Quantum News Briefs August 9: IonQ invents a novel, low-overhead approach for partial quantum error correction • BTQ Technologies announces award of academic grants from Mitacs • WSJ reports: AI Startup Glean nears fundraising round valuing it at $4.5 BillionQuantum computing’s Holy Grail: Realizing topologically protected qubits
News releases:
IonQ invents a novel, low-overhead approach for partial quantum error correction
IONQ) announced August 7 a new breakthrough towards running large applications on near term quantum systems using partial error correction. The technique is an order of magnitude more efficient than the best error correction techniques known today.
In a recent paper, IonQ researchers describe a novel way to reduce noise in some of the most common and noisy operations used in quantum applications, called Clifford gates. The partial error correction scheme known as Clifford Noise Reduction (CliNR) uses a modest 3:1 qubit overhead, compared to other techniques that require tens, hundreds or even thousands of qubits for error correction.
IonQ is also a leader in error mitigation, a technique that uses software to reduce errors in quantum applications. Error mitigation is commonly used by quantum computing companies, but has drawbacks at scale as it requires many data samples for implementation, increasing the time to solution.
The CliNR technique offers an exciting alternative to full error correction and error mitigation, balancing qubit count and time to solution. It employs an efficient overhead of three physical qubits for each error-corrected qubit and requires only a modest increase in quantum gates to calculate a more accurate solution. Results simulated using the CliNR technique demonstrated a substantial fidelity improvement when compared to applications run without error reduction techniques, and were suitable for applications using up to 85 qubits.
BTQ Technologies announces award of academic grants from Mitacs
BTQ Technologies Corp. a global quantum technology company focused on securing mission-critical networks, announced on August 6 the receipt of a major funding award that will complement the company’s existing IP portfolio in the post-quantum space. BTQ plans to continue pursuing additional research and development grants and collaborations to expand its presence in Canada’s vibrant quantum and cybersecurity ecosystems.
In May 2024, BTQ received approval for its Mitacs Accelerate project titled “Enabling Efficient Zero-Knowledge Proofs-Based Post-Quantum Digital Signature Schemes.” The project, supervised by Prof. Guang Gong from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, is set to continue until July 2026.
With the rapid development of quantum computers, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a National Security Memorandum to ensure the timely and equitable transition of cryptographic systems to quantum-resistant cryptography by 2035. This initiative urges the direct implementation of post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms in all layers of protection mechanisms for new digital systems. The goal of this project, jointly led by BTQ and the University of Waterloo, is to investigate the efficiency and commercial implementation of Preon, one of the candidates in NIST’s Additional Digital Signature Schemes Round 1 for the PQC Standardization Process, submitted by BTQ in July of last year.
SciTech Daily covers: “Quantum computing’s Holy Grail: Realizing topologically protected qubits”
A team of experimental physicists led by the University of Cologne has shown that it is possible to create superconducting effects in special materials known for their unique edge-only electrical properties. This discovery provides a new way to explore advanced quantum states that could be crucial for developing stable and efficient quantum computers according to August 7 coverage in SciTechDaily.
This discovery opens up numerous avenues for future research. Next steps include experiments to directly confirm the emergence of chiral Majorana fermions and to elucidate their exotic nature. Understanding and harnessing topological superconductivity and chiral Majorana edge states could revolutionize quantum computing by providing stable qubits that are less susceptible to decoherence and loss of information. The platform demonstrated in this study offers a promising path toward achieving these goals, potentially leading to more robust and scalable quantum computers.
Their study, titled ‘Induced superconducting correlations in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator’, has been published in Nature Physics.
WSJ reports: AI Startup Glean nears fundraising round valuing it at $4.5 Billion
Enterprise artificial intelligence startup Glean is on the verge of securing a funding round that could see its valuation double to $4.5 billion, reflecting the continued investor interest in AI technology.
Glean is in the final stages of negotiations for a $250 million investment, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, August 8. This would mark a significant increase from the company’s valuation six months ago.
The investment is expected to be led by venture firm DST Global, founded by Russian-Israeli investor Yuri Milner. However, details of the investment are yet to be finalized and are subject to change.
Glean, established in 2019 by former Google search engineer Arvind Jain, offers AI-powered search software that assists employees in accessing information across their organizations. The startup sells AI-powered search software that helps employees look up information spread across the organizations they work for. Executives and investors have pointed to such productivity apps as a potentially more lucrative market for generative AI in the near term than consumer-facing applications.
The company’s subscription revenue has recently reached $55 million annually and is projected to hit $100 million by year-end.
