| Date | 14th, Nov 2019 |
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Qiskit, is IBM’s open-source quantum computing platform and it now works with trapped ion devices – not just the IBM superconducting systems. The first company to connect Qiskit to a trapped ion device is Austrian-based startup Alpine Quantum Technologies. Their users can program a 5-qubit trapped ion device, over the cloud. They are a spinoff of the University of Innsbruck, students at the university can also use Qiskit to program their trapped ion device. Nextbigfuture interviewed Paul Nation, a co-author of of the IBM Research blog. Paul worked with Alpine Quantum’s use of Qiskit and is a researcher at IBM.
The latest Qiskit 0.13 release features support for trapped ion devices via the introduction of XX – or Mølmer-Sørenson (MS) gates – transpilation between superconducting and trapped ion gate sets, and the qiskit-aqt-provider for communicating with the Innsbruck device.
Enabling this support only took three days from concept to data, and highlights the ease at which differing qubit platforms can be incorporated into the Qiskit framework. Here we showcase these new features and demonstrate how a Qiskit user can write a circuit once, and seamlessly execute it on IBM quantum and AQT backends.
There were two parts to create support for a new quantum technology on the qubit platform in Qiskit.
1. If the native gates do not currently exist, they must be specified. The trapped ion support involved specifying the global MS gate, and its corresponding two-qubit building block the XX-rotation gate (rxx). Once defined, the decomposition rules between different basis gates must added. This allows the Qiskit transpiler to take an input circuit defined in one basis, and output the same circuit rewritten in any other supported gate set. The decomposition between cx, rxx, and global MS gates is shown below.
Decomposition rules between superconducting and trapped ion entangling gates. At bottom, the decomposition of a three-qubit global ms gate into pairwise cx interactions.
2. In order to execute the circuits, the new quantum computing device must be reachable. In Qiskit, this entails writing a ‘provider’ that handles the API connections, authentication, as well as job submission and retrieval between Qiskit and the host backend. The format for this is spelled out in the Qiskit Specification. Once written, a user can write a quantum circuit in Qiskit, and by simply importing the provider, compile it for the devices accessible via that provider. This means that any of the libraries built into Qiskit, be it for quantum applications and algorithms (Aqua), or benchmarking and noise estimation tools (Ignis), can all be developed and applied to multiple quantum computing technologies effortlessly.
There are many international Qiskit camps every year.
Qiskit Camp Asia Location: Tokyo, Japan Updated Dates: 18–21 November 2019 Venue: A hackathon will take place at Hoshino Resort Risonare Yatsugatake, which is surrounded by Yamanashi Wine country and has views of Mount Fuji.
Qiskit Camp Africa Location: Johannesburg, South Africa Dates: 11–14 December 2019 Venue: A hackathon will take place at the Kwa Maritane Bush Lodge, which is a wildlife refuge located on the slopes of a 2-billion-year-old volcano in the Pilanesberg National Park
IBM has a blog post describing how people can build their quantum skills.
There is also a Qiskit Textbook.
Chapter 0. Prerequisites Python and Jupyter Notebooks Qiskit Linear Algebra
Chapter 1. Quantum States and Qubits Introduction The Atoms of Computation The Unique Properties of Qubits Writing Down Qubit States Pauli Matrices and the Bloch Sphere States for Many Qubits
Chapter 2. Single-Qubit and Multi-Qubit Gates Introduction Quantum Gates Fun with Matrices The Standard Gate Set Proving Universality Basic Circuit Identities
Chapter 3. Quantum Algorithms Quantum Teleportation Deutsch-Josza Algorithm Bernstein-Vazirani Algorithm Simon’s Algorithm Quantum Fourier Transform Quantum Phase Estimation Grover’s Algorithm
Chapter 4. Quantum Algorithms for Applications Simulating Molecules using VQE Solving Satisfiability Problems using Grover’s Algorithm
Chapter 5. Investigating Quantum Hardware Using Qiskit Calibrating Qubits with OpenPulse Introduction to Quantum Error Correction using Repetition Codes Measurement Error Mitigation Randomized Benchmarking Measuring Quantum Volume Chapter 6. Implementations of Recent Quantum Algorithms Variational Quantum Linear Solver
SOURCES- IBM, Interview with Paul Nation, Qiskit Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
