Technology & Applications

Neutral atom device architectures are unique in many ways, not only in comparison with classical devices in general but also with respect to its quantum counterparts. For example, in relation to other quantum devices, neutral atom platforms can reach quantum registers with a larger number of qubits and higher connectivity with relative ease.

At Pasqal, we strive to improve the performance and capabilities of our quantum devices, while simultaneously searching for ways to leverage their full potential. This approach results in the development of applications that are specifically tailored for neutral atom devices. We believe that many more unique solutions are still to come and are always open to collaborations with academic and industrial partners. If you have an interest, contact us.

Exploring Quantum Simulation

The most promising application of Pasqal’s QPU is Quantum Simulation, where the quantum processor is used to gain knowledge over a quantum system of interest. As Richard Feynman already pointed out in the last century, it seems natural to use a quantum system as a computational resource for quantum problems. Pure science discovery will benefit from neutral atom quantum processors, and fields of applications are numerous at the industrial level, including for example the engineering of new materials for energy storage and transport, or chemistry calculations for drug discovery.
Surpassing the Classical Simulation Threshold

Recent advancements have allowed us to reach unprecedented system sizes, with quantum registers of 100+ atoms. This number of interacting quantum particles enables the simulation of a many-body quantum system’s dynamics well beyond the capabilities of state-of-the art classical methods.

Using neutral atoms to study the bosonic SSH model (in Science 365, 775 (2019)).

A 14 x 14 filled array of atoms, corresponding to 196 qubits.

Solving Hard Optimization Problems

Beyond the simulation of scientific processes, Pasqal processors can already be used to solve hard computational problems, for which classical computers are inefficient. One important example is the native resolution of a well-known graph problem, Maximum Independent Set (MIS). This problem, which has various direct applications in network design or finance, becomes hard to solve on a classical computer when the size of the graph grows.

In an undirected graph composed of a set of vertices connected by unweighted edges, an independent set is a subset of vertices where no pair is connected by an edge. The objective of the MIS problem is to find the largest of such subsets.
The MIS problem can be tackled by using an ensemble of interacting cold neutral atoms as a quantum resource, where each atom represents a vertex of the graph under study. Interestingly, the physical interactions encoded in the Hamiltonian constrain the dynamics to only explore independent sets of the graph under study, then leading to an efficient search in the set of possible solutions, as illustrated in the video.

Exploring the independent sets of a graph in search of its MIS.