The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology Podcast Por Sebastian Hassinger arte de portada

The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology

The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology

De: Sebastian Hassinger
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Your host, Sebastian Hassinger, interviews brilliant research scientists, software developers, engineers and others actively exploring the possibilities of our new quantum era. We will cover topics in quantum computing, networking and sensing, focusing on hardware, algorithms and general theory. The show aims for accessibility - Sebastian is not a physicist - and we'll try to provide context for the terminology and glimpses at the fascinating history of this new field as it evolves in real time.(c) New Quantum Era, LLC 2026 Ciencia Física
Episodios
  • Simulating Quantum Materials with Arnab Banerjee

    Simulating Quantum Materials with Arnab Banerjee
    Apr 7 2026
    SummaryThis episode is for anyone following the quantum utility debate or curious about how quantum computers will actually contribute to scientific discovery. Arnab Banerjee — assistant professor at Purdue, guest scientist at Oak Ridge's Quantum Science Center, and one of the most-cited experimentalists working at the intersection of quantum materials and quantum computing — walks us through his career-spanning journey from growing magnetic crystals to programming qubits.You'll hear how Banerjee's frustration with classical tools that couldn't explain his own experimental data drove him to quantum computing, why a quantum spin liquid is like the vortex that forms when you throw a stone into water, and how his team used 50 qubits on IBM's Heron chip to reproduce the spectroscopic fingerprint of a real material — KCuF3 — matching data collected at Oak Ridge and the UK's ISIS neutron source. He also offers a nuanced assessment of where different quantum computing platforms excel, drawing on hands-on experience with IBM, QuEra, and D-Wave.What you'll learnWhat a quantum spin liquid actually is and why its collective behavior — like vortices on water — could enable naturally error-protected qubitsHow neutron scattering works as a quantum probe — using the neutron's own spin and de Broglie wavelength to reveal both atomic positions and energy levels simultaneouslyWhy Banerjee's team chose to benchmark quantum simulation against known experimental data first before tackling classically intractable problemsWhat the IBM Heron benchmarking paper actually showed — reproducing spinon excitations in KCuF3, a one-dimensional Heisenberg chain, with quantitative agreement to neutron dataHow different quantum computing modalities serve different materials science problems — IBM for fast, cheap operations on 2D lattices; trapped ions for all-to-all connectivity; D-Wave and QuEra for Ising-like HamiltoniansHow close we are to quantum advantage in materials simulation — Banerjee estimates 70-90 "good enough" qubits in 2D geometry could reach classically inaccessible regimesWhy Kitaev quantum spin liquids could provide a fundamentally different path to fault tolerance — topological protection from decoherence built into the material itself, not imposed through softwareResources & linksPapers & researchBenchmarking quantum simulation with neutron-scattering experiments (March 2026) — The news hook: IBM Heron processor reproduces real neutron scattering data from KCuF3. First direct validation of quantum simulation against experimental measurements of a real material. Proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid behaviour in a honeycomb magnet (2016) — Banerjee et al., Nature Materials. The career-defining paper providing first experimental evidence for Kitaev spin liquid behavior in alpha-RuCl3. Discover Magazine Top 100 Stories (#18). Neutron scattering in the proximate quantum spin liquid alpha-RuCl3 (2017) — Banerjee et al., Science. Comprehensive neutron scattering study revealing fractional spinon excitations. Materials for quantum technologies roadmap (2025) — Applied Physics Reviews. Banerjee's roadmap paper on the pipeline from material discovery to quantum devices.Lessons from alpha-RuCl3 for atomically thin materials (Nov 2025) — What the decade-long study of alpha-RuCl3 teaches about 2D quantum materials.Guest & lab links Quantum Spins Laboratory, Purdue University — Banerjee's research groupORNL Profile: Traversing the Unknown, Befriending Uncertainty — Oak Ridge profile on Banerjee's research philosophy Purdue News: Keck Foundation Grant for Quantum Spin Liquids — $1.2M grant to probe Majorana bound states with optical techniquesCoverage of the IBM benchmarking work - IBM Newsroom: Quantum Computer Simulates Real Magnetic Materials — IBM's announcement of the benchmarking resultNature News: Quantum simulations verified by experiments for the first time — Nature's coverage of the milestoneOrganizations & facilities - DOE Quantum Science Center at Oak Ridge — $115M National Quantum Initiative center where Banerjee is a guest scientistSpallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge — The neutron scattering facility central to Banerjee's experimental workISIS Neutron and Muon Source, Rutherford Appleton Lab — UK facility where part of the KCuF3 data was collectedKey quotes & insights"The entire electronic industry is built around trying to avoid quantum effects as much as possible. This is the time when we need to make quantum our friend instead of our enemy.""In a quantum spin liquid, the spin directions move collectively in dancing patterns that look extremely ordered — but if you take a snapshot, the individual spins feel completely random." — On why spin liquids are like vortices in water"A spin is a qubit is a spin." — On why quantum magnets and quantum processors are fundamentally the same physics"We need to know whether what we are doing really makes sense. That's ...
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    40 m
  • Quantum Advantage Achieved with Dominik Hangleiter

    Quantum Advantage Achieved with Dominik Hangleiter
    Apr 1 2026
    Has quantum advantage actually been achieved — or is the field still arguing over its own milestones? Dominik Hangleiter, one of the leading theorists working on quantum computational advantage, joins the podcast to make the case that it has, explain why so many physicists remain unconvinced, and map the path toward fault-tolerant, verifiable quantum advantage.Why This Episode MattersIf you follow quantum computing and want to cut through the noise around quantum advantage claims, this episode is for you. Dominik Hangleiter — an Ambizione Fellow at ETH Zürich and postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley's Simons Institute — has spent over a decade studying the boundary between what quantum and classical computers can do. His March 2026 paper "Has quantum advantage been achieved?" synthesizes years of experiments, classical simulation attacks, and complexity theory into a clear-eyed assessment. Whether you're an experimentalist, a theorist, or simply quantum-curious, you'll come away with a sharper understanding of what's been demonstrated, what hasn't, and what comes next.What You'll LearnWhy random circuit sampling became the primary arena for proving quantum advantage — and why the task's "uselessness" is a feature, not a bugHow the linear cross-entropy benchmark (XEB) works as a statistical proxy for verifying classically intractable quantum computationWhy audiences of physicists are still split on whether quantum advantage has been demonstrated, despite multiple experiments since 2019What "peaked circuits" are and how they interpolate between random sampling and structured computationHow post-quantum cryptography (learning with errors) exploits problems that quantum computers can't solve — and what that reveals about quantum computation's limitsWhy basic arithmetic is surprisingly hard for fault-tolerant quantum computers, and how that bottlenecks algorithms like Shor'sHow fault-tolerant compilation co-designs quantum circuits with error-correcting codes to make advantage experiments scalableThe difference between "native" quantum operations and the overhead required for universal fault-tolerant computationWhy the interplay between quantum and classical computing strengths — not quantum dominance — may define the field's futureResources & LinksPapers & ArticlesHas quantum advantage been achieved? — Hangleiter's March 2026 paper synthesizing the quantum advantage debateComputational Advantage of Quantum Random Sampling — Hangleiter & Eisert's comprehensive review in Reviews of Modern Physics (2023)Fault-Tolerant Compiling of Classically Hard IQP Circuits on Hypercubes — The Harvard/ETH collaboration on fault-tolerant IQP circuits (PRX Quantum 2025)Secret-Extraction Attacks against Obfuscated IQP Circuits — Hangleiter & Gross's attack paper breaking proposed verification protocols (PRX Quantum 2025)Verifiable Measurement-Based Quantum Random Sampling with Trapped Ions — Experimental realization with the Innsbruck trapped-ion group (Nature Communications 2025)Blog Series & CommentaryHas quantum advantage been achieved? (Quantum Frontiers blog series) — The three-part mini-series on the Caltech IQIM blog that grew into the paperScott Aaronson's reaction — Endorsement on Shtetl-Optimized: "quantum supremacy on contrived benchmark problems has almost certainly been achieved by now"Guest LinksDominik Hangleiter — personal website & publicationsGoogle Scholar profile (4,372 citations)QuICS profile (University of Maryland)Key Quotes & Insights"Really what sets random circuit sampling apart is that it's really programmable. I give an input to the device, I design a circuit — I draw it randomly, yes — but then I give the circuit to the device, and whoever controls the device runs the circuit and gives me back the samples." — On why RCS qualifies as genuine computation"We typically do in physics experiments a lot of extrapolation, a lot of circumstantial experiments that validate that the experiment you really care about is actually what you want to probe. And that's the sense in which I think these random circuit sampling experiments have been verified." — On the physics-style epistemology of quantum advantage"Classical computers are really good at doing basic arithmetic, but quantum computers — it's really hard to do basic arithmetic. And that's for the reason that fault tolerance is very restrictive in terms of the operations that you can do on encoded information." — On the surprising asymmetry between quantum and classical capabilities"I can't just tell the quantum computer to give me the outcome I want. There's rules to it. And how those rules apply to computational problems that we face in the real world beyond quantum simulation is, I think, a really intriguing challenge." — On the structured nature of quantum interference"Maybe there's a world where we can stitch together different hardware systems and won't have a single platform that wins the race." — On ...
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    37 m
  • Scaling Quantum Hardware Like Semiconductors with Matthijs Rijlaarsdam

    Scaling Quantum Hardware Like Semiconductors with Matthijs Rijlaarsdam
    Mar 23 2026
    Scaling Quantum Hardware Like Semiconductors with Matthijs RijlaarsdamThe quantum computing industry has been stuck at roughly 100 qubits for years — not because of physics, but because of wiring. Matthijs Rijlaarsdam, co-founder and CEO of QuantWare, explains how his company's 3D vertical chip architecture (VIO) could break through that ceiling to 10,000 qubits by 2028, and why the quantum industry needs to start thinking like the semiconductor industry if it wants to actually deliver on its promises.Episode SummaryThis conversation is for anyone trying to understand why quantum computers haven't scaled as fast as promised — and what it would take to change that. Matthijs brings an unusual perspective as a computer scientist (not a physicist) who co-founded QuantWare out of TU Delft's QuTech to become the world's first commercial supplier of superconducting quantum processors.Rather than building a full quantum computer, QuantWare sells QPUs as components — the "TSMC of quantum." In this episode, Matthijs walks through the VIO architecture that routes signals vertically through stacked chiplets instead of along chip edges, why specialization and volume economics are the only realistic path to useful quantum computing, and how the Dutch quantum ecosystem punches far above its weight thanks to consistent long-term investment.What You'll LearnWhy the quantum industry is stuck at ~100 qubits — and how 90% of current chip area is consumed by signal routing, not qubits, creating a fundamental scaling wallHow VIO's 3D chiplet architecture breaks the wiring bottleneck by routing signals vertically through stacked silicon modules, enabling 10,000-qubit processors that are physically smaller than today's 100-qubit chipsWhy quantum computing will be heterogeneous — different platforms (superconducting, trapped ions, neutral atoms) have different trade-offs analogous to CPUs vs. memory vs. storage in classical computingThe economics that make specialization inevitable — why cable costs need to drop from EUR 1,500 per line to cents, and why volume manufacturing is the only way to get thereHow QuantWare's three business models mirror the semiconductor industry — selling packaged QPUs (Intel model), foundry services (TSMC model), and packaging services for third-party chipsWhy the Dutch quantum ecosystem succeeds — consistent decade-plus government investment in QuTech, EUR 600M+ to Quantum Delta NL, and the WENEC report recommending EUR 9.4 billion for quantum infrastructureWhat "Quantum Open Architecture" means in practice — how making QPUs commercially available lowers barriers for the entire industry, similar to how standardized PC components enabled the computing revolutionQuantWare's roadmap: VIO-40K shipping in 2028 with up to 10,000 qubits, and a path to 1 million qubits using arrays of chiplet modulesResources & LinksCompanyQuantWare — world's first and largest commercial supplier of superconducting quantum processorsVIO Technology — QuantWare's 3D vertical integration and optimization architectureVIO-40K announcement — press release on the 10,000-qubit scaling breakthroughCoverage & AnalysisPostQuantum: QuantWare's 10,000-qubit chip — a real scaling bet — the most balanced independent analysis of VIO-40K's claims and limitationsTechCrunch: Dutch startup QuantWare seeks to fast-track quantum computing — Series A coverageNextBigFuture: QuantWare 10K qubits in 2028 and 1 million in 2029 — Q2B keynote reportingPartnerships MentionedQuantum Utility Block (QUB) with Q-CTRL and Qblox — turnkey quantum computer kitElevate Quantum Q-PAC in Colorado — first US Quantum Open Architecture systemEcosystem & PolicyQuantWare 2026 industry predictions — QuantWare's view on entering the kiloqubit eraQuTech — TU Delft quantum research institute where both QuantWare co-founders did their graduate workQuantum Delta NL — Dutch national quantum technology program (EUR 600M+)DARPA HARK program — Heterogeneous Accelerated Roadmap using Quantum Solutions; referenced by Matthijs as validation of the heterogeneous quantum computing thesisKey Insights"There is no path towards useful quantum computing without specialization. That is a total fantasy." — Matthijs Rijlaarsdam on why volume economics and the semiconductor model are inevitable for quantum"The difference between EUR 1,500 and 10 cents per cable line — that's all volumes and yields." — on how manufacturing scale, not physics breakthroughs, will drive the next phase of quantum cost reduction"If you look at it on a cost-per-qubit basis, VIO-40K at EUR 50 million is actually a 10x reduction from where we are today. Anyone claiming they'll do it for less is just not telling something realistic." — on the real economics of scaling quantum hardware"Imagine if you were a company today and you wanted to do interesting stuff in AI, but you first had to develop a three nanometer process to make the chips. It would be completely ...
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    37 m
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