Quantum information processing with superconducting circuits: a perspective

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in superconducting quantum circuits, focusing on benchmarks, algorithms, and strategies to achieve practical quantum advantage amid the NISQ era's challenges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive perspective on progress, benchmarks, and future directions for quantum information processing with superconducting circuits.

Findings

Recent benchmarks for quantum supremacy established

Variational quantum algorithms show promise for optimization

Strategies for scaling up quantum systems discussed

Abstract

The last five years have seen a dramatic evolution of platforms for quantum computing, taking the field from physics experiments to quantum hardware and software engineering. Nevertheless, despite this progress of quantum processors, the field is still in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) regime, seriously limiting the performance of software applications. Key issues involve how to achieve quantum advantage in useful applications for quantum optimization and materials science, connected to the concept of quantum supremacy first demonstrated by Google in 2019. In this article we will describe recent work to establish relevant benchmarks for quantum supremacy and quantum advantage, present recent work on applications of variational quantum algorithms for optimization and electronic structure determination, discuss how to achieve practical quantum advantage, and finally outline current work and ideas about how to scale up to competitive quantum systems.