Quantum Computing with Superconducting Qubits

Quantum entanglement is a very real effect, in which (usually nearby) quantum states of real materials can become so very well connected that acting on one component will strongly affect the other. This effect of entanglement, which can be present in materials not used for quantum computing as well, plays a key role in enabling quantum computing. In this presentation, I explain how quantum bits (qubits) can be formed by superconducting circuits, and how using entanglement can give rise to algorithms that show great promise for advantages over classical computing. I describe a few key such algorithms, and then show how these can be programmed on IBM’s quantum computer on the cloud, which is part of a whole quantum computing environment, Qiskit. I discuss metrics for assessing progress in the field, and show how advances are not always made with additional qubits of the same quality. Finally, I discuss an example of new approaches to using quantum computing which hold considerable promise to calculate properties of complex materials that challenge regular classical computational methods