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The New Quantum Era

The New Quantum Era

Sebastian Hassinger & Kevin Rowney

Your hosts, Sebastian Hassinger and Kevin Rowney, interview brilliant research scientists, software developers, engineers and others actively exploring the possibilities of our new quantum era. We will cover topics in quantum computing, networking and sensing, focusing on hardware, algorithms and general theory. The show aims for accessibility - neither of us are physicists! - and we'll try to provide context for the terminology and glimpses at the fascinating history of this new field as it evolves in real time.

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Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The New Quantum Era episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The New Quantum Era for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The New Quantum Era episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

The New Quantum Era - The History of Superconducting Qubits  with Steve Girvin
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10/24/22 • 58 min

Welcome to another episode of The New Quantum Era Podcast hosted by Kevin Rowney and Sebastian Hassinger. Today, they are joined by Steve Girvin, professor of Physics at Yale who has a central role in the Yale Quantum Institute, which has been ground zero for the recent development in superconducting qubits.

The topics we had initially planned needed some adjustment, because on the day of the interview, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three scientists for their work experimentally verifying the theory behind entanglement, the source of much of quantum computing's power. Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger were recognized for their experiments in an area that has broad implications for secure information transfer and quantum computing.

Sebastian, Kevin, and Steve have an interesting talk about some of the history of the superconducting qubits and the transmon in particular, which is a basis for most of the modern superconducting qubits on the market. They also cover the topic of diversity, quality, and inclusion.

Key Takeaways:

[3:43] Steve introduces himself.

[5:23] Steve shares his primary domains of research.

[9:50] Was there a sort of self-awareness in the Yale group that Steve and his team were taking radically? Were they considering a different approach that could solve some of the challenges of the other models that existed at the time?

[14:38] Steve talks about how relatively quickly the hardware can be fabricated to be able to crank out, iterations, variations, and experiments.

[17:27] Is there room for optimism about the new dimensions of research related to MER material science?

[19:25] Steve shares his thoughts on the news about the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics.

[22:18] Steve talks about how some of the epistemological questions that these paradoxes present, feel really mind-bending to many people on the outside of physics.

[25:38] Steve addresses how hard it is to predict the future.

[27:21] Does Steve consider himself an optimist about the progress of quantum computing?

[30:10] How can we get reliable performance out of an inherently, very unreliable system?

[33:22] Steve helps us fill in the narrative, in the history of where GKP codes are situated and their significance to contemporary developments.

[41:14] Steve talks about the basic steps of the algorithm to do the error correction.

[44:01] The history of computer science is very, uh, white, male, and, uh, dominated in nature, Steve shares his thoughts about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

[48:34] What we can do to change the composition of the field when the underlying foundations of the way science is done in the lab have a such rigid history of hierarchy, power structures, and power dynamics that are so easily abused?

[55:02] Sebastian and Kevin share their thoughts on an amazing conversation with Steve Girvin,

Mentioned in this episode:

Visit The New Quantum Era Podcast

Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe, George Dyson

Documentary: Picture a Scientist

Tweetables and Quotes:

“A very productive part of my childhood was having nothing to do, but to dream.“ — Steve Girvin

“The simpler you keep things, the easier it's to do things “ — Steve Girvin

“Einstein really made massive contributions to the development of the quantum theory. “ — Steve Girvin

“The way we test whether our quantum computer is a quantum computer is checking first thing in the morning to calibrate it, if it's doing the thing that Einstein said was impossible then, it's working.“ — Steve Girvin

“Looking ahead, it's very, very hard to predict where this is going, but along the way, there's such fantastic. basic science and quantum.” — Steve Girvin

“When you're doing a hiring search, it's not about adding constraints, like interviewing more women...It's about removing constraints. You should look wider. There's a theorem that if you release constraints, the optimum cannot get worse, it can only get better. ” — Steve Girvin

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The New Quantum Era - Quantum Education and Community Building with Olivia Lanes
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04/22/24 • 36 min

Sebastian is joined by Olivia Lanes, Global Lead for Education and Learning, IBM Quantum to discuss quantum education, IBM's efforts to provide resources for workforce development, the importance of diversity and equality in STEM, and her own personal journey from experimental physics to community building and content creation. Recorded on the RPI campus during the launch event of their IBM System One quantum computer.

Key Topics:
- Olivia's background in experimental quantum physics and transition to education at IBM Quantum
- Lowering barriers to entry in quantum computing education through IBM's Quantum Experience platform, Qiskit open source framework, and online learning resources
- The importance of reaching students early, especially women and people of color, to build a diverse quantum workforce pipeline
- Quantum computing as an interdisciplinary field requiring expertise across physics, computer science, engineering, and other domains
- The need to identify real-world problems and use cases that quantum computing can uniquely address
- Balancing the hype around quantum computing's potential with setting realistic expectations
- International collaboration and providing global access to quantum education and technologies
- The unique opportunity of having an IBM quantum computer on the RPI campus to inspire students and enable cutting-edge research

Resources Mentioned:
- IBM Quantum learning platform
- "Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing" by Tom Wong
- Qiskit YouTube channel

In summary, this episode explores the current state of quantum computing education, the importance of making it accessible to a broad and diverse group of students from an early age, and how academia and industry can partner to build the quantum workforce of the future. Olivia provides an insider's perspective on IBM Quantum's efforts in this space.

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In this episode of The New Quantum Era, hosts Sebastian Hassinger and Kevin Rowney interview Daniel Stick, a researcher at Sandia National Lab. They discuss the fascinating world of ion traps, a novel approach to quantum computing architecture. Stick explains the concept of suspending atoms inside a radio frequency Paul trap and utilizing laser pulses to manipulate their qubit states. The conversation also delves into the advantages and limitations of ion traps compared to other architectures. Stick shares exciting advancements in their technology, including the enchilada trap, developed as part of the Quantum Systems Accelerator project. Tune in to learn more about the cutting-edge research happening in the field of quantum computing.

[00:07:14] Large scale ion trap.
[00:10:29] Entangling gates.
[00:14:14] Major innovations in magneto optical systems.
[00:17:30] The Name "Enchilada"
[00:21:16] Combining chains for collective gates.
[00:27:02] Sympathetic cooling and decoherence.
[00:30:16] Unique CMOS application.
[00:33:08] CMOS compatible photonics.
[00:38:04] More breakthroughs on accuracy.
[00:41:39] Scaling quantum computing systems.
[00:45:00] Private industry and technology scaling.
[00:51:36] Ion trap technology progress.
[00:54:39] Spreading the word and building community.

  • 00:01:15 - "So these architectures have, I think, powerful advantages versus other architectures."
  • 00:18:30 - "So that was the name."
  • 00:23:34 - "That's correct. That's that is one of the selling points for trapped ion quantum computing is that there is no threshold temperature at which you make the qubit go from behaving really well to behaving, you know, above which things would operate really poorly."
  • 00:35:37 - "That is the grand vision that you've got this chip sitting inside of a chamber, and a bunch of digital signals go in and out of it."
  • 00:38:40 - "What's a few exponents between friends anyway?"
  • 00:41:39 - "That is one of the things that we have to think about is our gates are just, I don't know, 100 times to a thousand times slower than superconducting quantum computing systems or solid state quantum computing systems and ways to get around that have to leverage other kind of other attempts that are not limited by the physical speeds that are possible with an ion trap."
  • 00:48:43 - "Do you have a paperclip, Kevin? That's all you need."
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The New Quantum Era - The Fault-Tolerance Threshold with Dorit Aharonov
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04/24/23 • 66 min

Welcome to another episode of The New Quantum Era Podcast hosted by Kevin Rowney and Sebastian Hassinger.

In this episode, we are joined by Dorit Aharonov, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and one of the pioneers of quantum computing. She's also the Chief Science Officer at QEDMA, a quantum startup based in Israel. Dorit is one of the major movers and shakers of quantum error correction and co-author of the important Threshold Theorem for quantum error correction. Kevin, Sebastian, and Dorit talk about her recent work on the theoretical foundations of random circuit sampling.

Key Takeaways:

[4:22] Dorit shares her path into quantum information and computing.

[8:27] Dorit explains the threshold theorem in an easy-to-understand manner.

[16:35] The velocity of error correction versus the generation of errors in the computation could depend on physical implementation, or the algorithm. Maybe even both.

[18:53] A more powerful assertion Dorit makes is that there's a deeper connection between the phases of matter and the transition between solid and liquid and these quantum error correction thresholds.

[19:51] A lot of the foundations of classical error correction were laid down in the mid-40s in Von Neumann's work when the IAS system was being built. Dorit still sees the echoes of that.

[22:35] We might be witnessing a growing momentum around the powerful expression of new quantum error correction technologies.

[25:28] Dorit talks about the difference between error mitigation and error correction.

[26:55] Dorit explains the idea of the reset gate.

[30:22] It might be safe to say that challenges are primarily engineering in nature and that we have enough science to enable that engineering to get to fault tolerance.

[31:50] Dorit discusses a possible timeline for this engineering to get to fault tolerance.

[34:07] Is Dorit an NISQ optimist or a pessimist when it comes to real-world applications?

[39:21] Dorit addresses the difference between practical and asymptotic quantum advantage.

[41:30] Dorit shares what the paper on random circuit sampling shows.

[45:25] Dorit explains why the machine learning algorithms that were dequantized are treacherous.

[49:56] Dorit shows optimism regarding the possibility of seeing evidence of a quantum event.

[52:25] Dorit admits to finding constructive interference between working in the industry and working on theoretical questions.

[53:50] Is there something Dorit is excited about in the next year or two that will be another step forward?

[56:50] Dorit talks about concrete examples of experiments and sensors that might be arriving thanks to quantum computing advancements.

[1:00:35] Sebastian and Kevin share the highlights of a fantastic conversation with Dorit.

Mentioned in this episode:

Visit The New Quantum Era

The New Quantum Era Podcast

Limitations of Noisy Reversible Computation Dorit Aharonov, Michael Ben-Or, Russell Impagliazzo, Norm Nisan

The Complexity of NISQ, Sitan Chen, Jordan Cotler, Hsin-Yuan, and Jerry Li
A polynomial-time classical algorithm for noisy random circuit sampling Dorit Aharonov, Xun Gao, Zueph Landau, Yunchao Liu, Umesh Vazirani

QEDMA

Tweetables and Quotes:

“Nobody actually believed that it was possible to correct errors that occur on quantum states because of the lack of reversibility. ” — Dorit Aharonov

“it's a physics phenomenon... below a certain threshold, we can think of this as if the system is capable of some completely different behavior, like ice and water. It's just like a phase transition -- below that, there would be macroscopic entanglement and ... ability to control large scale quantum correlations. And above it, this would not be possible.” — Dorit Aharonov

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The New Quantum Era - Careers in Quantum with Anastasia Marchenkova
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06/26/24 • 45 min

Welcome to The New Quantum Era podcast! In today’s episode, we dive deep into the fascinating world of quantum computing and the broader tech landscape with Anastasia Marchenkova, who has a unique blend of experiences in startups, academia, and venture capital. Join us as we explore the intersections of technology, business, and education, and uncover the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the quantum era.

Highlights from the Interview:

  • Journey into Quantum Computing: Learn how our Anastasia's early experiences in quantum telecommunications and a serendipitous encounter with a startup led to a pivotal role at Rigetti Computing.
  • Building and Scaling Startups: Insights into the startup ecosystem, including the importance of customer discovery, the challenges of scaling deep tech companies, and the role of non-dilutive funding from sources like DARPA.
  • Interdisciplinary Innovations: Discover how principles from quantum computing are being applied to other cutting-edge fields like thermodynamic computing and AI, and the potential for cross-disciplinary breakthroughs.
  • The Importance of Communication and Networking: Discussion on the critical role of communication skills in science and technology, and how building connections can drive innovation and collaboration.
  • Future Vision and Education: Our guest’s ambitious plans for bridging the gap between deep tech and the broader public through educational initiatives and media, aiming to inspire the next generation of technologists and entrepreneurs.

Mentioned in This Episode:

  • Rigetti Computing: A pioneering quantum computing startup.
  • DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency): A key source of non-dilutive funding for deep tech projects.
  • Quantum Benchmark: A company specializing in error characterization and mitigation for quantum computing, acquired by Keysight Technologies.
  • Thermodynamic Computing: An emerging field aimed at reducing energy consumption in AI, with notable contributions from researchers like Patrick Coles, who founded Normal Computing, and Guillaume Verdun, who recently founded Extropic.
  • VC Lab: An incubator program for training emerging venture capitalists.
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Welcome to another episode of The New Quantum Era Podcast hosted by Kevin Rowney and Sebastian Hassinger. Today, they are joined by Cesar A. Rodriguez Rosario, Chief Scientific Officer at Strangeworks, who is discussing the parallels between quantum computing and the development of the classical computing world at the stage of vacuum tubes and the invention of the transistor.

Cesar Rodriguez is a great example of somebody who is knowledgeable about the space of Quantum Computing and sees its possibility but he's got a decent level of guarded optimism and even skepticism on some of these results, which sometimes run fits and starts and sometimes even go backward.

Key Takeaways:

[4:33] Cesar shares what brought him into Quantum Computing.

[5:35] Cesar talks about his academic background

[11:39] Coming from computer engineering and having an unconventional journey through quantum physics, does Cesar consider he has a different perspective on the field today?

[15:28] Given the current stage of technology, what does Cesar think of the role of foreign theorists?

[17:37] How does Cesar view the reliability and the breakthrough potential of the currently existing crop of algorithms given the current limits?

[18:57] Cesar explains what QUantum Advantage is.

[21:08] From the landscape of the current algorithms out there, does Cesar feel like there's an imminent breakthrough in these scare algorithms?

[23:05] Will there going to be more "dequantized" algorithms?

[24:35] Cesar shares what he calls Quantum Value.

[25:21] Looking at the theory landscape, what are the most exciting things to Cesar?

[29:20] Does everything still fit into the general buckets of VQE and QAOA? Are there other categories that are emerging that are distinct enough from those two approaches that they have their own acronym yet?

[30:52] What does quantization mean?

[33:49] Cesar explains why quantum computers are fundamentally better at some problems than classical computers.

[37:33] Cesar defines the molecular geometry problem

[39:50] Cesar speaks of the beginning of Quantum Computing.

[42:53] Cesar talks about a recent major breakthrough.

[45:48] Cesar talks about the complexity of photonics.

[48:28] Cesar shares the challenge of speed.

[52:10] Kevin and Sebastian share the highlights of an interesting conversation with Cesar A. Rodriguez Rosario.

Resources:
Visit The New Quantum Era Podcast

Google's 2019 quantum supremacy experiment
A classical attack on Google's supremacy claim
An overview of Quantum supremacy
The variational quantum eigensolver algorithm paper from Alan Asperu-Guzik's group at Harvard
Eddie Farhi and Jeffrey Goldstone's Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm paper
Nature paper on error correction on spin qubits in diamond
The Chip, by T. R. Reid is a terrific book for understanding the early history of classical computing.

Tweetables and Quotes:

“You can use some qubits and their quality is really, really good. You can connect them very, very efficiently, and you can connect as many as you want, in a way that scales, we have to do all those things... and nobody has cracked the code for all these bullet points.” — Cesar A. Rodriguez Rosario

“Ideally, what's going to happen is that once we have the scalable error corrected qubits and all that, then you don't have to be a theorist anymore, and then I'm going to be a full-time quantum engineer and that will be healthy, I want that to happen since that would mean that the industry succeeded.” — Cesar A. Rodriguez Rosario

“It's okay, that things are not useful, yet, there's nothing wrong with that, because we're still working towards that.” — Cesar A. Rodriguez Rosario

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Kevin and Sebastian are joined by Dr. Vladan Vuletic, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics at the Center for Ultracold Atoms and Research in the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

At the end of 2023, the quantum computing community was startled and amazed by the results from a bombshell paper published in Nature on December 6th, titled Logical quantum processor based on reconfigurable atom arrays in which Dr. Vuletic's group collaborated with Dr Mikhail Lukin's group at Harvard to create 48 logical qubits from an array of 280 atoms. Scott Aaronson does a good job of breaking down the results on his blog, but the upshot is that this is the largest number of logical qubits created, and a very large leap ahead for the field.

00:00 Introduction and Background
01:07 Path to Quantum Computing
03:30 Rydberg Atoms and Quantum Gates
08:56 Transversal Gates and Logical Qubits
15:12 Implementation and Commercial Potential
23:59 Future Outlook and Quantum Simulations
30:51 Scaling and Applications
32:22 Improving Quantum Gate Fidelity
33:19 Advancing Field of View Systems
33:48 Closing the Feedback Loop on Error Correction
35:29 Quantum Error Correction as a Remarkable Breakthrough
36:13 Cross-Fertilization of Quantum Error Correction Ideas

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If anyone needs no introduction on a podcast about quantum computing, it's John Preskill. His paper "Quantum Computing in the NISQ era and beyond," published in 2018, is the source of the acronym "NISQ," for Noisy, Intermediate Scale Quantum" computers -- basically everything we are going to build until we get to effective error correction. It's been cited almost 6000 times since, and remains essential reading to this day.

John is a particle physicist and professor at Caltech whose central interests are actually cosmology, quantum matter, and quantum gravity -- he sees quantum computing as a powerful means to gain more understanding of the fundamental behavior of our universe. We discuss the information paradox of black holes, quantum error correction, some history of the field, and the work he's doing with his PhD student Robert (Hsin-Yuan) Huang using machine learning to estimate various properties of quantum systems.

  • How did you become interested in quantum information? 5:13
  • The discovery of Shor’s algorithm. 10:11
  • Quantum error correction. 15:51
  • Black holes and it from qubit. 21:19
  • Is there a parallel between error correcting codes and holographic projection of three dimensions? 27:27
  • The difference between theory and experiment in quantum matter. 38:56
  • Scientific applications of quantum computing. 55:58

Notable links:

Tweetables and Quotes:

“The idea that you can solve problems efficiently that you'd never be able to solve because it's a quantum world and not a world governed by classical physics, I thought that was one of the coolest ideas I'd ever encountered.” — John Preskill

“There's something different about quantum information than ordinary information. You can't look at it without disturbing it.” — John Preskill

“Ideas which were being developed without fundamental physics, necessarily in mind, like quantum error correction, have turned out to be very relevant in other areas of physics.” — John Preskill

“Thinking about quantum error correction in the context of gravitation led us to construct new types of codes which weren't previously known. “ — John Preskill

“With quantum computers and quantum simulators, we can start to investigate new types of matter, new phases, which are far from equilibrium.“ — John Preskill.

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For this episode, Sebastian is on his own, as Kevin is taking a break. Sebastian accepted a gracious invite to the ribbon cutting event at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, where the university was launching their on-campus IBM System One -- the first commercial quantum computer on a university campus!
This week, the episode is a recording a live event hosted by Sebastian. The panel of RPI faculty and staff talk about their decision to deploy a quantum computer in their own computing center -- a former chapel from the 1930s! - what they hope the RPI community will do with the device, and the role of academic partnership with private industry at this stage of the development of the technology.
Joining Sebastian on the panel were:

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In this episode of The New Quantum Era, Kevin and Sebastian are joined by a special guest, Paul Cadden-Zemansky, Associate Professor of Physics at Bard College and Director of the Physics Program. Paul is also on the Executive Committee for the International Year of Quantum at the American Physical Society and has been actively involved in the UN’s recent declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. With the UN resolution now official, Paul joins us to discuss the significance and plans for this global celebration of quantum mechanics.

Listeners can expect an insightful conversation covering the following key points:

  • The Significance of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology: Paul explains the origins and importance of the UN’s declaration, marking the 100th anniversary of quantum mechanics and its impact over the past century.
  • Global Collaboration and Outreach: Discussion on the international cooperation involved in getting the resolution passed, including the involvement of various scientific societies and countries, and the emphasis on public awareness and education.
  • Challenges and Strategies for Quantum Communication: Paul shares his thoughts on the difficulties of communicating complex quantum concepts to the public and the strategies to make quantum mechanics more accessible and engaging.
  • Future Plans and Initiatives: Insights into the plans for 2025, including potential events, educational resources, and how individuals and organizations can get involved in promoting quantum science.
  • Innovations in Quantum Visualization: Paul’s work with students on new methods for visualizing complex quantum systems, including the development of tools to help understand two-qubit states.

Mentioned in this episode:

Join us as we delve into the exciting world of quantum mechanics and explore the plans for celebrating its centennial year!

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FAQ

How many episodes does The New Quantum Era have?

The New Quantum Era currently has 40 episodes available.

What topics does The New Quantum Era cover?

The podcast is about Podcasts, Technology, Science and Physics.

What is the most popular episode on The New Quantum Era?

The episode title 'The History of Superconducting Qubits with Steve Girvin' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on The New Quantum Era?

The average episode length on The New Quantum Era is 50 minutes.

How often are episodes of The New Quantum Era released?

Episodes of The New Quantum Era are typically released every 14 days, 1 hour.

When was the first episode of The New Quantum Era?

The first episode of The New Quantum Era was released on Aug 2, 2022.

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