Italian Natl Institute for Nuclear Physics & AWS Collaborating to Accelerate Quantum Computing Research

(HPCWire) The Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are collaborating to expand scientific knowledge around quantum computing within the Italian research community and to identify potential applications in high-energy physics and fundamental physics. As part of this collaboration, AWS is providing access to Amazon Braket quantum computing capabilities for the INFN’s community, which includes associate researchers from up to 26 universities throughout Italy. The collaboration also further confirms AWS’s commitment to powering the Italian education and research communities with the most advanced set of cloud services and through the AWS Europe (Milan) Region launched in April 2020.
Thanks to the use of Amazon Braket, INFN’s researchers can leverage quantum computing capabilities without having to set up and manage infrastructure, negotiate access with multiple quantum hardware providers, and write code to integrate different environments. Amazon Braket gives easy access to a variety of quantum computing hardware through a single API (Application Programming Interface), including Rigetti’s superconducting qubit machine, IonQ’s trapped ion machine, and two D-Wave quantum annealers. Scientists are able to access these resources using the open source Amazon Braket SDK (Software Development Kit) in local independent development environments, managed notebooks in AWS, or command line tools.
INFN is the Italian research institute dedicated to the study of fundamental particles and interactions; with a long history of science breakthroughs, the institute holds a leadership position in fundamental physics, one of the leading sectors of big science. The research in this frontier field produces a large amount of data that requires efficient and rapid management, and INFN is increasingly committed to quantum technologies and high-performance computing. INFN is the only non-US partner of the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS Center), funded by the Department of Energy in the US. INFN also takes part in the EXANEST consortium to support exascale supercomputing to support the coming convergence of high-performance computing and quantum computing. Teaming up with the AWS Quantum Technologies team will help boost INFN’s activity in this new field of research and development.