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Highly anticipated: IBM and researchers at the University of Chicago say they have reached a key milestone in quantum computing: running a computation that appears to be beyond the reach of classical machines while also providing evidence that the result is correct. The work addresses a problem that has lingered in the field for years. It is not enough for a quantum computer to produce an answer that is difficult for classical systems to replicate; researchers also need a way to verify that the answer is accurate.
Until now, most experiments have relied on random circuit sampling, a benchmark designed to produce outputs that are difficult for classical computers to simulate. The issue is that as those computations become more complex, verifying the results becomes nearly impossible without making assumptions about the quantum system itself.
The IBM-UChicago team took a different approach. They used a more structured type of quantum circuit that maintains the same level of computational difficulty as random circuit sampling while allowing errors to be detected during the computation. This makes it possible to evaluate how reliable the result actually is.
