From The DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories
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7.1.24
Troy Rummler
trummle@sandia.gov
505-249-3632
Sandia Labs, Boston University challenge conventional wisdom that speed rules supreme
As the hare learned from the tortoise, speed isn’t everything.
Theoretical computer scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and Boston University have discovered that quantum computers are unrivaled at solving an advanced math problem. Unusually, they proved quantum computers are not faster than regular computers; instead, they use far less memory.
The revelation upends the conventional wisdom that the value of a quantum computer is that it can solve certain problems much faster than a normal one. It could also help researchers find more real-world uses for the rapidly advancing tech.
“This is the first exponential quantum advantage for a natural streaming problem,” said Sandia’s Ojas Parekh, a member of the team.
Theoretical computer scientists John Kallaugher, left, and Ojas Parekh find tasks in which quantum computers outperform normal computers, a concept called quantum advantage, at Sandia National Laboratories. (Photo by Craig Fritz)
Memory is important for any computer. The more memory it has, the bigger problems it can solve. For quantum computers, which store information in qubits, “space really matters because it’s hard building quantum computers with lots of qubits,” Parekh said.
The team presented its findings at the Symposium on Theory of Computing, which runs from June 24-28 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The mathematical proof is available here.
Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, funded the work.
Value of quantum computers could be memory efficiency, not just speed
In 1994, American scientist Peter Shor startled the world when he proved future quantum computers would be able to crack standard encryption algorithms alarmingly fast. In the 30 years since, however, researchers have only found a handful of other problems these computers can solve quicker than normal ones.
The research emerging from Sandia and Boston University now points to a different area where quantum advantage is possible.
“Much of the focus in quantum advantage research has been on achieving time advantage,” said Nadezhda Voronova, a Ph.D. candidate in Boston University’s department of computer science. “Research on quantum advantage with respect to other resources, like memory, has been relatively limited.”
Shifting attention to these other attributes, like efficiency, could help scientists find more practical uses for quantum computers.
“Are we currently missing important quantum advantages because we’re focused or biased toward certain kinds of problems?” Parekh said.
What a natural streaming problem is, and why it matters
The math problem at the center of the team’s claim, called maximum directed cut, is significant because it is what researchers call a natural problem.
“When we talk about a natural problem,” said John Kallaugher from Sandia, “what we mean is that it’s a problem of independent interest — that people were already studying it in the classical setting.”
Parekh further explained, “The max directed cut problem amounts to finding the two groups of agents in a network with the most communication directed from one group to another. This problem finds applications in cybersecurity and social network analysis and design.”
Computers normally need lots more memory as this kind of problem grows more complex. But quantum computers don’t, the team found. They are exponentially more efficient with their memory usage, at least when data arrives in a stream. Streaming calculations are useful when data sets are too large to fit in a computer’s memory or when the data is being created continuously.
Kallaugher previously published that quantum computers could have a distinct but smaller advantage than what he and his team have now proven. The new finding of an exponential ratio is significant because an advantage needs to be very large to be worth the time and money it takes to build and run a quantum computer.
Like Shor’s algorithm, the new finding is still theoretical because it has not yet been demonstrated on a computer.
Discovery hints at future roles of quantum computing
Maximum directed cut is not very useful on its own. However, it is a widely known optimization problem in advanced mathematics, which the research team sees as a hint to the kinds of practical uses quantum computers could have in the future.
“In cybersecurity, for example, efficiently solving optimization problems could lead to better resource allocation, enhanced incident response strategies and more accurate risk assessments,” Voronova said.
Kallaugher added, “This could point the way to algorithms that can handle problems too large for any classical computer to process.”
“There could be more algorithms like this,” Voronova speculated.
“No one has, really, the complete picture,” Parekh said.
See the full article here .
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Boston University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campus in Newbury, Vermont, before moving to Boston in 1867.
The university now has more than 4,000 faculty members and nearly 34,000 students, and is one of Boston’s largest employers. It offers bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, doctorates, and medical, dental, business, and law degrees through 17 schools and colleges on three urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Boston’s Fenway-Kenmore and Allston neighborhoods, while the Boston University Medical Campus is located in Boston’s South End neighborhood. The Fenway campus houses the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, formerly Wheelock College, which merged with BU in 2018.
BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education and the Association of American Universities . It is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity”.
Among its alumni and current or past faculty, the university counts Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Rhodes Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Academy Award winners, and Emmy and Tony Award winners. BU also has MacArthur, Fulbright, and Truman Scholars, as well as American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences members, among its past and present graduates and faculty. In 1876, BU professor Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in a BU lab.
The Boston University Terriers compete in the NCAA Division I. BU athletic teams compete in the Patriot League, and Hockey East conferences, and their mascot is Rhett the Boston Terrier. Boston University is well known for men’s hockey, in which it has won five national championships, most recently in 2009.
Research
The University reported over $400 million in sponsored research. Funding sources included the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the European Commission of the European Union, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The University’s research enterprise encompasses dozens of fields, but its primary focus currently lies in seven areas: Data Science, Engineering Biology, Global Health, Infectious Diseases, Neuroscience, Photonics, and Urban Health.
The University’s strategic plan calls for the removal of barriers between previously siloed departments, schools, and fields. The result has been an increasing emphasis by the University on interdisciplinary work and the creation of multidisciplinary centers such as the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering, a $140 million, nine-story research facility that has brought together life scientists, engineers, and physicians from the Medical and Charles River Campuses; the Institute for Health Systems Innovation & Policy, a cross-campus initiative combining business, health law, medicine, and public policy; a neurophotonics center that combines photonics and neuroscience to study the brain; and the Software and Application Innovation Lab, where technologists work with colleagues in the arts and humanities and together develop digital research tools. The University also made a large investment in an emerging field, when it created a new university-wide academic unit called the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences in 2019 and began construction of the nineteen-story Center for Computing & Data Sciences.
In 2003, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Boston University a grant to build one of two National Biocontainment Laboratories. The National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) was created to study emerging infectious diseases that pose a significant threat to public health. NEIDL has biosafety level 2, 3, and 4 (BSL-2, BSL-3, and BSL-4, respectively) labs that enable researchers to work safely with the pathogens. BSL-4 labs are the highest level of biosafety labs and work with diseases with a high risk of aerosol transmission.
The strategic plan also encouraged research collaborations with industry and government partners. In 2016, as part of a broad-based effort to solve the critical problem of antibiotic resistance, the US Department of Health & Human Services selected the Boston University School of Law (LAW)—and Kevin Outterson, a BU professor of law—to lead a $350 million trans-Atlantic public-private partnership called CARB-X to foster the preclinical development of new antibiotics and antimicrobial rapid diagnostics and vaccines.
That same year, BU researcher Avrum Spira joined forces with Janssen Research & Development and its Disease Interception Accelerator group. Spira—a professor of medicine, pathology and laboratory medicine, and bioinformatics—has spent his career at BU pursuing a better, and earlier, way to diagnose pulmonary disorders and cancers, primarily using biomarkers and genomic testing. In 2015, under a $13.7 million Defense Department grant, Spira’s efforts to identify which members of the military will develop lung cancer and COPD caught the attention of Janssen, part Johnson & Johnson. They are investing $10.1 million to collaborate with Spira’s lab with the hope that his discoveries—and potential therapies—could then apply to the population at large.
In its effort to increase diversity and inclusion, Boston University appointed Ibram X. Kendi in July 2020 as a history professor and the director and founder of its newly established Center for Antiracist Research. The university also appointed alumna Andrea Taylor as its first senior diversity officer.
Sandia National Laboratories managed and operated by the National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia (a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International), is one of three National Nuclear Security Administration research and development laboratories in the United States. Their primary mission is to develop, engineer, and test the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons and high technology. Headquartered in Central New Mexico near the Sandia Mountains, on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, Sandia also has a campus in Livermore, California, next to DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and a test facility in Waimea, Kauai, Hawai’i.
It is Sandia’s mission to maintain the reliability and surety of nuclear weapon systems, conduct research and development in arms control and nonproliferation technologies, and investigate methods for the disposal of the United States’ nuclear weapons program’s hazardous waste.
Other missions include research and development in energy and environmental programs, as well as the surety of critical national infrastructures. In addition, Sandia is home to a wide variety of research including computational biology; mathematics (through its Computer Science Research Institute); materials science; alternative energy; psychology; MEMS; and cognitive science initiatives.
Sandia formerly hosted ASCI Red, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers until its recent decommission, and now hosts ASCI Red Storm supercomputer, originally known as “Thor’s Hammer”.
Sandia is also home to the Z Machine.
The Z Machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. It is operated by Sandia National Laboratories to gather data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear guns. In December 2016, it was announced that National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, under the direction of Honeywell International, would take over the management of Sandia National Laboratories starting on May 1, 2017.
