Developmenthistory
In2017,PanJianwei'steambuilttheworld'sfirstopticalquantumcomputingprototypethatsurpassedtheearlyclassicalcomputer(ENIAC).
In2019,theteamrealizedtheBosesamplingofthe20-photoninput60-modeinterferencecircuit,andtheoutputcomplexityisequivalenttotheHilbertstatespaceof48qubits,approachingthesuperiorityofquantumcomputing.
Sincethen,theresearchteamhasindependentlydevelopedaquantumlightsourcewithhighefficiency,highidentity,extremelyhighbrightness,andlarge-scaleexpansioncapability,whilemeetingtherequirementsofphasestability,fullyconnectedrandommatrix,andexcellentwavepacketcoincidence.100-modeinterferencecircuitwith99.5%passratebetterthan98%,phase-lockaccuracywithinminus9thpowerofrelativeopticalpath10,high-efficiency100-channelsuperconductingnanowiresingle-photondetector.
OnDecember4,2020,theUniversityofScienceandTechnologyofChinaannouncedthatPanJianweiandothershadsuccessfullyconstructedthe"NineChapters"of76photonquantumcomputingprototypes,anditsoutputquantumstatespacescalereached1030.Onthesameday,theinternationalacademicjournal"Science"publishedtheresult,andthereviewersevaluateditas"amostadvancedexperiment"and"amajorachievement."
Computationalperformance
TheNineChaptersdevelopmentteamclaimedthatwhensolving50millionsamplesofGaussianBosesampling,“NineChapters”take200seconds,andasof2020,theworld’sfastestThesupercomputer"Fuyue"takes600millionyears;whensolving10billionsamples,ninechapterswilltake10hours,whileFuyuetakes120billionyears.Equivalently,thecalculationspeedof"NineChapters"is10billiontimesfasterthanthatof"Platanus",anditmakesupforthetechnicalloopholesof"Platanus"dependingonthenumberofsamples.
ThepressreleaseoftheUniversityofScienceandTechnologyofChinaalsopointedoutthatthe"NineChapters"forprocessingGaussianBosesamplingis100trilliontimesfasterthanthesupercomputer"Fuyue",whichisequivalentlyfasterthanGoogle'ssuperconductingqubitcomputer"Platanus"10billiontimesfaster.
ExperimentsshowthatthecalculationspeedoftheclassicalmathematicalalgorithmGaussianBosesamplingin"NineChapters"is100trilliontimesfasterthantheworld'sfastestsupercomputing"Fuyue",thusachievingthesecondoneintheworld"Quantumhegemony"haspromotedthefrontierresearchofglobalquantumcomputingtoanewheight,anditssupercomputingpowerhaspotentialapplicationvalueinthefieldsofgraphtheory,machinelearning,quantumchemistry,etc.
WhensolvingtheGaussianBosesamplingproblemwith50millionsamples,"NineChapters"takes200seconds,and"Fuyue"takes600millionyears;whensolving10billionsamples,"NineChapters"Ittakes10hours,and"Fuyue"takes120billionyears.
Systemprinciple
Theupperleftlasersystemgenerateshighpeakpowerfemtosecondpulses;the25lightsourcesontheleftgenerate50channelsofsingle-modecompressedstateinputtotheright100throughtheparametricdownconversionprocessModeopticalquantuminterferencenetwork;Finally,100high-efficiencysuperconductingsingle-photondetectorsareusedtodetecttheoutputopticalquantumstateoftheinterferometer.
R&Dunit
The"NineChapters"areacollaborationbetweenPanJianwei'steam,ShanghaiInstituteofMicrosystems,ChineseAcademyofSciences,andNationalParallelComputerEngineeringTechnologyResearchCenter.
Sourceofname
Thequantumcomputingprototype"NineChapters"wasnamed"NineChapters"tocommemoratetheearliestmathematicsmonograph"NineChaptersArithmetic"inancientChina.
Significance
PanJianweisaidthatthisachievementfirmlyestablishedmycountry'spositionasthefirstsquareininternationalquantumcomputingresearch.Basedonthe"NineChapters""GaussianBosesampling"algorithm,itwillhaveimportantpotentialapplicationsinthefieldsofgraphtheory,machinelearning,andquantumchemistryinthefuture.
Honorsreceived
InApril2021,ittookoneyeartobeselectedintotheNetexploUniversityNetwork,whichiscomposedofworld-renowneduniversitiesinthefieldoftechnology,andselected10breakthroughsgloballyDigitalinnovationtechnology.
ExpertEvaluation
Forthebreakthroughof"NineChapters",thereviewersof"Science"magazinecommentedthat"thisisamostadvancedexperimentandamajorachievement."