Prof Jonathan Jones

Abstract:

Nuclear magnetic resonance is arguably both the best available quantum technology for implementing simple quantum computing experiments and the worst technology for building large scale quantum computers that has ever been seriously put forward. After a few years of rapid growth, leading to an implementation of Shor's quantum factoring algorithm in a seven-spin system, the field started to reach its natural limits and further progress became challenging. Rather than pursuing more complex algorithms on larger systems, interest has now largely moved into developing techniques for the precise and efficient manipulation of spin states with the aim of developing methods that can be applied in other more scalable technologies and within conventional NMR. However, the user friendliness of NMR implementations means that they remain popular for proof-of-principle demonstrations of simple quantum information protocols.

Abstract:

We consider the problem of efficiently computing the Uhlmann fidelity in the case when explicit density matrix descriptions are available. We derive an alternative formula which is simpler to evaluate numerically, saving a factor of 10 in time for large matrices.

Abstract:

Quantum computers are on the brink of surpassing the capabilities of even the most powerful classical computers, which naturally raises the question of how one can trust the results of a quantum computer when they cannot be compared to classical simulation Here, we present a cross-verification technique that exploits the principles of measurement-based quantum computation to link quantum circuits of different input size, depth, and structure. Our technique enables consistency checks of quantum computations between independent devices, as well as within a single device. We showcase our protocol by applying it to five state-of-the-art quantum processors, based on four distinct physical architectures: nuclear magnetic resonance, superconducting circuits, trapped ions, and photonics, with up to six qubits and up to 200 distinct circuits.