Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor

The promise of quantum computers is that certain computational tasks might be executed exponentially faster on a quantum processor than on a classical processor1. A fundamental challenge is to build a high-fidelity processor capable of running quantum algorithms in an exponentially large computational space. Here we report the use of a processor with programmable superconducting qubits2–7 to create quantum states on 53 qubits, corresponding to a computational state-space of dimension 253 (about 1016). Measurements from repeated experiments sample the resulting probability distribution, which we verify using classical simulations. Our Sycamore processor takes about 200 seconds to sample one instance of a…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: AC05-00OR22725, DE-AC05, 00OR22725
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OO
  Office of Science

  Awards: DE-AC05-00OR22725, AC05-00OR22725
• AR
  Ames Research Center
• UO
  University of California, Santa Barbara
• AF
  Air Force Research Laboratory

  Awards: F4HBKC4162G001, DE-AC05-00OR22725