Questions tagged [applications]

For questions asking about applications of quantum computers to solve practical problems.

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Is quantum computing just pie in the sky?

I have a computer science degree. I work in IT, and have done so for many years. In that period "classical" computers have advanced by leaps and bounds. I now have a terabyte disk drive in my bedroom ...
John Duffield's user avatar
30 votes
3 answers
3k views

What could be the possible future applications for HHL algorithm?

Note on the vocabulary: the word "hamiltonian" is used in this question to speak about hermitian matrices. The HHL algorithm seems to be an active subject of research in the field of quantum ...
Adrien Suau's user avatar
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15 votes
4 answers
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What use has quantum computing been?

Most of us on this site believe that quantum computing will work. However, let's play devil's advocate. Imagine that we suddenly hit some fundamental stumbling block that prevented further development ...
DaftWullie's user avatar
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15 votes
4 answers
2k views

Are there any examples of anyone applying quantum algorithms to problems in computational biology?

As the title suggests, I'm searching for published examples of quantum algorithms being applied to problems in computational biology. Clearly the odds are high that practical examples don't exist (yet)...
Greenstick's user avatar
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14 votes
2 answers
836 views

What kind of real-world problems (excluding cryptography) can be solved efficiently by a quantum algorithm?

This question is very similar as Is there any general statement about what kinds of problems can be solved more efficiently using a quantum computer? But the answers provided to that questions mainly ...
JanVdA's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
2k views

Number of Qubits Required for Simulation of Caffeine and Penicillin Molecules

I recently read this report from BCG, which stated: For scientists trying to design a compound that will attach itself to, and modify, a target disease pathway, the critical first step is to ...
Greenstick's user avatar
  • 1,076
12 votes
3 answers
3k views

Does the quantum Fourier transform have many applications beyond period finding?

(This is a somewhat soft question.) The quantum Fourier transform is formally quite similar to the fast Fourier transform, but exponentially faster. The QFT is famously at the core of Shor's ...
tparker's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are there any uses for Shor's algorithm other than breaking public key cryptography

This question may be slightly opinion based, so I apologise if this is the incorrect place to ask. My question is, is there any use for Shor's integer factorisation algorithm other than for breaking ...
Adrien Amour's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
776 views

Can quantum computing be profitable without quantum hardware?

What are the fields/business ideas that a new business can work on within quantum computing that can be profitable if this business has no access to onboard quantum setups but can access the cloud-...
Tarek's user avatar
  • 161
11 votes
1 answer
367 views

Can quantum computing contribute to the development of artificial intelligence?

I am interested how quantum computing can contribute to the development of artificial intelligence, I did some searching, but could not find much. Does somebody have an idea (or speculations)?
jennifer ruurs's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
255 views

Does quantum computing have an essential advantage in analyzing/controlling chaotic systems?

The enthusiast-level, inaccurate knowledge about quantum computers is that they can solve many exponentially solvable problems in polynomial time. The enthusiast-level, inaccurate knowledge about ...
peterh's user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
450 views

What is quantum computing vs. what is not quantum computing

That is to say, what are some common or popular misconceptions about what constitutes quantum computing? and how are those things misconceptions? It could help in explaining to frame this while ...
PowerLuser's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
534 views

Can we use quantum phase estimation to learn anything about the dynamics of puzzles like the Rubik's cube?

Introduction Consider a state $\vert\psi\rangle$ such as below, which is in a superposition of a difference between a Rubik's cube in a solved state and a Rubik's cube in the "superflip" ...
Mark Spinelli's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
7k views

Will quantum computers be able to solve the game of chess?

Will it be possible to use quantum computing to one day solve the game of chess? If so, any estimate as to how many qubits it would require? The game of checkers has already been solved through back ...
lkessler's user avatar
  • 181
8 votes
1 answer
129 views

Are Genetic Programming runtimes faster on QCs than on classical computers?

If this isn't known, would they theoretically be? I'm particularly interested in knowing whether a QC would be faster at evaluating the fitness function of the possible solutions than a classical ...
MenzerInternational's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
267 views

What are some current applications of Quantum Computing in drug discovery? Are there any test examples of this?

I am interested in applying the power of Quantum Computing to drug discovery. Although I realize that quantum computing is limited in regards to modeling drug-like compounds and their interactions ...
Rob James's user avatar
  • 355
6 votes
1 answer
176 views

Anything in between quadratic and exponential speedups?

Question There exist a handful of proven quadratic quantum speedups (some examples include [1-3]) and even a few proven exponential quantum speedups (some examples include [4-6]). But there seems to ...
sheesymcdeezy's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
181 views

Claimed "potential revenue" from machine learning in 2023?

In this plot: taken from here, IonQ is claiming to have a potential application in machine learning by 2023. What applications could they have in mind? From what I understand, modern error correction ...
Steven Sagona's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
190 views

How could a global quantum network be realized?

This article from 2017 predicts the quantum internet by 2030. What are the biggest bottlenecks in the realization of a global quantum network (ie quantum internet)?
user820789's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
273 views

Could the Hamiltonian of a 2x2 Rubik's Cube be simulated with a NISQ device?

Consider the four cells on each of the six faces of the 2x2x2 Rubik's cube (the pocket cube). We can construct and simulate a quarter-turn Hamiltonian as below. $^*$ Let $\langle F_1,U_1,R_1\rangle$ ...
Mark Spinelli's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
238 views

Is VQE or one of its variations enough to help with medicine development?

One of the reasons quantum computing is often hyped in media is because of how it'll help with vaccine and medicine development. For example, this article in Financial Express and this other in ...
epelaez's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
344 views

What are the practical applications of quantum computing in engineering by the year 2030?

Are there any engineering problems that quantum computing can solve or simulate, and demonstrate a real advantage over conventional computing by the year 2030? My primary interest is in the business ...
Max's user avatar
  • 85
4 votes
1 answer
90 views

Quantum computer speedups for classically efficient applications

I'm interested in learning about cases where a quantum computer could be used to perform tasks with only a constant (albeit large) factor of improvement in execution speed over classical computers. ...
forky40's user avatar
  • 6,493
4 votes
1 answer
470 views

What are known applications of quantum sampling?

I'm inspired by [1] which clearly lays out near term applications of quantum computing: optimization, simulation and sampling. They claim that quantum sampling is likely to be the first application ...
Derek Lomas's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
97 views

Are there some review papers of quantum combinatorical optimization problem and their application?

I'd like to get recommendations for review paper summarized for combinatorical optimization algorithm and application. Are there any papers that have been organized recently?
김재희's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
139 views

If you had a 1000 qubit NISQ machine with arbitrary connectivity, what would you do?

Many current devices are constrained to nearest neighbor connectivity or small system sizes, but suppose that a NISQ machine with 99-99.5% level two-qubit gate fidelities and arbitrary connectivity ...
shixian105's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
499 views

Is molecule simulation by quantum computing critical for drug discovery?

It is often said that the molecule simulation for drug discovery will be one of the most important applications of Quantum Computing (QC). As we all know that the entire process of new drug discovery ...
david's user avatar
  • 365
4 votes
0 answers
76 views

How useful is it to know the ground state energy of an arbitrary $k$-local Hamiltonian, if Nature herself can never find such energy?

We know that the $2$-local Hamiltonian problem is (promise) QMA-complete, which under the reasonable assumption that BQP$\subsetneq$QMA implies that no fast quantum algorithm exists to determine the ...
Mark Spinelli's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
119 views

Is the Clifford hierarchy particularly useful beyond the third-level?

It is well known that the first three levels of the Clifford hierarchy (over $n$-qubits) $C_1, C_2, C_3, \dots, C_n, \dots $ correspond to $$C_1 \equiv \text{Pauli group}$$ $$C_2 \equiv \text{Clifford ...
R.W's user avatar
  • 2,337
3 votes
1 answer
141 views

Applications of quantum computing for science popularization

I need to do some popularization of science for an event, and I would like to talk about the "best" applications of quantum computing. I know there is code-breaking (Shor algorithm), simulation of ...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
147 views

Why is the triangle finding problem important?

I keep seeing in the literature that the triangle problem can be solved using the quantum walk algorithm. There is plenty of mathematical detail (eg. Magniez et al.'s paper), but I don't get why it's ...
Medulla Oblongata's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
473 views

What are the mathematical prerequisites to study machine learning on quantum computers?

Besides machine learning, quantum info theory, optimization, and statistics knowledge, what are the prerequisites to implement existing ML techniques and create new ML techniques that would work on a ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
529 views

Consequences of Grover's algorithm

I want to look more closely at the consequences of the Grovers algorithm. As is well known, the algorithm provides a quadratic improvement compared to classical search algorithms. Specifically, I ...
user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
43 views

How we can describe entanglement from measurement and resource perspectives?

When we read books on quantum computing and information theory, specifically in entanglement we find some distinguishability between those who focus on entanglement as a resource or use it as an ...
EnthusiastiC's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
384 views

How Mature is the Tensorflow Quantum Library [closed]

Where does The Tensorflow Quantum ( TFQ ) library fall on it's maturity curve. In other words can we currently leverage the TFQ ...
Darien Schettler's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
126 views

Would all quantum computing research be for naught if a powerful enough quantum computer is never built?

Let's say 1000 years from now powerful quantum computers are still a matter of fiction and no useful calculations can be carried out using them. Would this mean that the entire industry of quantum ...
JonathanReez's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
292 views

Loading a random distribution using controlled-Y rotations

In the paper by Stamatopoulos et al., the authors say that it is possible to load a distribution on a three qubit state to obtain: In Qiskit finance this is performed using the uncertainty model ...
Deliverer's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
164 views

What are some examples of applications of quantum information to other sciences?

I find looking at physical processes through the lens of quantum information science rather interesting. I know of a few applications of it: quantum computation; solid state (tensor network approach)...
Nikita Koritskiy's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
160 views

Software for Quantum Computing

From what I read classical computing evolved so quickly because of the funding-applications cycle. Even though the cost to make denser IC's was increasing rapidly, the applications were also getting ...
Jumanji's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
0 answers
45 views

Can we easily find the ground states for one-dimensional ANNNI-like Ising models?

The Hamiltonian for a simple one-dimensional Ising model on a finite (linear) chain of $L$ spin-half particles might be: $$H = -J \sum_{i=0}^{L-1} \sigma_i^z \sigma_{i+1}^z.\tag{1}$$ The interactions ...
Mark Spinelli's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
90 views

Is an application of the growth of the number of $k$-dimensional stabilser codes known, where $k \ge 1$?

For the case when $k=0$, that is, when the stabiliser code is (in fact) a stabiliser state, then many applications are known. Some of them are listed below. Resource theory of magic: measures of ...
Tanmay Singal's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
55 views

Absolute value of a BQM: how to substitute it with constraint?

I need to build an expression for the objective to be minimized which is based on the L1-norm. For doing this, I need to take the absolute value of a BQM, which is not possible, at least at the moment ...
Roland's user avatar
  • 151
2 votes
0 answers
29 views

Why does method to_bqm not maintain variables order?

When converting to bqm with .compile().to_bqm(), the original order of the variables is not maintained. To reproduce: ...
Roland's user avatar
  • 151
2 votes
0 answers
160 views

What Are The Most Promising Real-World Applications For Quantum Machine Learning

I know this has been asked before in different ways, however, I am interested in something with a degree of clarity and focus not found in other questions. What I am looking to get is a list of the ...
Darien Schettler's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
133 views

Is quantum computing apropriate for video encoding?

Hello and sorry if the question is too layman's here. I haven't found an answer when googling. I am a programmer with some video encoding background, so I know how much energy is "wasted" on encoding....
Ondra Žižka's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
71 views

Can we hope in the near future to have web apps running quantum algorithms in real-time?

Suppose in "near future" that we have quantum computers with thousands of qubits that can run Grover, HHL, and so on. Then, can we hope in the "near future" to have some web application that will run ...
lufydad's user avatar
  • 471
1 vote
1 answer
283 views

Would quantum computers be more efficient at solving circular reference problems than classical computers?

A circular reference is when a certain value either refers to itself or a value refers to a value that refers to it. An example of a circular reference problem would be $x=f(x)$. One way to solve ...
Anders Gustafson's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
99 views

Applications of an efficient estimation of $\langle \psi | H | \psi \rangle$ for $H$ being the Heisenberg model, and $|\psi\rangle$ an arbitrary state

I consider that $H$ is an Hamiltonian acting on $n$ qubits. It is a sum containing $Poly(n)$ $n$-qubit Pauli operators $P_i^{(k)}$ for $i=1,2,3$, such that $P_i^{(k)}$ a tensor product of $\sigma_0=\...
Marco Fellous-Asiani's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
39 views

What are problems so computationally difficult that they'll likely only be solved with quantum computers? [duplicate]

Of course, there are the exceedingly well-known examples of this, eg. breaking RSI encryption, possibly protein folding, etc. What are some more obscure or overlooked ways that the greater computing ...
Nurdick's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
1 answer
615 views

Solve sudoku using Grover's algorithm

The Qiskit tutorial shows the application of Grover's Algorithm to solve a 2x2 sudoku. However, I don't understand how why its diffuser works as intended. Precisely, why the control bit is on a "...
Yili's user avatar
  • 25