Boson Sampling on a Photonic Chip

Although universal quantum computers ideally solve problems such as factoring integers exponentially more efficiently than classical machines, the formidable challenges in building such devices motivate the demonstration of simpler, problem-specific algorithms that still promise a quantum speedup. W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2013-02, Vol.339 (6121), p.798-801
Main Authors: Spring, Justin B., Metcalf, Benjamin J., Humphreys, Peter C., Kolthammer, W. Steven, Jin, Xian-Min, Barbieri, Marco, Datta, Animesh, Thomas-Peter, Nicholas, Langford, Nathan K., Kundys, Dmytro, Gates, James C., Smith, Brian J., Smith, Peter G. R., Walmsley, Ian A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Applied sciences
Bosons
Circuit properties
Classical and quantum physics: mechanics and fields
Computer science
Computers
Computers, microcomputers
Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing
Devices
Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Grants
Hardware
Integrated circuits
Integrated optics. Optical fibers and wave guides
Linear transformations
Logic
Logic programming
Mathematical analysis
Online
Optical and optoelectronic circuits
Photonics
Photons
Physics
Quantum computation
Quantum computers
Quantum efficiency
Quantum information
Quantum Mechanics
Quantum physics
Research fellowships
Sampling
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
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Description
Summary:Although universal quantum computers ideally solve problems such as factoring integers exponentially more efficiently than classical machines, the formidable challenges in building such devices motivate the demonstration of simpler, problem-specific algorithms that still promise a quantum speedup. We constructed a quantum boson-sampling machine (QBSM) to sample the output distribution resulting from the nonclassical interference of photons in an integrated photonic circuit, a problem thought to be exponentially hard to solve classically. Unlike universal quantum computation, boson sampling merely requires indistinguishable photons, linear state evolution, and detectors. We benchmarked our QBSM with three and four photons and analyzed sources of sampling inaccuracy. Scaling up to larger devices could offer the first definitive quantum-enhanced computation.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1231692