Quantum Twist on Common Computer Algorithm Promises Speed Boost

Quantum Twist on Common Computer Algorithm Promises Speed Boost

By New Scientist, July 14, 2023

An IBM quantum computer.

Mazzola stresses the team is not yet claiming quantum advantage; the result demonstrates future potential, rather than current ability.

Credit: IBM

Scientists at Switzerland's University of Zurich (UZH) and IBM have demonstrated that a quantum version of the popular Monte Carlo algorithm could eventually overtake versions running on classical computers.

However, the researchers explained, attaining this speed advantage would probably require a quantum system with at least 1,000 quantum bits.

Said UZH's Guglielmo Mazzola, "If this works, it's going to enhance, by a lot, the way in which we model systems and that, in turn, will allow us to make better predictions in a wide range of fields."

However, he acknowledged that "we cannot exclude that our classical friends can devise something even better."

From New Scientist

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MIT's Twist Quantum Programming Language

Meet Twist: MIT’s Quantum Programming Language Keeping tabs on data entanglement keeps reins on buggy quantum code        RINA DIANE CABALLAR

A team of researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created Twist, a new programming language for quantum computing. Twist is designed to make it easier for developers to identify which pieces of data are entangled, thereby allowing them to create quantum programs that have fewer errors and are easier to debug.

Twist’s foundations lie in identifying entanglement, a phenomenon wherein the states of two pieces of data inside a quantum computer are linked to each other. “Whenever you perform an action on one piece of an entangled piece of data, it may affect the other one. You can implement powerful quantum algorithms with it, but it also makes it unintuitive to reason about the programs you write and easy to introduce subtle bugs,” says Charles Yuan, a Ph.D. student in computer science at MIT CSAIL and lead author on the paper about Twist, published in the journal Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages.

“What Twist does is it provides features that allow a developer to say which pieces of data are entangled and which ones aren’t,” Yuan says. “By including information about entanglement inside a program, you can check that a quantum algorithm is implemented correctly.”

One of the language’s features is a type system that enables developers to specify which expressions and pieces of data within their programs are pure. A pure piece of data, according to Yuan, is free from entanglement, and thereby free from possible bugs and unintuitive effects caused by entanglement. Twist also has purity assertion operators to affirm that an expression lacks entanglement with any other piece of data, as well as static analyses and run-time checks to verify these assertions.

MIT Reveals new Quantum Computing Language: Twist

 A Language for Quantum Computing

ACM NEWS

A New Language for Quantum Computing, By MIT News

January 25, 2022

Time crystals. Microwaves. Diamonds. What do these three disparate things have in common? 

Quantum computing. Unlike traditional computers that use bits, quantum computers use qubits to encode information as zeros or ones, or both at the same time. Coupled with a cocktail of forces from quantum physics, these refrigerator-sized machines can process a whole lot of information — but they're far from flawless. Just like our regular computers, we need to have the right programming languages to properly compute on quantum computers. 

Programming quantum computers requires awareness of something called "entanglement," a computational multiplier for qubits of sorts, which translates to a lot of power. When two qubits are entangled, actions on one qubit can change the value of the other, even when they are physically separated, giving rise to Einstein's characterization of "spooky action at a distance." But that potency is equal parts a source of weakness. When programming, discarding one qubit without being mindful of its entanglement with another qubit can destroy the data stored in the other, jeopardizing the correctness of the program. 

Scientists from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) aimed to do some unraveling by creating their own programming language for quantum computing called Twist. Twist can describe and verify which pieces of data are entangled in a quantum program, through a language a classical programmer can understand. The language uses a concept called purity, which enforces the absence of entanglement and results in more intuitive programs, with ideally fewer bugs. For example, a programmer can use Twist to say that the temporary data generated as garbage by a program is not entangled with the program's answer, making it safe to throw away.

From MIT News

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