Quantum Computing at IBM

Sarah Sheldon
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA

This talk will discuss the current challenges present in the field of superconducting qubits and an outlook for near-term quantum applications, including recent results in quantum chemistry using error mitigation to improve results in noisy devices.  While these error rates remain above fault-tolerant thresholds, our group focuses on parallel efforts to improve the qubits and controls to ultimately achieve fault tolerance while also searching for near-term applications that do not require full error correction.  By measuring quantum volume, we emphasize the importance of reducing error rates in multi-qubit devices.  Our approach to this problem is to introduce the concept of quantum volume, a metric that includes the number of qubits, error rates, and connectivity.  IBM’s approach to quantum computing considers all aspects of building a quantum computer: from improving multi-qubit devices using superconducting qubits to developing software the compiles circuits efficiently to searching for new algorithms and error correction codes. One challenge facing near-term devices is how to characterize the overall performance of complex multi-qubit processors.