Communications of the ACM
Computing's Search For Quantum Questions
Scientists are plotting out benchmark problems specifically appropriate to hybrid quantum computers.
Credit: Daan Botlek/Quanta Magazine
In the wake of Google's 2015 announcement that the D-Wave 2X quantum computer conducted a task 100 million times faster than a classical computer, scientists are plotting out "benchmark problems," or classes of problems that are specifically appropriate to hybrid quantum machines like the D-Wave 2X.
A recent Google study proposed scaled-up quantum annealers should outperform classical computers in certain niche disciplines. A quantum annealer is designed to meet the challenge of solving an NP-hard optimization problem, and to arrive at good-enough solutions instead of best solutions.
The D-Wave leverages a novel quantum property to "tunnel" from one solution to another in search of the lowest energy state. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich researcher Matthias Troyer says the Google study makes the most persuasive case thus far that the D-Wave 2X employs quantum effects to tackle problems. However, researchers are skeptical of Google's claim of the D-Wave's vastly superior speed over a classical algorithm.
"They looked for problem instances where quantum annealing should work faster than classical annealing, and on those problems where the classical annealer is very slow, the D-Wave worked well," Troyer notes.
Texas A&M University's Helmut Katzgraber says now it is up to researchers to identify classical algorithms that could take advantage of the D-Wave 2X's quantum technology.
From Quanta Magazine
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