Given the enormous potential for quantum computing to change the way we forecast, model and understand the world, many are beginning to question whether it could have helped to better prepare us all for a global pandemic such as the Covid-19 crisis. Governments, organisations and the public are continuing the quest for answers about when this crisis will end and how we can find a way out of the current state of lockdown, and we are all continuing to learn through incremental and experimental steps. It certainly seems plausible that the high compute simulation capabilities of our most revolutionary technology could hold some of the answers and enable us to respond in a more coherent and impactful way.

Big investments have already been made in quantum computing, as countries and companies battle to create the first quantum supercomputer, so they can harness the power of this awesome technology. The World Economic Forum has also recognised the important role that this technology will play in our future, and has a dedicated Global Future Council to drive collaboration between public and private sector organisations engaged in the development of Quantum Computing. Although its unlikely to result in any overnight miracles, its understandable that many are thinking about whether these huge efforts and investments can be turned towards the mutual challenge we face in finding a solution to the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are already some ground-breaking use-cases for quantum computing within the healthcare industry. Where in the past some scientific breakthroughs such as the discovery of penicillin came completely by accident, quantum computing puts scientists in a much stronger position to find what they were looking for, faster. Quantum raises capacity to such a high degree that it would be possible to model penicillin using just a third of the processing power a classical computer would require to do the job meaning it can do more with less, at greater speed.

In the battle against Covid-19, the US Department of Energys Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is already using quantum supercomputers in its search for drug compounds that can treat the disease. IBM has also been using quantum supercomputers to run simulations on thousands of compounds to try and identify which of them is most likely to attach to the spike that Covid-19 uses to inject genetic material into healthy cells, and thereby prevent it. It has already emerged with 77 promising drugs that are worth further investigation and development progress that would have taken years if traditional computing power had been used.

Other businesses are likely to be keen to follow in the footsteps of these examples, and play their own part in dealing with the crisis, but to date its only been the worlds largest organisations that have been using quantum power. At present, many businesses simply dont have the skills and resources needed to fabricate, verify, architect and launch a large-scale quantum computer on their own.

It will be easier to overcome these barriers, and enable more organisations to start getting to work with quantum computing, if they open themselves up to collaboration with partners, rather than trying to go it alone. Instead of locking away their secrets, businesses must be willing to work within an open ecosystem; finding mutually beneficial partnerships will make it much more realistic to drive things forward.

The tech giants have made a lot of early progress with quantum, and partnering with them could prove extremely valuable. Google, for example, claims to have developed a machine that can solve a problem in 200 seconds that would take the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years imagine adding that kind of firepower to your computing arsenal. Google, IBM and Microsoft have already got the ball rolling by creating their own quantum partner networks. IBM Q and Microsoft Quantum Network bring together start-ups, universities, research labs, and Fortune 500 companies, enabling them to enjoy the benefits of exploring and learning together. The Google AI quantum initiative brings together strong academia support along with start-up collaboration on open source frameworks and tools in their lab. Collaborating in this manner, businesses can potentially play their own part in solving the Covid-19 crisis, or preventing future pandemics from doing as much damage.

Those that are leading the way in quantum computing are taking a collaborative approach, acknowledging that no one organisation holds all the answers or all the best ideas. This approach will prove particularly beneficial as we search for a solution to the Covid-19 crisis: its in everyones interests to find an exit to the global shutdown and build knowledge that means we are better-prepared for future outbreaks.

Looking at the bigger picture, despite all the progress that is being made with quantum, traditional computing will still have an important role to play in the short to medium term. Strategically, it makes sense to have quantum as the exploratory left side of the brain, while traditional systems remain in place for key business-as-usual functions. If they can think about quantum-related work in this manner, businesses should begin to feel more comfortable making discoveries and breakthroughs together. This will allow them to speed up the time to market so that ideas can be explored, and new ground broken, much faster than ever before and thats exactly what the world needs right now.

Kalyan Kumar, CVP & CTO, IT Services, HCL Technologies

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Solving problems by working together: Could quantum computing hold the key to Covid-19? - ITProPortal

This computer-generated visualization shows the wavelike pattern of a quantum handshake between a hydrogen atom emitting energy and another atom receiving the energy. (J. Cramer and C. Mead via arXiv)

The University of Washington physicist whoonce ran a crowdfunded experiment on backward causationis now weighing in with a potential solution to one of the longest-running puzzles in quantum mechanics.

John Cramer, a UW physics professor emeritus, teamed up with Caltech electrical engineer and physicist Carver Mead to put forward an explanation for how the indefinite one-and-zero, alive-and-dead state of a quantum system gets translated into a definite observation a phenomenon known as wave function collapse.

Up to now, the mechanism behind wave function collapse has been considered a mystery that is disconnected from established wave mechanics. The result has been that a large number of attempts to explain it have looked elsewhere, Cramer told GeekWire in an email.

In our work, we have discovered that wave function collapse, at least in a simple case, is implicit in the existing formalism, he said, as long as one allows the use of advanced as well as retarded electromagnetic potentials.

In other words, the explanation requires accepting the possibility that time can flow backward as well as forward. And for some physicists, that might be too big of a quantum leap.

Most people just dont like the idea of having the kind of time symmetry that sort of implies that time isnt strictly speaking a one-way street, Cramer acknowledged during a phone interview.

Nevertheless, the idea is getting traction. A math-heavy research paper laying out the concept has been submitted to the open-access journal Symmetry, and Cramer said theres a good chance itll be accepted for publication now that he and Mead have addressed questions raised in peer review.

Were about to send a revised version of the paper back to the journal, he said.

The concept includes elements from what Cramer calls the Transactional Interpretation of quantum mechanics, which he laid out in a 2016 book called The Quantum Handshake. That interpretation, which Mead fleshed out in subsequent work, puts a new spin on the interaction between quantum systems.

Most physicists visualize the emission of electromagnetic energy from an atom in the form of particles namely, photons. But in Cramers interpretation, the energy transfer between atoms is a two-way transaction involving waves rather than particles. One set of waves spreads out from the source to interact with another set of time-reversed confirmation waves from the destination. Interactions between the forward-time waves and the backward-time waves quickly determine where the energy ends up, Cramer said.

The idea in the Transactional Interpretation is that youre using it as a sort of time-symmetric situation, in which its OK to have things going backward in time as well as forward in time, in the limited case where youre doing this handshake, he said.

If time reversal actually exists, would that open the door to the kind of time travel seen in movies such as Back to the Future? Unfortunately for Doc Brown, Mother Nature is very clever about not letting you in on the action, Cramer said. The time symmetry effect makes the equations work, but it wont show up in observations of the energy transfer.

That was also the case five years ago for Cramers retrocausality experiments. The interference patterns that he was hoping would provide the crucial evidence for backward causation ended up canceling each other out.

Nature is sending messages faster than light and backwards in time, but shes not letting you in on the action, Cramer said. Its blocked by this process.

In their research paper, the two physicists consider only the case of energy transfer between two hydrogen atoms, but Cramer said the concept could be extended to multiple atoms in a system.

Is there any way to prove or disprove the seemingly way-out interpretation put forward by Cramer and Mead? Thats tricky:By definition, an interpretation for quantum mechanics is judged by how well it matches up with the mathematics that underlie well-known quantum phenomena.

What you should do is see whether your interpretation can explain as many experiments as possible, Cramer said. My Transactional Interpretation explains more than 26 different quantum optics experiments in great detail how the handshakes work in order to make whats observed in the experiments come out.

He hasnt yet found an experiment that rules out the interpretation, but acknowledges that there are probably a lot more experiments left to check.

Cramer is particularly interested inan experiment known as TEQ, which stands for TEsting the large-scale limit of Quantum mechanics. The experiment has won a 4.4 million ($5 million) grant from the European Commission, and wasfeatured last week in The New York Times Magazine.

TEQs researchers aim to determine the value of a term that they think should be added to the Schrdinger Equation, which describes the wave function of a quantum system. The extra term would describe objectively how the wave function collapses, independently of any observers.

Cramer said TEQ may not turn out the way itsbackers expect.

What we demonstrated here is the mechanism by which the wave function does collapse, he said. And that means, in fact, that those experimenters will be wasting their time and their euros doing that measurement, because theyre almost certain to find that theres no such term.

To see how the quantum handshake works for two hydrogen atoms, check out the three animations in this OneDrive folder.

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Professor tackles one more mystery about quantum mechanics and times flow - GeekWire

(iStockphoto)

Kelsea Best, a Ph.D. student in Earth and Environmental Sciences, has been awarded a graduate student pursuit grant from the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center to study the human impacts of climate change. Best is leading a team of graduate students fromseveral universities across the U.S. to study connections between climate change and displacement of people in coastal areas of the United States, with financial support for travel, high-performance computational resources and stipends provided by SESYNC.

David Curie, a third-year physics Ph.D. student, has received anOffice of Science Graduate Student Research Fellowshipto conduct part of his dissertation research in a Department of Energy laboratory. Curies work focuses on single-photon sources, which can be used inquantum communicationsand possibly quantum computing.

E. Bronson Ingram College was named the Best Higher Education/Research project for 2019 by Engineering News-Record magazine.

Brandt Eichman, William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair in Biological Sciences and professor of biochemistry, will receive the 2021 International Award from the Biochemical Society, the United Kingdoms leading organization of biochemists. The award, whichrecognizes outstanding and independent research that demonstrates the importance of the molecular biosciences, is given annually to an early- to mid-career scientist who has conducted research outside the U.K. and Ireland.

Mary Jo Gilmer, professor of nursing, has been selected for induction into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame by Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. The honor, which recognizes significant, sustained international achievement, is considered one of the highest honors in nursing research.

Kathryn Humphreys, assistant professor of psychology and human development, has received a 2020 Janet Taylor Spence Award from the Association for Psychological Science. The award recognizes early-career researchers who have made transformative contributions to the field of psychological science, such as establishing new paradigms within a subject area or advancing research that cuts across fields of study.

Karan Jani, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been recognized as an All-Star Alumnus by Forbes for his research on black holes. Jani was named to Forbes30 Under 30Science list in 2017.

Jonathan Metzl, Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Medicine, Health and Society, has received the 2020 Benjamin Rush Award from the American Psychiatric Association. The award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the literature on the history of psychiatry.

Dawool (Lauren) Nam, a senior majoring in chemistry, has received the 2019-20 Girls in STEM Scholarship Award from Girls Who STEM, the mission of which is to increase access and participation of girls in STEM fields and to promote and support girls and women in STEM projects, areas of study and professions.

Roberta Nelson, assistant director of the Office of LGBTQI Life, has received the Promising New Professional Award from the Consortium of LGBT Resource Professionals. The award recognizes a professional with less than five years of experience for outstanding service, innovative or creative effort within the profession, and demonstration of significant promise for leadership in the field.

Laura Nichols, a first-year physics Ph.D. student, has received a Computational Science Graduate Fellowship in overall support of her dissertation research in computational physics. TheCSGF fellowship, awarded to only about 30 individuals nationally per year, supports Ph.D. candidates in the computational sciencesthose who use computer programming to solve problems in scientific disciplines such as physics, biology and chemistry.

Sokrates Pantelides, William A. and Nancy F. McMinn Professor of Physics and professor of electrical engineering, was one of three international scientists honored with the 2019 Award for International Scientific Cooperation by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A pioneer in the field of semiconductor physics, Pantelides has carried out substantive cooperation with the CAS in developing new low-dimensional materials over the past two decades. In addition, Pantelides was named an honorary professor by Galgotias University in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, in conjunction with a talk he gave at an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers conference in nearby Lucknow.

Cleo Rucker, director of human resources consulting, employee and labor relations, has been appointed to the Metro Nashville Employee Benefits Study and Formulating Committee by Mayor John Cooper. The committees charge is to study and formulate a plan for employee benefits, including disability and retirement benefits, for Metro Nashville employees.

Keivan Stassun, Stevenson Chair in Physics and professor of astronomy and computer science, has been named an inaugural fellow of the American Astronomical Society, the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. The designation recognizes AAS members for extraordinary achievement and service, such as original research and publication, innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation, significant contributions to education and public outreach, and noteworthy service to astronomy and to the society itself.

Steven Townsend, assistant professor of chemistry, has been named a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar for 2020. These faculty are within the first five years of their academic careers, have created an outstanding independent body of scholarship, and are deeply committed to education.

Kip Viscusi, University Distinguished Professor of Law, Economics and Management, has received the American Risk and Insurance Associations 2020 Kulp-Wright Book Award for Pricing Lives: Guideposts for a Safer Society. The award recognizes a risk management and insurance book or monograph that advances the body of knowledge toward new frontiers.

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Kudos: Read about faculty, staff and student awards, appointments and achievements - Vanderbilt University News

Universal Quantum has raised $4.5 million as it emerges from stealth with plans to build a practical quantum computer it claims will be far more powerful than versions currently being developed by competitors.

Investors in this early-stage funding round include Hoxton Ventures, Village Global, Propagator VC, Luminous VC, and 7percent. Universal Quantum also disclosed that it has officially been spun out of the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, where Professor Winfried Hensinger and Dr. Sebastian Weidt founded it in 2018.

Hensinger said the company is on target to build the worlds first large-scale quantum computer, using a pioneering approach developed at the university. If the company makes good on that promise, this next-generation computing architecture would have an impact on more industries and much sooner than many experts have generally predicted.

Its a really exciting next step, Hensinger said. Ive worked on this for 20 years as a university professor, and now we go on to actually building something useful, which is probably going to change the world.

Universal Quantum joins an expanding range of companies and institutions trying to develop quantum computing, which seeks to replace traditional computing architecture. Processing in current computing systems occurs in a binary state. Quantum computing, by contrast, is an atomic-level system in which the processing can occur in multiple states simultaneously. These are referred to as quantum bits or qubits.

Quantum computing has slowly moved beyond the labs, thanks to milestones such as Googles claim that it achieved quantum supremacy last year. That means its quantum computer performed a task that would likely have been impossible using traditional computing systems. Meanwhile, IBM has for several years been expanding its Q Network that allows research and corporate partners access to its quantum machines to experiment via a cloud platform.

But the field still faces a number of fundamental scientific challenges when it comes to making quantum computing stable at a large enough scale to have a real impact.

The founders of Universal Quantum say theyre taking an approach to solving some of those issues that will allow them to build what they call a large-scale quantum computer. So what does that mean? The quantum computer Google built that claimed the supremacy milestone had 54 qubits. IBMs Q Network relies on a 53-qubit machine.

If you want to solve interesting problems, you cant just have 50 qubits, Hensinger said. You need probably around a few million, maybe even billions.

Hensinger is making the extraordinary claim that his companys technology will make that billions target feasible.

Among problems the company has overcome is one involving temperature. Quantum computers run extremely hot because they often use two laser beams targeting each qubit to keep them stable enough for processing calculations. A large-scale computer using this system would require millions of laser beams operating at extreme precision and would need to be cooled to -273 degrees Celsius.

Hensinger explained that in place of lasers, Universal uses an approach called trapped ions that relies on microwave and radio frequency technologies, similar to the type found today in mobile phones. The system results in fewer errors and generates far less heat than laser systems, he said. He projects this computer could operate at -200 degrees Celsius.

In addition, Universal Quantum is developing plans for a quantum computer that relies on ion-trapped chips and uses silicon. After experimenting with a wide range of materials, Hensinger said his team settled on silicon for its stability and practicality.

As is the case with microwave technology, using silicon will allow the company to leverage existing products and technology. It will also allow the team to recruit employees with skillsets in those areas, rather than having to train and develop workers using radically different materials and methods, he said.

All of those factors should allow the company to build its quantum computer, though the exact timing remains unclear. With the latest funding, Universal Quantum will continue building its quantum computing facility in Brighton while expanding its 10-person team.

Once the computer is operational, the company will pursue a model initially similar to IBMs by offering subscriptions to its machines through a cloud platform, Hensinger said.

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Universal Quantum raises $4.5 million to build a large-scale quantum computer - VentureBeat