Computer Program Developed to Find ‘Leakage’ in Quantum Computers

(Phys.org)  Researchers from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics have developed a quantum computer program to detect the presence of ‘leakage’, where information being processed by a quantum computer escapes from the states of 0 and 1. Armed with the knowledge of how much quantum leakage is occurring, computer engineers will be better able to build systems that mitigate against it and programmers can develop new error-correction techniques to take account of it.
Dr. Animesh Datta, Associate Professor of Physics, said: “Commercial interest in quantum computing is growing so we wanted to ask how we can say for certain that these machines are doing what they are supposed to do. If quantum computers are to enter common usage, it’s important that a user with no idea of how a quantum computer works can check that it is functioning correctly without requiring technical knowledge, or if they are accessing that computer remotely.”