Latest Research Validates Quantum Entanglement in D-Wave Systems

BURNABY, BC--(Marketwired - May 30, 2014) -  Research published today presents groundbreaking evidence verifying the presence of entanglement in D-Wave's commercially available quantum computer. The paper entitled "Entanglement in a quantum annealing processor" authored by scientists at D-Wave and the University of Southern California has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review X (PRX).

The results of the research prove the presence of an essential element in an operating quantum computer: entanglement. This is when the quantum states of a collection of particles (or qubits) become linked to one another. The research demonstrates entanglement of a two and eight-qubit subsection of one of D-Wave's 512 qubit processors, a record number for a solid state quantum processor, throughout the critical stages of a quantum annealing algorithm.

Dr. Federico Spedalieri of USC Viterbi Information Sciences Institute and co-author of the paper played a crucial role developing the framework for this research. "There's no way around it. Only quantum systems can be entangled. This test provides the experimental proof that we've been looking for," said Dr. Spedalieri.

"The research published in PRX is a significant milestone for D-Wave and a major step forward for the science of quantum computing. The findings are further proof of the quantum nature of our technology," said Vern Brownell, CEO of D-Wave. "Building and improving the science of our technology in collaboration with the greater scientific community is important to us and we'll continue to conduct research that enables us to better understand the characteristics and power of our quantum processor." 

The PRX paper provides four levels of evidence that the eight-qubit unit cell is entangled including:

(a) a demonstration of an avoided crossing of two energy levels,
(b) a partial restoration of a density matrix of the system with calculations of standard entanglement measures,
(c) calculations of an entanglement witness using measured populations and energy spectra of the system,
(d) measurements of a susceptibility-based entanglement witness, which reports entanglement of the ground state.

These findings demonstrate entanglement within D-Wave's processors at the most critical stages of the quantum annealing procedure.

D-Wave will perform additional research that address the extent of spatial entanglement and will also continue to explore the computational advantages of quantum algorithms. D-Wave has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers to date.

The paper published today is available here on the PRX website.

About D-Wave Systems Inc.
Founded in 1999, D-Wave's mission is to integrate new discoveries in physics and computer science into breakthrough approaches to computation. The company's flagship product, the 512-qubit D-Wave Two™ computer, is built around a novel type of superconducting processor that uses quantum mechanics to massively accelerate computation.

In 2013, D-Wave announced the installation of a D-Wave Two system at the new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab created jointly by NASA, Google and USRA. This came soon after Lockheed Martin's purchase of an upgrade of their 128-qubit D-Wave One™ system to a 512-qubit D-Wave Two computer. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, the D-Wave U.S. offices are located in Palo Alto, California and Vienna, Virginia. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including Bezos Expeditions, Business Development Bank of Canada, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Goldman Sachs, Growthworks, Harris & Harris Group, In-Q-Tel, International Investment and Underwriting, and Kensington Partners Limited. For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com.