The Fault-Tolerance Threshold with Dorit Aharonov

Описание: Welcome to another episode of The New Quantum Era Podcast hosted by Kevin Rowney and Sebastian Hassinger.


In this episode, we are joined by Dorit Aharonov (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorit-aha...) , a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and one of the pioneers of quantum computing. She's also the Chief Science Officer at QEDMA, a quantum startup based in Israel. Dorit is one of the major movers and shakers of quantum error correction and co-author of the important Threshold Theorem for quantum error correction. Kevin, Sebastian, and Dorit talk about her recent work on the theoretical foundations of random circuit sampling.






Key Takeaways:


[4:22] Dorit shares her path into quantum information and computing.


[8:27]  Dorit explains the threshold theorem in an easy-to-understand manner.


[16:35] The velocity of error correction versus the generation of errors in the computation could depend on physical implementation, or the algorithm. Maybe even both.


[18:53] A more powerful assertion Dorit makes is that there's a deeper connection between the phases of matter and the transition between solid and liquid and these quantum error correction thresholds.


[19:51] A lot of the foundations of classical error correction were laid down in the mid-40s in Von Neumann's work when the IAS system was being built. Dorit still sees the echoes of that.


[22:35] We might be witnessing a growing momentum around the powerful expression of new quantum error correction technologies.


[25:28] Dorit talks about the difference between error mitigation and error correction.


[26:55] Dorit explains the idea of the reset gate.


[30:22] It might be safe to say that challenges are primarily engineering in nature and that we have enough science to enable that engineering to get to fault tolerance.


[31:50] Dorit discusses a possible timeline for this engineering to get to fault tolerance.


[34:07] Is Dorit an NISQ optimist or a pessimist when it comes to real-world applications?


[39:21] Dorit addresses the difference between practical and asymptotic quantum advantage.


[41:30] Dorit shares what the paper on random circuit sampling shows.


[45:25] Dorit explains why the machine learning algorithms that were dequantized are  treacherous.


[49:56] Dorit shows optimism regarding the possibility of seeing evidence of a quantum event.


[52:25] Dorit admits to finding constructive interference between working in the industry and working on theoretical questions.


[53:50] Is there something Dorit is excited about in the next year or two that will be another step forward?


[56:50] Dorit talks about concrete examples of experiments and sensors that might be arriving thanks to quantum computing advancements.


[1:00:35] Sebastian and Kevin share the highlights of a fantastic conversation with Dorit.






Mentioned in this episode:


Visit The New Quantum Era (https://www.the-new-quantum-era.com/)


The New Quantum Era Podcast (https://podcast.the-new-quantum-era.com/)


Limitations of Noisy Reversible Computation (https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9611028) Dorit Aharonov, Michael Ben-Or, Russell Impagliazzo, Norm Nisan


The Complexity of NISQ (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.07234.pdf) , Sitan Chen, Jordan Cotler, Hsin-Yuan, and  Jerry Li
A polynomial-time classical algorithm for noisy random circuit sampling (https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03999) Dorit Aharonov, Xun Gao, Zueph Landau, Yunchao Liu, Umesh Vazirani 


QEDMA (https://www.qedma.com/)






Tweetables and Quotes:


“Nobody actually believed that it was possible to correct errors that occur on quantum states because of the lack of reversibility. ” —  Dorit Aharonov






“it's a physics phenomenon… below a certain threshold, we can think of this as if the system is capable of some completely different behavior, like ice and water. It's just like a phase transition -- below that, there would be macroscopic entanglement and … ability to control large scale quantum correlations. And above it, this would not be possible.”  — Dorit Aharonov