Scientists Teleported A Quantum Gate For The First Time

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A team of researchers from Yale University has successfully demonstrated one of the key steps in building the architecture for modular quantum computers: the “teleportation” of a quantum gate between two qubits, on demand. Scientists team says it looking to solve one of the big problems in quantum computing: the errors that are introduced by quantum computing processors.

“A quantum computer has the potential to efficiently solve problems that are intractable for classical computers,” the team wrote. “However, constructing a large-scale quantum processor is challenging because of the errors and noise that are inherent in real-world quantum systems.”

One way to cut out these errors is to use modularity.

 

Network overview of the modular quantum architecture demonstrated in the new study. Special Credit for the Image: Yale University (YU)

Modularity, which is found in everything from the organization of a biological cell to the network of engines in the latest SpaceX rocket, has proved to be a powerful strategy for building large, complex systems, the researchers say. A quantum modular architecture consists of a collection of modules that function as small quantum processors connected into a larger network.

Modules in this architecture have a natural isolation from each other, which reduces unwanted interactions through the larger system. Yet this isolation also makes performing operations between modules a distinct challenge, according to the researchers. Teleported gates are a way to implement inter-module operation.

So essential to this approach is the teleportation of a quantum gate—this would allow interactions without the risk of errors being introduced in the transfer. This idea was first proposed as a theoretical approach in the 1990s. The Yale scientists have now demonstrated it in a real-world experiment.

“Our work is the first time that this protocol has been demonstrated where the classical communication occurs in real-time, allowing us to implement a ‘deterministic’ operation that performs the desired operation every time,” study co-author Kevin Chou said in a statement.

This has big implications for the development of “fault-tolerant quantum computation,” the scientists say. “And when realized within a network it can have broad applications in quantum communication, metrology, and simulations,” they add.

Head investigator Robert Schoelkopf said that: “It is a milestone toward quantum information processing using error-correctable qubits.”

The research Published in Nature.com