However, even in its simplified form, it is still a model of a quantum system with all the computational complexity that comes with it. So the Quantinuum team simulated several systems that classical computers encounter. One of them simply looked at a larger grid of atoms than most classical models; another extended the mesh in an additional dimension, modeling layers of material. Perhaps the most complex simulation involved what happens when a laser pulse of the right wavelength hits a superconductor at room temperature, an event that briefly induces a superconducting state.
And the system gave results even without error correction. “Perhaps this is a technical point, but I think it is a very important technical point. [that] there were errors in all the schemes we ran,” Dreyer told Ars. “There might be an average of about three errors, and for some reason that is not entirely clear to this application, it doesn't matter. In some of these cases, you will still get a near-perfect result.”
However, he also noted that having more high-precision equipment will help the team do a better job of resetting the system or running simulations longer. But they will have to wait for future hardware.
What's next
If you look at Quantinuum Roadmap for this future hardware, Helios looks set to be the last of its kind. It and earlier processors have loops and large straight sections; everything in the future is a grid of squares. But both Strubley and Hayes said Helios has several key transitional features. “These ions move through this junction many, many times over the course of the circuit,” Strabley told Ars. “So this has really allowed us to work on node reliability, and that will translate into large-scale systems.”
