PhD Proposal: Toward Scalable Classical Verification of Near-Term Quantum Devices

We are entering the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era with many types of quantum computing systems existing and scaling up steadily. The task of ensuring that they function correctly, i.e., verification, thus becomes increasingly important. However, known scalable verification methods suffer from various problems such as i) quality and scale requirements of devices that are out of reach in the near future, ii) quantum ability requirement from the verifier, and/or iii) weak theoretical guarantees. Therefore I propose to study scalable classical verification methods for near-term quantum computing devices. Our new idea gives rise to a symmetry-checking-based Gaussian Boson Sampling (GBS) verification protocol with strong theoretical and empirical guarantees. Applying our protocol to a state-of-the-art GBS device, Borealis, reveals a gap for the claimed computational advantage.

Examining Committee

Chair:

Dr. Xiaodi Wu

Department Representative:

Dr. Mohammad Hajiaghayi

Members:

Dr. Andrew Childs

Dr. Alexey Gorshkov