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
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
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