Chinese scientists unveiled a quantum computer prototype named "Jiuzhang 3.0" with 255 detected photons on Wednesday, once again pushing the boundaries of photonics quantum computing technology.

Led by the renowned Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei, the research team has successfully accomplished this quantum computing feat, achieving a speed that is 10 quadrillion times faster in solving Gaussian boson sampling (GBS) problems compared to the world's existing fastest supercomputers.

Gaussian boson sampling, a classically intractable problem, was employed in this study to provide a highly efficient way of demonstrating quantum computational speedup in solving some well-defined tasks.

The study was published online in the journal Physical Review Letters on Wednesday Beijing Time.

Lu Chaoyang, a member of the research team and professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, said that a series of innovations, including a newly developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detection scheme with fiber loop-based configuration, increased the number of detected photons for "Jiuzhang 3.0" to 255, greatly improving the complexity of photonics quantum computing.

"By demultiplexing photons into time bins through delays, we've achieved capabilities of pseudo photon number resolving," Lu added.

According to the state-of-the-art exact classical simulation algorithm, "Jiuzhang 3.0" is a million times faster at solving GBS problems than its predecessor, "Jiuzhang 2.0." Moreover, the most complex samples of GBS that "Jiuzhang 3.0" can calculate in just one microsecond would take the world's fastest supercomputer, "Frontier," more than 20 billion years to complete.

In 2021, the team led by Pan developed the "Jiuzhang 2.0" with 113 detected photons and a 66-qubit programmable superconducting quantum computing system named "Zuchongzhi 2.1," making China the only country to achieve a quantum computational advantage in two mainstream technical routes -- one via photonics quantum computing technology and the other via superconducting quantum computing technology.

Establishing quantum computational advantage requires great endeavor, with long-term competition between classical algorithms and quantum computing hardware, the team noted. They anticipate that this work will, on one hand, stimulate more research on classical simulation algorithms, and on the other hand, through diligent efforts, gradually address various scientific and engineering challenges in quantum computing research. Ultimately, quantum computers will achieve computational power beyond the reach of classical computers, driving the advancement of science and technology.
中国科学家周三公布了一台名为“九章3.0”的量子计算机原型，它具有255个检测到的光子，再次推动了光子学量子计算技术的边界。

在中国著名量子物理学家潘建伟的带领下，该研究团队成功完成了这一量子计算壮举，在解决高斯玻色子采样(GBS)问题方面的速度比世界上现有最快的超级计算机快10万亿倍。

高斯玻色子采样是一个经典的难题，在本研究中被用来提供一个高效的方法来证明量子计算加速在解决一些明确定义的任务。

该研究于北京时间周三在线发表在《物理评论快报》杂志上。

研究团队成员、中国科学技术大学教授陆朝阳表示，包括新开发的基于光纤环配置的超导纳米线单光子探测方案在内的一系列创新，将“九章3.0”的探测光子数量增加到255个，大大提高了光子学量子计算的复杂性。

“通过延迟将光子解复用到时间仓中，我们已经实现了伪光子数解析的能力，”卢补充道。

根据最先进的精确经典模拟算法，“九章3.0”在解决GBS问题上比其前身“九章2.0”快一百万倍此外，“九章3.0”可以在一微秒内计算出最复杂的GBS样本，而世界上最快的超级计算机“前沿”需要200多亿年才能完成。

2021年，潘领导的团队开发了具有113个探测到的光子的“九章2.0”和名为“祖冲之2.1”的66量子位可编程超导量子计算系统，使中国成为唯一一个在两个主流技术路线上实现量子计算优势的国家-一个是通过光子量子计算技术，另一个是通过超导量子计算技术。