Abstract
At the 2025 National Conference on Fundamental Physics Education in Higher Edu-cation,Academician Guo Guangcan of the University of Science and Technology of China de-livered a plenary report entitled"The Current State of Quantum Computing".He provided a systematic exposition covering the developmental context,computational advantages,research and development obstacles,global progress,phased development,and future directions of quantum computing.He clearly identified quantum computing as a core disruptive technology capable of breaking through the physical limits of classical information technology,whilst also outlining current technical bottlenecks and the landscape of domestic and international devel-opment.The report began by noting that classical information technology is based on classical physics and,constrained by Moore's Law,faces physical limits on computational power.As chip manufacturing processes approach the microscopic scale and Moore's Law ceases to hold,classical computational power will reach a bottleneck,giving rise to quantum information technology.As the most disruptive branch of quantum technology,quantum computing ex-hibits exponential growth in computational power increasing by 2N as the number of qubits in-creases,thereby fundamentally breaking through the performance ceiling of classical compu-ting.The underlying logic behind quantum computational power surpassing that of classical computing stems primarily from two unique characteristics of the quantum world:uncertainty and non-locality.Classical physics adheres to determinism and locality,whereas in the quan-tum world,the physical quantities of quantum objects follow a probability distribution,and entangled particles can exhibit instantaneous correlations and changes even when they are ex-tremely distant from one another and do not interact.The basic unit of quantum information is the qubit,which exists in a superposition of quantum states.N qubits can carry 2N classical bits of data,and a single operation can act simultaneously on all data degrees of freedom,cre-ating a natural capacity for parallel computation.Quantum entanglement provides support for quantum algorithms,enabling the computational advantage of parallel processing to be trans-formed into actual information processing efficiency.This is the physical root cause of why quantum computing power far exceeds classical computing.The report highlights two core ob-stacles in the development of quantum computers:firstly,the fragility of quantum states and their susceptibility to decoherence,whereby the macroscopic environment rapidly disrupts quantum superposition and entanglement,causing them to degrade into classical states;sec-ondly,insufficient precision in quantum manipulation,making it difficult to achieve the pre-cise preparation and control of qubits.Theoretically,solutions such as fault-tolerant quantum error-correcting codes,quantum error avoidance,and dynamical fault tolerance can address the aforementioned problems.Artificial intelligence(AI)can empower quantum computing by reducing the number of physical qubits required for encoding,optimising operational schemes,and enhancing measurement accuracy,thereby becoming a key driver of technological break-throughs.Regarding the global development and progress of quantum computing,the coher-ence time of superconducting qubits was merely 2ns in 1999,extending to 100μs by 2012,which laid the foundation for practical applications;In 2016,the world's first cloud-accessible 5-qubit processor was launched abroad,followed in 2019 by the first commercial quantum computer.That same year,a 53-qubit processor was claimed to have achieved"quantum su-premacy";however,this conclusion pertained to a specific abstract mathematical problem and lacked universal practical value.Chinese researchers have narrowed the computational power gap with supercomputers through new algorithms.However,the development of quantum computing in China has been hampered by foreign technology sanctions,with critical compo-nents such as dilution refrigerators once subject to embargo,but independent research and de-velopment has been achieved with commercialized exports now possible.A domestic quantum computing company released its third-generation superconducting quantum computer in early 2024,integrating 72 qubits(with over 100 including auxiliary qubits).With a domestic pro-duction rate of approximately 80%,the system has,following the opening of cloud access,reached users in 143 countries worldwide,with around 30 million registered users and over 520,000 computational tasks completed.In this report,Academician Guo divides the develop-ment of quantum computing into three stages:the prototype development stage,the quantum supremacy special-purpose machine stage,and the quantum-supercomputing fusion stage.The world has now entered a critical phase in the research and development of logical qubits,and China has achieved coherent control of over 500 physical qubits.In the future,the core appli-cations of quantum computing will focus on two major directions:firstly,cracking crypto-graphic systems that are difficult for classical computers to break;secondly,empowering AI to resolve current bottlenecks in AI computing power and high energy consumption issues,thereby driving the evolution from classical AI to quantum AI.The deep integration of quan-tum computing and AI will become the core driving force behind a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation.关键词
量子计算/算力/人工智能Key words
quantum computing/computationalpower/artificial intelligence(AI)
