Welcome to the Quantum Realm.

Enjoy today’s breakdown of news, research, & events within quantum.

🧪 By using the inherent symmetry of molecules and underlying physics, a new QGNN architecture more efficiently predicts intramolecular properties using fewer parameters. Plus, the National Science and Technology Council urges international cooperation in advancing QIST, quantum memory in the hard x-ray range, and NSF is funding the development of a National Quantum Virtual Laboratory.

🗓️UPCOMING

Thursday, August 15th | QED-C Quantum Marketplace: Quantum Computing Systems III

Tuesday, August 20th | A Different Kind of Quantum Circuit: Exploring Atomtronics with Oqtant by Infleqtion

Thursday, August 22nd | D-Wave Deeper Dive into the new Fast Anneal Feature

Saturday, August 24th | PiQture - A Quantum Machine Learning Library for Image Processing

📰QUANTUM QUICK BYTES

🧪 NSF announced $5 million in funding for pilot projects to create the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory: The U.S. National Science Foundation has invested $5 million in five pilot projects to begin developing the National Quantum Virtual Laboratory, a national resource for accelerating quantum technology research and development. These projects, each funded $1 million, are led by experts from academia, industry, and government, focusing on various quantum technologies such as quantum networks, trapped-ion systems, quantum computing, and quantum sensing. The NQVL will function as a geographically distributed resource to expand access to quantum research infrastructure and encourage workforce development in quantum science.

🌍 US report recommends strengthening international cooperation in QIS: A recently released National Science and Technology Council report emphasizes the importance of international cooperation in quantum information science and technology to maintain US leadership and global competitiveness. It proposes creating dedicated funding mechanisms for international collaboration, encouraging interagency coordination, and establishing metrics to track global competitiveness. In order to build a strong, collaborative international QIST community, we need to do science faster (no easy feat), attract international talent, and increase access to global resources and markets.

🎓 First Mitiq in-person workshop at the QNumerics Summer School: The Mitiq project, an open-source quantum error mitigation tool developed by Unitary Fund, will host its first in-person workshop during the QNumerics Summer School at UMass Amherst from August 12-18, 2024. The workshop, scheduled for August 17, will focus on quantum error mitigation, covering core concepts, techniques like Zero Noise Extrapolation, and practical applications on simulated noisy backends. The Summer School is designed for participants with quantum information science expertise and programming skills, offering hands-on learning through evening hackathons and practical sessions. The event highlights the use of Julia for scientific programming and encourages rapid progress in quantum research.

🔒 Tech giants are leading the transition to post-quantum cryptography: As the release of formal PQC standards by NIST looms ever-closer, major tech companies like Apple and Google have begun transitioning to post-quantum cryptography to protect against future quantum threats, with 20% of industry leaders expected to start this migration process by the end of this year. Companies like Zoom, Meta, and AMD are also doing their part in implementing PQC across their products and infrastructure. The synchronization of the entire cybersecurity supply chain is necessary in order to avoid compatibility issues, and all major web browsers are anticipated to support PQC by the end of 2024.

🔄 Reversible multipliers may reduce quantum computing costs and improve error detection: Researchers from Islamic Azad University developed six new parity-preserving reversible blocks (Z, F, A, T, S, and L) to improve quantum circuit efficiency and error detection. These blocks reduce quantum cost and gate count — quantifiably, they reduce quantum cost by 25.04% for 4-bit unsigned multipliers and by 18.59% for 5-bit signed multipliers. The design focuses on reversible computing principles in order to address power dissipation and error rates.

⚡️ First quantum memory for hard X-rays opens up possibilities for quantum networks: An international research team has developed a method to store and release X-ray pulses at the single-photon level — the first realization of quantum memory in the hard X-ray range. Nuclear absorbers are used to create a frequency comb, which enables the storage and delayed re-emission of X-ray photons. The potential to extend quantum technologies to the X-ray spectrum is significant as it offers longer memory times and lower noise levels. Next steps for the team include plans to explore on-demand photon release and entanglement.

🏭 NIST MATTR service contributes to a solid quantum supply chain in Illinois: David Boulay of the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center sought NIST's guidance on how Illinois manufacturers could support the emerging quantum technology industry. Following this, Illinois proposed a $500 million investment to establish a state-of-the-art quantum campus to position the state as a leader in quantum computing and supply chain development. The MATTR service, provided by NIST, acts as a bridge between manufacturers and lab experts, helping to identify the capabilities needed to produce components for quantum technologies. This initiative is part of a broader effort by Illinois to map and develop a supply chain for quantum instrumentation, similar to what the state has done for semiconductors and electric vehicle batteries. The focus now is on identifying manufacturers who can innovate and invest in this new industry.

💼 BTQ Technologies receives grant for post-quantum digital signature research: BTQ Technologies has secured up to C$435,000 in funding from the Mitacs Accelerate program towards post-quantum cryptography research. The project, supervised by Professor Guang Gong at the University of Waterloo, focuses on developing efficient zero-knowledge proof-based post-quantum digital signature schemes, specifically investigating the Preon algorithm submitted to NIST. This collaboration will contribute to the commercialization of quantum-resistant cryptography and provide valuable research opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

🧬 A Chinese medical university is using quantum computing for small molecule drug development: Bengbu Medical University in Anhui Province has partnered with Origin Quantum Computing Technology to apply quantum computing to small molecule drug design. Molecular docking is a central process in drug development that involves matching small molecules with target proteins. Traditional methods using high-performance computers are often slow and less precise, but quantum computing has the potential to overcome these limitations. Origin Quantum's third-generation superconducting quantum computer, Origin Wukong, is being used to predict drug molecule properties more effectively to accelerate drug innovation and advance life sciences.

🖧 Quantum Machines announced the first Adaptive Quantum Circuits: Quantum Machines will host the inaugural Adaptive Quantum Circuits conference from September 25-27, 2024, bringing together leading experts from academia, industry, and big tech to explore the emerging field of adaptive quantum circuits. These circuits, which adapt based on real-time events, are key to improving quantum computer performance and scalability. With notable speakers from top institutions and strong industry support, the AQC conference will join theory and practice by encouraging collaboration between researchers and practitioners to accelerate the development of practical quantum computing applications.

☕️FRESHLY BREWED RESEARCH

A STUDY ON QUANTUM GRAPH NEURAL NETWORKS APPLIED TO MOLECULAR PHYSICS

QUICK BYTE: A new quantum graph neural network architecture predicts intramolecular forces and molecular energy with greater efficiency and interpretability compared to traditional methods. By taking advantage of molecular symmetry using SWAP gates, the model achieves high accuracy while using fewer parameters, making it a promising approach for predicting molecular properties for larger and more complex systems. 

SIGNIFICANCE: Predicting intramolecular forces and molecular properties is important for advancing fields like drug discovery, materials science, and molecular physics. These predictions help in understanding and manipulating chemical processes. However, as molecules increase in size and complexity, classical computational methods struggle to accurately predict these properties due to the sheer computational power required. This creates a significant challenge in computational chemistry, where precise modeling is essential.

Quantum neural networks are a promising solution as they are well-suited to process complex, high-dimensional data and can handle the computational complexity associated with molecular predictions. Unlike classical models, QNNs can process large-scale heterogeneous data with potentially faster computation and lower error rates.

The authors of this study introduce a unique quantum graph neural network

architecture designed to predict intramolecular forces and total molecular energy, specifically within water molecules. The novelty is in using the symmetry inherent in molecular structures by using SWAP gates between hydrogen atoms, enforcing permutation invariance driven by the weights. This method allows the QGNN to model the molecular system effectively while maintaining interpretability and reducing the number of parameters needed compared to traditional models.

The results demonstrate that their QGNN architecture performs on par with state-of-the-art methods but with fewer parameters, achieving high accuracy in force predictions and significant improvements in energy prediction. The model's ability to capture the underlying physics of the problem with minimal circuit depth highlights its potential for practical implementation on near-term quantum devices.

RESULTS: 

• The QGNN architecture proposed more efficiently predicts intramolecular forces and total molecular energy with fewer parameters compared to state-of-the-art models

• The model uses SWAP gates to exploit molecular symmetry, enabling it to maintain permutation invariance and capture the underlying physics of the molecular system effectively

• The two-layer QGNN model achieved Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values of 0.0844 for energy and 0.0694 for forces on the test set, demonstrating competitive performance with fewer parameters

• Despite having fewer parameters, the QGNN architecture effectively reconstructed molecular interactions and could generalize well, indicating its potential for use in larger and more complex molecular systems

HONORABLE RESEARCH MENTIONS:

Parameterized quantum query algorithms are used for the k-vertex cover and k-matching problems on graphs. The authors design quantum algorithms that are optimal for small parameter values, using techniques like kernelization and Grover's search. They also establish lower bounds on the quantum query complexity for these problems, proving the algorithms' optimality up to a constant factor when the parameters are small. —> link to Parameterized Quantum Query Algorithms for Graph Problems

NetQIR, an extension of Microsoft's Quantum Intermediate Representation (QIR) is designed for distributed quantum computing. NetQIR facilitates the development of new distributed quantum compilers by adding capabilities for managing quantum and classical communications between quantum processing units to improve scalability and integration in distributed quantum systems. —> link to NetQIR: An Extension of QIR for Distributed Quantum Computing

The KTYC-protocol for multiparty quantum secret sharing is vulnerable to collusion attacks that allow unauthorized agents to gain access to a portion of the secret. The authors propose an improvement by ensuring that each agent holds a share of every bit of the secret, thus enhancing the protocol's security and preventing unauthorized access. The study emphasizes the need for solid cryptographic designs in quantum secret sharing to safeguard against such vulnerabilities. —> link to Improving security of efficient multiparty quantum secret sharing based on a novel structure and single qubits

UNTIL SUNDAY.