Distributed Quantum Computing : Algorithms and Implementations – DisQC

Although theoretically feasible, quantum algorithms, the highest layer of a distributed quantum computing ecosystem, is generally considered to be a long-term topic. This is because of the common understanding that we will need to build scalable implementations of universal quantum gate sets with high fidelity first, and implement quantum error corrections (QEC) then, in order to finally be able to run quantum algorithm on the thereby obtained universal quantum computer. Unfortunately, the current size of quantum computer and the imperfect control over the quantum information processing places serious limitations on what quantum devices can achieve in the near term. Then in order to have reliable quantum computing is of importance to investigate accurate numerical schemes with high fidelity and to optimize circuit size and depth. Quantum Walks (QW) and their generalisation, Quantum Cellular Automata (QCA), constitute a doubly strategic topic in this respect. First, they have been used as a mathematical framework to express many quantum algorithms. Secondly, they constitute a promising architecture which naturally gives a degree of fault tolerance because of short range interactions, limiting error propagation. Strong interdisciplinary collaborations are needed to face the challenges of fault-tolerant quantum computing and to gain better knowledge on how to get there. The project intends to bring together scientific experts from the disciplines of quantum computing and distributed algorithms to work together towards the common goal of 1) exploring and exploiting further synergies between these fields, 2) understanding how distributed quantum computation interacts with noisy-intermediate-scale quantum hardware, 3) identifying progressive strategies and methods to design full fault-tolerant quantum algorithms, and 4) developing new ideas for implementing quantum algorithms on distributed architecture.