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Quantum Class 27, Mon 2021-12-06

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1 Final project presentations, session 2

  1. Fanny C

  2. Athreya M & Alejandro N T & Misha S

  3. Pavankumar R V

  4. Matthew Y & Justin M H & Lauren T

2 Quantum computing at RPI

RPI's Quantum Blueprint group would like to know: what would you like to see, in courses and research?

  1. a lower level course?

  2. fewer prereqs in this course?

  3. a minor?

  4. different topics in this course?

I email you about the focus group session, this Wed at 4. Please try to attend; this will help to strengthen quantum computing at RPI.

I will not be present; so you can be frank.

3 Quantum physics explains USB behavior

/files/quantum_usb_behavior.png

4 Course material

4.1 Feynman

  1. Feynman was the first to propose the theoretical idea of a quantum computer.

    Richard Feynman - Quantum Mechanics 4:01.

    Extracted from HD Feynman: FUN TO IMAGINE complete 1080p 1:06:49. Recorded in 1983.

4.2 Honeywell

  1. Competitor to IonQ

  2. https://techhq.com/2021/12/quantinuum-is-the-worlds-largest-integrated-quantum-computing-company/

  3. https://www.zdnet.com/article/quantinuum-launches-as-honeywell-quantum-cambridge-quantum-deal-closes/

    There are several links to other interesting stories in this.

  4. https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/honeywell-releases-details-of-its-ion-trap-quantum-computer/

4.3 Microsoft

  1. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/quantum-computing/

  2. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/research-area/quantum-computing/?facet%5Btax%5D%5Bmsr-research-area%5D%5B0%5D=243138&sort_by=most-recent

  3. Note what architectures they do not use.

  4. https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-win-quantum-computing-error/

  5. https://www.hpcwire.com/2021/06/15/isc-keynote-glimpse-into-microsofts-view-of-the-quantum-computing-landscape/

  6. https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2020/12/09/microsoft-practical-quantum-computing-q2b/

  7. Disentangling hype from reality: Achieving practical quantum advantage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybmKJBTXudk (14:28) Mar 26, 2021 Join distinguished Microsoft Scientist Matthias Troyer in his session on achieving practical quantum advantage from the 2020 Q2B event.

4.4 List of algorithms

https://quantumalgorithmzoo.org/

4.5 Nasty probability distributions and failures in financial modeling

  1. This expands my comments a few classes ago.

  2. Consider the Cauchy probability distribution.

    1. It's smooth and unimodal.

    2. It can happen in real experiments like spinning a pointer.

    3. However it has no moments. The integral to compute the mean diverges.

    4. The law of large numbers fails here.

    5. No paramatric sampling techniques are valid.

    6. See wikipedia.

  3. Generally, fat-tailed distributions have this problem; see wikipedia.

  4. There are good arguments that stock market numbers might be like this/

  5. So, all the usual market analysis tools are invalid.

  6. This might be the math behind black swans, i.e., unusual events that happen more often than the models predict.

  7. Deleting extreme outlying observations might shrink the tails enough that the moments now are finite. However it's hard to put a formal foundation on this.

  8. Another problem with the models is that they can fail when you need them most.

    1. Their job is to compute prices, at which people will both buy and sell.

    2. In a panic, no one is buying; the market can break down.

  9. Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management where models developed by 2 Nobel Econ winners failed and nearly caused a major financial market crash. To stop that, the Fed had to bail it out.

  10. Quantum computing will allow all this to happen faster.