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Microsoft scientists claim to have made an advance that brings practical quantum computers a step closer to reality, but experts say the field is still in its infancy.

Teams around the world are racing to build quantum computers that could outperform classical computers. But high error rates have hindered efforts to build a reliable quantum computer. Now Microsoft researchers say they have made a breakthrough that could make quantum computers more dependable.

"While Microsoft has recently shared some interesting experimental results, they have not yet demonstrated an operational qubit, much less multiple qubits executing a quantum circuit," Paul Lipman, Chief Commercial Officer at the quantum computing company Infleqtion, told Lifewire via email. "However, we should applaud all efforts toward the eventual goal of a large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer. Such a device will transform the world for the better, and it is far too early in the race to say which approach will ultimately prove out. In fact, it may well be that different approaches prove appropriate for different use cases."

The Microsoft engineers reported that they had engineered a new way to represent a logical qubit with hardware stability. The device can induce a phase of matter characterized by Majorana zero modes, a fermion. Using this type of matter can aid in producing quantum supercomputers with low error rates.

Microsoft claims that they have created a way to represent qubits and superposition combined with the hardware stability that would be required to "legitimately start moving towards a commercial quantum computer," Michael Nizich, the director of the Entrepreneurship & Technology Innovation Center at the New York Institute of Technology, said in an email to Lifewire.

"To date, the complex hardware solutions used in research-based quantum computers have been prone to errors due to their complexity, and Microsoft's discoveries may allow the next phase of discussions regarding commercially available quantum processors and, more importantly, for Microsoft, Quantum Operating Systems (QOS), to begin."

At the heart of quantum computing is the physics of a viable qubit, the quantum version of the classic binary bit, Bill Lawrence, the CISO of the cybersecurity company Hopr told Lifewire via email. Qubits operate in the realm of quantum physics, while classical physics is the home of conventional computing.

Conventional computers work at room temperature, and the 'Bit' is the basic unit for storage and computation. It is either a '1' or a '0,' and strings of bits can represent numbers, characters, pictures, audio, etc., that can be stored and manipulated by the conventional computer's processors.

The world's collective quantum computing efforts have been described as a 'moon shot.'

Quantum computers work in the realm of quantum subatomic physics, where something can be a particle or a wave at the same time, Lawrence said. Objects at this tiny scale can be in two places simultaneously, and there are limits to how accurately the value of a physical quantity can be predicted before its measurement, given a complete set of initial conditions. Quantum computers use qubits that deal with all possible values of each qubit simultaneously but in a fashion that the quantum processor can interpret to solve complex problems quickly.

Using qubits in computers is incredibly difficult. Qubits are extremely sensitive to noise and hold their quantum state typically for very short periods, Lipman pointed out. He said the largest quantum computers currently available consist of only a few hundred noisy physical qubits.

Dozens of competing companies are pouring research money into qubit technologies, and there are likely over a dozen very different qubit technology approaches underway, Lawrence said.

"Microsoft's claim does appear to be interesting but also controversial, as it claims to be solving the very important error-rate issues by relying on a newly discovered 'elusive particle,'" he added. "This would imply that significant research and development will still be needed."

IBM Research/via Flickr [Licensed under CC BY 2.0]

Creating a commercially valuable quantum computer will require millions of near-perfect qubits, with exquisite control of their quantum state and noise, and sophisticated approaches to error mitigation and error correction, Lipman said.

"The world's collective quantum computing efforts have been described as a 'moon shot,'" he added. "However, the scientific and engineering challenges required to deliver on this quantum computing dream are arguably far harder than those required to put people on the moon."

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Microsoft: Why It's Hard to Build Quantum Computers - Lifewire

This summer, Caltech will break ground on the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement (CQPM), the first center to unite researchers in precision measurement, quantum information, and the detection of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time.

These areas each involve incredibly precise measurement aimed at advancing fundamental physics research.

Construction is slated to begin this winter, after the site along California Boulevard is prepared and the design is finalized. The building will open in the fall of 2025.

"The CQPM will bring together researchers from across the Caltech campusastronomers, biologists, chemists, computer scientists, engineers, physicistsunited by their passion to understand the inner workings of Nature," says Caltech president Thomas F. Rosenbaum. "In state-of-the art laboratories and open, interactive spaces, they will develop powerful new quantum devices and educate the next generation of leaders in quantum science and technology."

"This building will facilitate discoveries that change our understanding of physics and the cosmos," says Fiona Harrison, Caltech's Harold A. Rosen Professor of Physics and the Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy.

"The building will bring together talented people with diverse backgrounds: students and faculty, theorists and experimentalists, people with different life experiences and expertise," she adds. "With that same approach, Caltech researchers have co-developed instruments that detect wavelengths of light our eyes cannot see, gravitational waves, and the quantum interactions of subatomic particles. We anticipate similar advances from the CQPM."

What is quantum precision measurement?

From living cells to black holes, nature is built on quantum physics. At first, scientists observed quantum physics at atomic and subatomic scales; now they are beginning to study and harness quantum phenomena in assemblies of tens of thousands of atoms. Researchers in the CQPM will explore quantum phenomena across all scales and invent measurement instruments with unprecedented sensitivity. The resulting discoveries are expected to yield insights into natural processes and lead to new technologies.

Building basics

A hub for quantum research, the CQPM will neighbor physics, mathematics, astronomy, and engineering buildings. It will stand on the north side of California Boulevard between the Ronald and Maxine Linde Hall of Mathematics and Physics and the George W. Downs Laboratory of Physics and Charles C. Lauritsen Laboratory of High Energy Physics, on the site of a physics building that was demolished in 2016.

The CQPM's four stories of research offices, meeting rooms, and collaboration zones, and a basement level of laboratories will bring together at least a dozen faculty members, 50 postdoctoral scholars, 40 graduate students, and several senior and junior scientists and engineers.

The new building was made possible by a lead gift from Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg of Long Beach, California, by an anonymous gift, and by a grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation.

Architectural innovation

Caltech selected HOK, which designed the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and other notable buildings worldwide, as the CQPM building architect. The choice supports Caltech's emphasis on sustainable design, an HOK specialty. The CQPM project goal is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.

HOK's preliminary concept features a transparent facade inflected inward on its south and west sides to suggest a prism or the bending of spacetime, an allusion to CQPM research.

In the HOK concept, behind that evocative facade, the building's street-facing south side will feature collaboration areas, while offices will line the quiet interior sides. Parts of the ground floor will be recessed to give space to lush plantings and outdoor mingling areas. Glass panel doors and a breezeway, perhaps connecting to an adjacent seminar room, will enable indoor-outdoor flow.

Basement laboratories to explore space, time, and gravity

While much of the CQPM is conceptualized as a nearly rectangular column proportionate to other campus buildings and made of similar materials, the basement will be expansive, stretching west under the historic campus entrance on the north side of California Boulevard.

With amenities such as a shared space for laser experiments, this scientific playground will include the Kip Thorne Laboratories, which the Sherman Fairchild Foundation named in honor of Nobel laureate Kip Thorne (BS '62), Caltech's Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus. Thorne co-founded LIGO and developed ideas central to the use of quantum precision measurement to study space, time, and gravity.

Researchers in the Thorne Laboratories will develop advanced instruments to probe the nature of space and time, will research how to make the most precise measurements of time, and will conduct basic experiments to understand the behavior of controlled quantum systems. The Thorne Laboratories will provide state-of-the-art space for several future hires.

"The best physics happens in basements. Things are quiet, which we like," says physics professor Rana Adhikari. "Even better, the new building has the promise of putting people together in one place. We realized over the past few years that science progresses best when we're together in person. We rely on chitchat. A lot of our good ideas come from this kind of casual, informal interaction."

Adhikari says the building will help researchers gain insight into space and time. "We think it's possible that there's a microscopic description of spacetime that comes from quantum entanglement or some kind of mysterious thing that we don't understand yet," he says. "Why is the speed of light what it is? What happens at the edge of the black hole? Why does empty space behave the way it does? The fact that you can curve space and that it has energy when you curve it means it's not really empty. All these things are wrapped up in the microphysics of space and time."

"To push forward that idea," he adds, "you need to have people who are working on the theory and thinking about experiments. But we have been on opposite sides of the campus. I can't predict what will come out of it, and that's a good thing. Putting people together, who are passionate about fundamental physics; I'm sure that, whatever happens, it will be wondrous."

Next steps

Pasadena's Charles Pankow Builders will serve as general contractor for the project's pre-construction phase. Trusted with the construction of such treasured properties as Grand Park in Los Angeles, Pankow stood out from the field for another project: the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Bowes Center, an acoustically impeccable space. Pankow's experience with that project will help ensure CQPM's facilities will have the silence and stability needed in the world's most advanced quantum measurement laboratories.

This year, Caltech will prepare the building site, hold a groundbreaking celebration, conduct informational and listening sessions with the campus community and Pasadena neighbors, and finalize the building design.

Caltech plans to seek the City of Pasadena Design Commission's comments on the proposed CQPM design at a preliminary consultation meeting scheduled for Tuesday, July 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the Pasadena City Hall council chambers. If you would like to attend in person or online, please check the Design Commission website, where the meeting notice, agenda, and information about how to participate will be posted.

As site preparation and construction progress, further updates will be shared here.

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Breaking Ground on the Quantum World - Caltech

OAKLAND, California June 27 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence and quantum computing startup SandboxAQ on Tuesday said it has won a U.S. government contract for military cyber security in a deal that includes Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Deloitte & Touche (DLTE.UL) as subcontractors.

The contract is with the Defense Information Systems Agency which provides global communications infrastructure for the Department of Defense, the Silicon Valley firm said.

SandboxAQ, which spun off from Alphabet (GOOGL.O) last year, offers software that can scan systems and identify and replace encryption algorithms that can be broken with current technology and techniques or will likely be broken in the near term, SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary told Reuters.

Researchers expect quantum computers to eventually be able to break today's encryption algorithms, and new cryptography techniques designed to withstand quantum computers have been introduced to prevent hackers from gathering encrypted data to decrypt in the future.

"It's a great milestone for our company," Hidary said. "We needed additional complementary skill sets in our consortium. We turned to Deloitte and Microsoft as our subcontractors."

Microsoft is able to provide the infrastructure platform needed for deploying software to large organizations such as the Department of Defense and Deloitte has in-person services that can implement changes.

Hidary declined to disclose how much the contract is worth.

Earlier this year, SandboxAQ won a contract with the U.S. Air Force to research quantum navigation technology which could serve as an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS), which can be jammed.

Quantum navigation uses sensors based on quantum physics to monitor slight local changes in the Earth's magnetic field, making navigation systems much more precise, Hidary said.

Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

Reports on global trends in computing from covering semiconductors and tools to manufacture them to quantum computing. Has 27 years of experience reporting from South Korea, China, and the U.S. and previously worked at the Asian Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters TV. In her free time, she studies math and physics with the goal of grasping quantum physics.

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Silicon Valley startup SandboxAQ hired to beef up US military cyber ... - Reuters

Quantum computing is a revolutionary technology that allows for complex calculations to be performed at speeds that are well beyond what traditional computers can achieve. Thus, the technology is based onthe laws of quantum physics.

Among the fields that can benefit tremendously from quantum computing are drug discovery, financial analysis, and nuclear fusion. Given the technologys tremendous utility, the companies that are leaders in this space are likely to perform very well from a fundamentals and growth perspective. As a result, there are plenty of quantum computing stocks with high potential worth considering.

Importantly, the advent of other technologies, including artificial intelligence, is increasing the overall demand for computing power. This further enhances the longer-term potential of quantum computing overall.

With that said, here are three of the top quantum computing stocks to invest in, given their explosive upside potential.

Source: Shutterstock

As I notedin a previous column,IonQ(NYSE:IONQ) markets hardware for quantum computing. Given that demand for IonQs products is growing rapidly, the company increased its 2023 bookings growth guidance by 25% to a range of $45 million to $55 million. Additionally, I noted that at the midpoint of the bookings guidance, it is expecting a 100% growth compared to last years bookings of $24.5 million.

Moreover, the large Japanese tech investor,Softbank,obtained a large stake in IonQ in 2021, showing some faith in the firm and its offerings.

Theres an exponential increase in the need for computational power, and quantum computing uniquely helps enable that, one of the investors partners toldThe Wall Street Journal.

Impressively, IonQs CEO, Peter Chapman, before coming tothe company, was Director of Engineering forAmazons (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Prime. And, according to Chapmans bio, he is credited with inventing the original sound card for computers, writing the software the Federal Aviation Administration uses to prevent mid-air collisions, and developing systems that protect the integirty of finncial markets.

So the CEO has a tremendous record of developing hugely useful computer products. As a result, I believe that IonQ will develop great offerings under his leadership.

Source: Shutterstock

As anotherInvestorPlacecolumnist, Josh Enomoto, recentlynoted, Rigetti Computing(NASDAQ:RGTI) develops quantum integrated circuits used for quantum computers. Italso develops quantum computers themselves.

Intriguingly, in addition to quantum computing, Rigetti intensively utilizes artificial intelligence.

Using these two technologies, Rigettihas developed a model that predicts economic recession periods using cutting-edge quantum machine learning techniques. Additionally, the company rightly asserts that quantum computing can enhance the performance of AI. Of course, making AI even more powerful would be a quite attractive feature for many businesses.

It should also be noted that Rigetti owns the intellectual property for the hybrid quantum-classical approach that has become the predominant quantum computing architecture. As quantum computing becomes more prevalent and mainstream, that asset should be extremely valuable.

Rigettis current market capitalization of $118.5 million far understates its long-term potential, in my view. This is a stock with explosive upside at current levels.

Source: Boykov / Shutterstock.com

According toSeeking AlphacolumnistHensite Capital,D-Wave Quantum(NASDAQ:QBTS) has the most experience assisting customers in resolving practical optimization problems that are challenging for computers. Moreover, D-Wave Quantum is the only company with operational and commercial experience managing a large-scale quantum computing business.

D-Wave says that it is the only firm offering a type of quantum computing called quantum annealing. During D-Waves first-quarterearnings call, held on May 19, CEO Alan Baratz said, Companies are increasingly turning to [quantum annealing] to find solutions to their most computationally complex optimization problems.

Among the issues being solved with the technology are employee scheduling, factory process automation, fraud detection, (and) advertising optimization, Baratz reported.

He added that, over the last year, the companys sales to commercial customers had climbed an impressive 30%. Additionally, D-Waves bookings soared an incredible 297% last quarter versus the same period a year earlier.

Given the apparent great usefulness of D-Waves technology and its rapid growth, its one of the best quantum computing stocks to buy, hands-down.

On the date of publication, Larry Ramerdid not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

Larry Ramer has conducted research and written articles on U.S. stocks for 15 years. He has been employed by The Fly and Israels largest business newspaper, Globes. Larry began writing columns for InvestorPlace in 2015. Among his highly successful, contrarian picks have been PLUG, XOM and solar stocks. You can reach him on Stocktwits at @larryramer.

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3 Quantum Computing Stocks to Buy With Explosive Upside Potential - InvestorPlace

Make everything a bit bigger. Thats the general idea behind a quantum simulator that has been used to make analogues of small organic molecules. Bigger means more control. And more control means more answers.

Quantum simulators based on quantum mechanical systems let scientists study model systems and then extrapolate from them to understand real (and not-yet-real) systems. By using a quantum device rather than a classical computer, youre not hindered by the computational costs that grow exponentially with every extra atom or the compromises that come with trying to model quantum.

Richard Feynman first floated the concept of building experimental platforms out of elementary quantum particles, like atoms, ions and photons, for studying many-body systems in his 1981 lecture Simulating physics with computers. Nature isnt classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, youd better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly its a wonderful problem because it doesnt look so easy, he said. His original idea involved building a lattice of spins with tuneable interactions.

In the years that have followed, analogue quantum simulators quantum systems made to explore specific problems in quantum physics have been made using trapped ions, cold atoms in optical lattices, liquid and solid-state NMR, photons, quantum dots and superconducting circuits. Theyre subtly different from quantum computers that combine classical and quantum computing, and are being developed to accurately model chemical systems, among other things.

Last week we reported on a new quantum simulator. Its made by placing rings of caesium ions on an indium antimonide substrate using a scanning tunnelling microscope. Each ring of caesium ions acts as an artificial atom, and when six of them are placed in a hexagonal shape they create an artificial version of benzene. Having established that the orbital patterns in this artificial benzene resemble the real thing, the team went on to explore more unstable systems such as cyclobutadiene. Whats particularly exciting about this approach is that by allowing users to make structures with fragile low-energy states, they can unpick the relationship between geometry and electronic structure. This new quantum simulator also stands out because it manages to remain uncoupled from, and therefore uninfluenced by, the supporting substrate.

An obvious challenge for quantum simulators, however, is verifying their accuracy. Luckily several teams have been developing techniques to do just that. As quantum simulators become even more sophisticated, its important that their trustworthiness and falsifiability keeps pace.

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Quantum hardware | Opinion - Chemistry World