is based on tiny quantum bits made of superconducting materials, which conduct energy without resistance. In contrast, Jiuzhang consists of a complex array of optical devices that shuttle photons around. Those devices include light sources, hundreds of beam splitters, dozens of mirrors and 100 photon detectors.
The quantum computer Jiuzhang manipulates light via a complex arrangement of optical devices (shown).HANSEN ZHONG
Employing a process called boson sampling, Jiuzhang generates a distribution of numbers that is exceedingly difficult for a classical computer to replicate. Here’s how it works: Photons are first sent into a network of channels. There, each photon encounters a series of beam splitters, each of which sends the photon down two paths simultaneously, in what’s called a quantum superposition. Paths also merge together, and the repeated splitting and merging causes the photons to interfere with one another according to quantum rules.
Finally, the number of photons in each of the network’s output channels is measured at the end. When repeated many times, this process produces a distribution of numbers based on how many photons were found in each output.
If operated with large numbers of photons and many channels, the quantum computer will produce a distribution of numbers that is too complex for a classical computer to calculate. In the new experiment, up to 76 photons traversed a network of 100 channels. For one of the world’s most powerful classical computers, the Chinese supercomputer Sunway TaihuLight, predicting the results that the quantum computer would get for anything beyond about 40 photons was intractable.
While Google was the first to break the quantum supremacy barrier, the milestone is “not a single-shot achievement,” says study coauthor and quantum physicist Chao-Yang Lu of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei. “It’s a continuous competition between constantly improved quantum hardware and constantly improved classical simulation.” After Google’s quantum supremacy claim, for example, IBM proposed a type of calculation that might allow a supercomputer to perform the task Google’s computer completed, at least theoretically.