Thank you to Harrisburg University of Science and Technology Quantum Computing / Harrisburg University Quantum

We’re happy to announce the first online meeting of the Quantum researchers from around the world. We start with two talks, from University of Chicago and from Oxford. Before the talks, we’ll do introductions, and afterwards, we’ll have time for Q&A and an unconference – a format when audience members can propose and give their own talks! Talk 1: Quantum circuits: from structure to software Quantum circuits are a de facto assembly language for quantum software. Programs are described as list of primitive operations, or gates, which are run in sequence on a quantum computer to perform a computation. Just like with classical software, there is more that one way to write a program to do the same job, and so it’s important to find programs that do that job as quickly and cheaply as possible. Looking at quantum circuits just as lists of gates doesn’t tell us a whole lot about what computation is being performed, or how it might be optimised. However, if we “break open” quantum gates, we see a rich graphical/algebraic structure inside called the ZX-calculus. This can be used not only for making quantum circuits more efficient, but also for performing other critical tasks like bug-checking. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of these techniques, and how they can be used with an open source software library called PyZX. Aleks Kissinger has been an Associate Professor of Quantum Computing in Oxford’s Computer Science Department since Autumn 2019. Before that, he was an Assistant Professor of Quantum Structures and Logic at Radboud University in Nijmegen. He is the co-author of Picturing Quantum Processes (a.k.a. “The Dodo Book”), and works on the applications of diagrams and logical structures in the foundations of physics and quantum software. Talk 2: Preparation of an Exciton Condensate of Photons on a 53-Qubit Quantum Computer Quantum computation promises an exponential speedup of certain classes of classical calculations through the preparation and manipulation of entangled quantum states. So far most molecular simulations on quantum computers, however, have been limited to small numbers of particles. Here we prepare a highly entangled state on a 53-qubit IBM quantum computer, representing 53 particles, which reveals the formation of an exciton condensate of photon particles and holes. While elusive for more than 50 years, such condensates were recently achieved for electron-hole pairs in graphene bilayers and metal chalcogenides. Our result with a photon condensate has the potential to further the exploration of this new form of condensate that may play a significant role in realizing efficient room-temperature energy transport.