Adiabatic and dynamical algorithms for quantum hardware

量子计算——我们利用非常小的粒子或电子电路的不寻常特性来处理信息——有可能彻底改变高性能计算在主要工业部门和科学分支中的应用。量子计算机的计算能力可以呈指数级增长，因此只要增加一个量子比特，潜在容量就会翻倍。然而，要实现这些设备的潜力还面临着重要的挑战。这些挑战不仅涉及为量子计算构建硬件，还涉及如何对量子计算机进行编程，以便利用它可能为特定计算提供的新机会。在这个项目中，我们探索了量子计算机编程的新技术，这些技术既与需要噪声缓解和硬件特定算法的近期设备相关，也与未来的纠错量子计算机相关。我们将从开发新技术开始，通过改变系统的参数来建立特定的量子态，而不向系统添加多余的能量（我们称之为优化的反绝热驱动）。此外，我们将为特定应用开发量子算法，确定在计算流体动力学、等离子体动力学或量子科学中加速计算的机会，并了解这些算法在超级计算机上比现有传统算法在哪些方面可能表现出优势。最后，我们将在当前硬件上测试这些技术的实现，同时开发技术来验证量子计算机的输出。

Quantum computing - in which we use the unusual properties of very small particles or electronic circuits to process information - has the potential to revolutionise high-performance computing as applied across major industry sectors and branches of science. The computational capability of a quantum computer can grow exponentially, so that adding just one quantum bit will double the potential capacity. However, there are important challenges to realising the potential of these devices. These challenges are not only around building the hardware for quantum computing, but also how to programme a quantum computer in order to take advantage of the new opportunities it could offer for a particular calculation. In this project, we explore new techniques for programming quantum computers, both relevant for near-term devices that require noise mitigation and hardware-specific algorithms, and future error-corrected quantum computers. We will begin by developing new techniques to build specific quantum states by changing the parameters of the system time-dependently without adding excess energy to the system (which we refer to as optimised counterdiabatic driving). In addition, we will develop quantum algorithms for specific applications, identifying opportunities for speeding up calculations in computational fluid dynamics, plasma dynamics, or quantum science, and understanding where these might exhibit an advantage over existing conventional algorithms on supercomputers. Finally, we will test implementations of these techniques on current hardware, alongside developing techniques to verify the output of the quantum computer.