Real Optimization Problem Can be Solved Using Tiny Quantum Computer!

The desire to build quantum computers has gained momentum in recent years, and the work of body temperature continues in many parts of the world. In 2019, a team of Google researchers made great strides when their quantum computer was able to solve a task much faster than the best computer in the world. Too bad the solved task was useless - it was chosen because it was judged to be easy to solve a quantum computer, but very difficult for a standard computer.

Therefore, the important task now is to find useful, compatible problems that are not accessible to ordinary computers, but that can be removed by a small quantum computer.

In collaboration with Göran Johansson, Giulia Ferrini led the project when a team of investigators at Chalmers, including a medical student doctor from the airline Jeppesen, recently demonstrated that a quantum computer could solve a real-life problem in the aviation industry.

Researchers hope that quantum computers will ultimately be better at handling such problems than modern computers. The basic computer block quantum - a qubit - is based on completely different principles than modern computer building blocks, which allow them to handle very large amounts of data in a few qubits.

However, due to the different design and performance, quantum computers must be configured in ways other than standard computers. One proposed algorithm that is believed to be useful for early quantum computers is called the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA).

The proven algorithm in two qubits All aircraft are facing configuration issues. For example, assigning individual planes to different routes indicates a problem of efficiency, which is growing rapidly in size and difficulty as the number of routes and flights increases.

A team of Chalmers researchers has now successfully developed an algorithm on their quantum computer - a two-quarters processor - and have shown that it can successfully solve the problem of allocating aircraft on routes. In this first demonstration, the result can be easily confirmed as the scale was very small - it affects only two planes.

Possibility of managing multiple flights With this action, researchers first showed that the QAOA algorithm could solve the problem of allocating aircraft over active routes. They have also been able to use a single level algorithm further than anyone else before, a success that requires excellent Hardware and precise control.

Research team theorists also mimicked solving the same problem of optimizing up to 278 planes, which would require a quantum computer with 25 qubits.

"The results have always been good as we go up. This suggests that the QAOA algorithm has the potential to solve this type of problem with very large scales," said Giulia Ferrini.

Passing better modern computers, however, may require much larger devices. Charmers investigators have now begun to climb and are currently working on five quantum bits. The plan is to achieve at least 20 qubits by 2021 while maintaining high quality.