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Did NASA Ames Achieve Quantum Supremacy? (Update)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
September 25, 2019
Filed under ,
Did NASA Ames Achieve Quantum Supremacy? (Update)

Keith’s update: Three days ago I asked NASA PAO these questions.
“1. Why was this paper posted on NTRS, a publicly accessible NASA website and then taken offline? Will it be reposted?
2. Who is funding this research? NASA? A private company (if so who)? Both? How much has NASA spent on this project? How much have commercial parters spent on this project? Is the project ongoing or has it been completed?
3. Can you send me a copy of the original paper as it was posted on NTRS? I have posted a cache version I found that has typos in it and I’d rather have people read the un-garbled version.”

This is the response I just got from NASA ARC PAO. They can’t/won’t even admit that this research exists but sometimes people make mistakes and publish things too soon.
“Hi Keith, we don’t have information we can share at this time. However, I wanted to follow up about why a paper might be removed from the NASA Technical Reports Server. Draft research papers go through internal review processes prior to being submitted to journals and peer-review. This can involve uploading drafts to NASA websites. In the case of an administrative human error causing a paper to be released prematurely, NASA would remove the paper from the website in order to wait for a final draft, respect publishing considerations, and hold until an appropriate date for release. Thanks again for reaching out. We look forward to more news to come.”
Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor, NASA
“Here, we report using a processor with programmable superconducting qubits to create quantum states on 53 qubits, occupying a state space 253 ?1016. Measurements from repeated experiments sample the corresponding probability distribution, which we verify using classical simulations. While our processor takes about 200 seconds to sample one instance of the quantum circuit 1 million times, a state-of-the-art supercomputer would require approximately 10,000 years to perform the equivalent task.”
Keith’s note: Last week a paper authored by NASA Ames Research Center employee Eleanor G. Rieffel, titled “Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting” Processor, was posted on the publicly accessible NASA NTRS but was then removed. Apparently the Finanical Times was the first to catch this – their article is here behind paywall. NASA has not provided a reason for its removal. I located a Google cached version of the paper here which I have posted on SpaceRef.
Quantum computer bests all conventional computers in first claim of ‘supremacy’, Science
“The age of quantum computing may have begun not with a flashy press conference, but with an internet leak. According to a paper posted briefly–and presumably mistakenly–to a lab site, physicists at Google have used a quantum computer to perform a calculation that would overwhelm the world’s best conventional supercomputer. Although the specific computation has no known use, the result means scientists have passed a milestone known as “quantum supremacy.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

3 responses to “Did NASA Ames Achieve Quantum Supremacy? (Update)”

  1. Rabbit says:
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    I thought that Sycamore was a Google project; what does Ames have to do with it?

  2. Jack says:
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    I read elsewhere that it was pulled because the paper hasn’t finished going through the peer review process.

  3. Michael Spencer says:
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    Here’s a pretty good discussion about the project and what it means:

    https://www.wired.com/story