Quantum Advantage

Whilst it is possible that some new as-yet undiscovered law of physics will be revealed that gets in the way of the pursuit of commercial-scale quantum computers, that is now seeming increasingly unlikely. Advances, such as those in error handling, propel them increasingly towards quantum advantage – the point, beyond quantum utility, where they can out-perform traditional computers in performing useful work.

Iju Raj, Executive Director of R&D at AVEVA, says: “We’re just at the beginning of exploring the first use cases for quantum computing. By integrating this technology into our industrial intelligence network, we’re empowering our customers to experiment and innovate within their own ecosystems - securely and with low latency.

“The promise of quantum computing is clear: to solve the unsolvable and help our customers unlock new potential, whether it’s optimizing renewable energy deployment, enhancing deeply technical operations or pushing the boundaries of ocean science.”

AVEVA sees the potential of quantum computing to deliver exponential speed, sustainability and efficiency gains for businesses in the industrial intelligence ecosystem. For industries operating in dynamic and unpredictable environments, like offshore energy or ocean science, this means being able to model, predict and optimize highly variable conditions with unprecedented precision.

Source: AVEVA

The promise of quantum computing is clear: to solve the unsolvable. Iju Raj, Executive Director of R&D at AVEVA

“Consider subsea engineering,” says Raj. “Quantum computing’s ability to process immense datasets simultaneously enables engineers to optimize pipeline designs, improve asset reliability and enhance safety under ever-changing ocean conditions. One example where quantum computing can be of great value for subsea engineering is for tackling the challenges that accompany fiber-optic cable systems deep under the sea. Quantum has the capability to not only help with the implementation, design and repair of cables, which are often in extremely remote areas of the ocean floor, but quantum’s superior computational power could increase the capacity of subsea cables.

“In overall ocean science, quantum capabilities can drive better understanding of climate impacts, resource availability and ecosystem changes, paving the way for more effective and sustainable management strategies.”

Satyam Priyadarshy, founder of Reignite Future and senior expert at Global Quantum Intelligence, wrote in the Journal of Petroleum Technology late last year that the impact of quantum technology across the oil and gas industry could equate to $2.6 trillion by 2035.

Some of the applications include improving the efficiency of the industry's supply chain and logistics. “Optimizing the supply chain involves an interplay of a complex set of variables which could potentially be done by quantum computing algorithms. ExxonMobil has partnered with IBM to develop such algorithms to help fine tune its liquefied natural gas maritime routing.” Seismic data interpretation presents another computational application as does well placement optimization and reservoir simulation.

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has access to the IBM Quantum Network through the Air Force Research Laboratory Hub, providing it with the ability to explore Navy-relevant problems. NRL Associate Director of Research for Systems Dr. Gerald Borsuk says quantum computing holds immense potential for transforming naval operations. “Its applications in the naval domain are far-reaching, including corrosion research, optimizing complex logistics and mission planning, improving sensor data analysis for threat detection and advancing modeling and simulation for ship design and operational scenarios."

Fluid dynamics forecasting including the study of fluid-structure interaction, atmospheric contaminant and infectious viral transport and the dynamics of turbulence could greatly benefit from the expanded computational capabilities that will be provided by quantum computers. Although quantum algorithm development in this area is in the early stages, small-scale demonstrations performed at NRL show promise that the new approaches could eventually be scaled up to revolutionize the field.

E.ON is working with IBM’s quantum scientists on how to use quantum computing to help tackle the complexity of Europe’s transition to renewable energy. So far, the teams have developed an algorithm for managing weather risk that would be able to outperform classical methods using a sufficiently advanced quantum computer.

Adam Hammond, Manager, IBM Quantum Sales EMEA, APAC, Japan and IBM Quantum Distinguished Ambassador, explains what quantum computing means for existing data processing technology: “Cloud is the main user route to access quantum computers. Quantum compute becomes an additional capability available through the cloud. In fact, IBM was the first to put a quantum computer on the cloud in 2016. Since then, we have deployed 70 quantum computing systems of increasingly improved scale and performance at both IBM quantum data centers, IBM facilities and IBM client sites, all available through cloud access.

Source: IBM

IBM was the first to put a quantum computer on the cloud in 2016. Adam Hammond, Manager, IBM Quantum Sales EMEA, APAC, Japan and IBM Quantum Distinguished Ambassador

“When it comes to supercomputers, we see huge potential in the combination of supercomputers and quantum computers working together to solve problems that are too difficult for supercomputers alone. We refer to this as quantum-centric supercomputing which is an approach to computation that combines quantum computing with traditional high-performance computing to create a computing system that will be capable of solving these highly complex real-world problems.”

Quantum inspired computing refers to simulating quantum computing on classical computers. This is useful for education and can deliver some benefits, says Hammond, but is not how to achieve quantum advantage. By definition, quantum advantage will happen at a scale which is impossible to simulate classically.

“As of now, our quantum computers have achieved utility scale - the point where IBM’s quantum computers are able to perform reliable computations at a scale beyond brute force classical computing methods that provide exact solutions to computational problems. This means that today’s machines are ready to be used as active research tools to explore how quantum computation is going to help us to exceed what we can do on classical computation alone. Previously, these problems were accessible only to classical approximation methods - usually problem-specific approximation methods carefully crafted to exploit the unique structures of a given problem.”

IBM considers quantum advantage as quantum computation that delivers a significant, practical benefit beyond approximate classical computing methods, calculating solutions in a way that is cheaper, faster or more accurate than all known classical alternatives. Hammond believes that quantum advantage will not occur as a single moment in time, but rather as an incremental journey, a growing collection of problems for which researchers first demonstrate practical relevance and then quantum advantage.

Until relatively recently, all quantum computers were small experimental devices primarily used for advancing the study of quantum computing itself. “Being in this era of quantum utility means the quantum computers we have today are valuable, useful tools researchers can use to explore meaningful scientific problems.”

Much more will come with quantum advantage.