Summer School on Quantum Information Processing- Gate-based and Annealing Systems - Remote

28 Aug 2023, 09:00 → 1 Sept 2023, 17:00 Europe/Berlin

JUNIQ Team

The Jülich Supercomputing Centre will host the summer school on “Quantum Information Processing – Applications on Gate-based an Annealing Systems” from August 28 to September 01, 2023. The school focuses on hands-on experiences in developing and implementing algorithms on both gate-based devices and quantum annealers. The hands-on sessions will be accompanied by several lectures covering basic concepts of gate-based and annealing systems, the design and implementation of use-cases, and big-picture lectures, all given by experts from the field.

Topics: Introduction to gate-based quantum computing, introduction to quantum annealing, formulating QUBO problems, Ising Hamiltonians, Variational Quantum Eigensolvers, Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm, simulation of quantum systems, classical vs quantum optimization

For the hands-on sessions, remote-participants must organize access to quantum annealing and gate-based ressources themelves. We suggest to use D-Wave Leap and Qiskit to be compatible with the exercises and solutions provided. We will further provide an online platform with a chat-function and file exchange to enable remote-participants to discuss and exchange results.

Please note that this is the registration page for remote participation. If you want to attend this event on-site register here.

Monday, 28 August

1 Welcome and introdction to JSC

Speaker: Prof. Kristel Michielsen

2 Introduction to gate-based quantum computing

Introduction to quantum bits and quantum gates
Programming and Simulating quantum circuits
Applications: QFT, Quantum Adder, QAOA

Speaker: Dr Dennis Willsch (Forschungszentrum Jülich, JSC)

3 Introduction to quantum annealing

This talk is a general introduction to quantum annealing. It covers
- how does a quantum annealer work in theory and what can it be used for
- what are the theoretical and practical limitations
- how to solve problems on quantum annealers, in particular D-Wave quantum annealers as the one hosted by JSC:
- the basic information about the architecture of D-Wave quantum annealers
- how to formulate an optimization problem as a QUBO or Ising problem
- different encoding strategies
- how to incorporate constraints
- how to embed a (logical) problem onto the given hardware graph (considering physical connectivity)
- how to send a problem to the quantum annealer using D-Wave's Ocean SDK and how to interpret the response
Finally, some small examples are presented and the talk ends with a short hands-on exercise.

Speaker: Dr Madita Willsch

4 Quantum annealing applications

Optimization Problems: Airline Scheduling, TSP, Garden Optimization
Constraint Problem: 2-SAT
Machine Learning Problem: Quantum Support Vector Machine
Sampling Problem: Quantum Boltzmann Machin

Speaker: Dr Dennis Willsch

Tuesday, 29 August

5 QUBO Formulation and QAOA: A tutorial on encoding and solving combinatorial optimization problems - part I

In this tutorial, we will dive into combinatorial optimization problems and explore how effectively encode these problems using the Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) formulation and how to tackle them using the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA).

Speaker: Dr Alejandro Montanez

6 Introduction of hands-on topics

In this session, the topics for the hands-on sessions will be introduced.

7 Hardware & Software Setup

8 Hands-on session

9 QUBO Formulation and QAOA: A tutorial on encoding and solving combinatorial optimization problems - part II

In this tutorial, we will dive into combinatorial optimization problems and explore how effectively encode these problems using the Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) formulation and how to tackle them using the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA).

Speaker: Dr Alejandro Montanez

10 Hands-on session

11 Simulation of quantum systems

• Full dynamics of a CLOSED quantum spin-1/2 system: gate-based quantum computer & quantum annealer
• Full dynamics of an OPEN quantum spin-1/2 system: gate-based quantum computer & quantum annealer
• Solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation numerically
• (Part of) our histrory of simulating quantum computers

Speaker: Prof. Kristel Michielsen

Wednesday, 30 August

12 Developing a theory of macroscopic resonant tunneling of flux in a double-well potential in the presence of realistic flux noise - a pen & paper excercise

Superconducting qubits based on different forms of quantum dynamics of magnetic flux in SQUIDs continue demonstrating steady progress. Nevertheless, the low-frequency flux noise in SQUID structures remains the major obstacle to their further development to the level necessary for quantum computing applications. Because of this noise, quantum coherence is essentially reduced to the states with the same qubit value of either 0 or 1 (characterized by the same average value of flux). Only minimal coherence exists between states 0 and 1. We will develop a theory of macroscopic resonant tunneling of flux in a double-well potential in the presence of realistic flux noise with a significant low-frequency component.

Speaker: Dr Jaka Vodeb

13 Quantum simulation using quantum annealers

I will talk about the first experimental signatures of two-dimensional many-body false vacuum decay in a quantum material emerging from microscopic interactions. We used a programmable noisy superconducting quantum simulator with 2008 qubits in order to perform simulations corresponding to our specific experiment on quantum domain reconfiguration in a topical electronic crystal. We carefully chose a simulator with the same measured noise spectrum to ensure the fidelity of the model correspondence between the two systems, thereby presenting a realization of simulating real-world open quantum systems according to the original vision of Feynman.

Speaker: Dr Jaka Vodeb

14 Hands-on session

15 Simulating noise of quantum computers

As much as we want to isolate them, we must see quantum machines as open systems. Interactions happen between the quantum machine and its environment leading to decoherence. This effectively give different types of noise at the level of the machine. What are they and how can we take them into account when doing simulation on our classical computer?

Speaker: Dr Kevissen Sellapillay

16 Hands-on session

Thursday, 31 August

17 Gate-based Quantum Computing - A Broader Perspective

Speaker: Prof. David DiVincenzo

18 Hands-on session

19 Quantum Annealing - A Broader Perspective

Speaker: Prof. Viv Kendon

Friday, 1 September

20 Hands-on session

21 Feedback session

22 The future of quantum computing

Speaker: Prof. Kristel Michielsen

23 Wrap-up and goddbye

Speaker: Nils Küchler