CDI-Type II: Quantum Cyberinfrastructure for the Simulation of Complex Quantum Systems

该奖项是根据提交给网络发现和创新征集的提案颁发的，支持设计和演示新型量子计算机的研究。如果量子计算机能够被制造出来，它将使某些特定的计算任务成为现实，从而改变信息技术，而这些任务在当前或可预见的超级计算机上是不可能实现的。最著名的应用是质因数分解的数学问题，它是代码破解的核心。然而，密码破解将需要一台相当大的量子计算机，在数千个量子比特上执行数千个操作。另一个有前景的应用是使用量子计算机来模拟复杂的量子系统，如分子或固体材料，这是使用现有计算机众所周知的困难。最近的实验进展表明，这种“量子模拟”将是量子计算机的首批实际应用之一。在这个联合理论实验计划中，pi将开发和演示一个由超导电路构建的通用量子模拟器。这种方法是由于最近在使用固态超导设备（称为约瑟夫森结）方面的实验突破而成为可能的，这种设备在极低温度下工作，结合了一种操作量子模拟器的新方法，使有趣的应用立即成为可能和实用。pi设想，在10年或20年内，这些通用量子模拟器将驻扎在超级计算中心，与传统机器相邻，并将作为大型科学家社区的在线计算资源提供。这样的资源将在许多领域产生重大影响，包括：原子和分子碰撞、冷原子气体、复杂化学动力学、低温物理、材料物理和量子化学。

This award, made on proposal submitted to the Cyber-enabled Discovery and Innovation solicitation, supports research to design and demonstrate a novel kind of quantum computer.A quantum computer, if one could be built, would transform information technology by making practical certain specialized computational tasks that would otherwise be impossible with current or foreseeable supercomputers. The most famous application is to the mathematical problem of prime factorization, which is central to code breaking. Code breaking, however, will require a sizable quantum computer performing thousands of operations on thousands of quantum bits. Another promising application is to use a quantum computer to simulate complex quantum systems such as molecules or solid materials, which is notoriously difficult using existing computers. Recent experimental progress suggests that this "quantum simulation" will be one of the first practical applications of a quantum computer. In this joint theoretical-experimental program, the PIs will develop and demonstrate a general purpose quantum simulator built from superconducting electrical circuits. The approach is made possible by recent experimental breakthroughs in the use of solid-state superconducting devices called Josephson junctions, operated at very low temperatures, combined with a new method to operate the quantum simulator that makes interesting applications immediately possible and practical. The PIs envision that, in 10 or 20 years, these general purpose quantum simulators will be stationed at supercomputing centers next to conventional machines and will be made available as an online computational resource for large communities of scientists. Such a resource would make a significant impact in many fields, including: atomic and molecular collisions, cold atomic gases, complex chemical dynamics, low-temperature physics, materials physics, and quantum chemistry.