News
New funding from Canada’s Strategic Science Fund awarded to IQC Canada Inc., in support of IQC research
The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo is pleased to congratulate IQC Canada Inc., for receiving $18.4 M in funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s Strategic Science Fund (SSF). The fund aims to mobilize the expertise and resources of independent, third-party science and research organizations to enhance Canada’s science technology and innovation excellence.
Dr. Rajibul Islam awarded Excellence in Science Teaching Award
Congratulations to Dr. Rajibul Islam, a faculty member at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, who has been awarded the 2024 Excellence in Science Teaching Award.
This annual award, selected by the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Science, recognizes instructors who have demonstrated sustained, high-quality teaching in their undergraduate or graduate courses.
Exploring Canada’s quantum future
The second annual Quantum Connections Conference highlighted the need for collaboration to address quantum's societal impact.
Events
Quantum circuit lower bounds and the role of structure in quantum advantage.
Math/CS Seminar - Joseph Slote, Caltech
ZOOM ONLY
An important challenge in quantum computing is to develop quantum circuit lower bound techniques beyond lightcone arguments. Towards this goal, we examine a circuit model formed from a shallow quantum circuit composed with a classical AC0 circuit and ask whether this model can compute parity. We then bridge ideas from Fourier analysis, info-theoretic cryptography, and nonlocal games to settle this question in several cases. We'll also discuss implications for a search-decision dichotomy in unstructured quantum advantage, a phenomenon that was recently understood in the context of query complexity: for unstructured (promise-free) query problems, exponential quantum advantage can exist for search problems but never for decision problems.
Based on https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.13679.
IQC Student Seminar Featuring Connor Kapahi
Designing a precision gravitational experiment and budgeting uncertainties
Neutrons have a long history at the forefront of precision metrology. Following in the footsteps of the first experiment that measured the effect of gravity on a quantum particle (the C.O.W. experiment), we aim to generate structured neutron momentum profiles and apply these states to measure the gravitational constant, big-G. The significant discrepancy between modern big-G experimental results underscores the need for new experiments whose systematic uncertainties can be decoupled from existing techniques. Previously, perfect-crystal neutron interferometers were used to measure local gravitational acceleration, little-g, unfortunately, the low neutron flux (a few neutrons per second) of these devices makes them impractical for precision measurements of big-G. The recently demonstrated Phase-Grating Moiré Interferometer (PGMI) offers an increase in neutron flux of several orders of magnitude while preserving the large interferometer area, and thus the sensitivity, of a perfect-crystal interferometer. This device possesses a set of systematic uncertainties that are independent from those in existing techniques that measure big-G. In this talk, I will discuss the feasibility of measuring big-G using a neutron PGMI apparatus with a test mass on the order of 1 tonne. Further, I will address how we can optimize this setup to maximize the phase shift from a 1-tonne mass and quantify the various sources of uncertainty in the proposed experiment.
Algebraic Methods in Quantum Compiling
IQC Seminar - Sarah Meng Li - University of Amsterdam, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI)
: Quantum compiling translates a quantum algorithm into a sequence of elementary operations. There exists a correspondence between certain quantum circuits and matrices over some number rings. This number-theoretic perspective reveals important properties of gate sets and leads to improved quantum compiling protocols. Here, we demonstrate several algebraic methods in quantum circuit characterization and optimization, based on my master’s research at IQC.
First, we design two improved synthesis algorithms for Toffoli-Hadamard circuits, achieving an exponential reduction in circuit size. Second, we define a unique normal form for qutrit Clifford operators. This allows us to find a set of relations that suffice to rewrite any qutrit Clifford circuit to its normal form, adding to the family of number-theoretic characterization of quantum operators.