{"id":960741,"date":"2026-05-15T04:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/960741\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:04:16","slug":"does-chinas-jiuzhang-4-0-computer-herald-the-age-of-quantum-supremacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/960741\/","title":{"rendered":"Does China\u2019s Jiuzhang 4.0 computer herald the age of quantum supremacy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>China has unveiled its latest photonic quantum computer, Jiuzhang 4.0, with researchers saying it can outperform the world\u2019s fastest classical supercomputer by a vast margin, further strengthening Beijing\u2019s push towards <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/opinion\/comment\/article\/3336022\/china-no-longer-follower-race-quantum-supremacy?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">quantum supremacy<\/a>.The results, published on May 13 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, mark the latest milestone in China\u2019s rapidly advancing quantum programme led by a team of scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China headed by renowned Chinese <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3342478\/china-achieves-tamper-proof-quantum-communication-over-100km-single-atoms?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">quantum physicist Pan Jianwei<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Quantum physicist Pan Jianwei leads the University of Science and Technology of China team behind Jiuzhang 4.0, the country\u2019s latest photonic quantum computer. Photo: Soho\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7709ceae-168f-4375-9ea7-704ef7b656a3_a6d880c8.jpg\" title=\"Quantum physicist Pan Jianwei leads the University of Science and Technology of China team behind Jiuzhang 4.0, the country\u2019s latest photonic quantum computer. Photo: Soho\"\/>Quantum physicist Pan Jianwei leads the University of Science and Technology of China team behind Jiuzhang 4.0, the country\u2019s latest photonic quantum computer. Photo: Soho<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Jiuzhang 4.0 completed a Gaussian boson sampling task in just 25 microseconds \u2013 a calculation they estimated would take the world\u2019s most powerful supercomputer, El Capitan in the United States, a mind-boggling more than 10^42 years to finish, according to the university in the eastern city of Hefei.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A Gaussian boson sampling task is a quantum computing task that is computationally difficult for classical computers to handle.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cNo realistic classical computing resources, to our knowledge, can bring the MPS [matrix product state] algorithm anywhere near the accuracy achieved by our experiment,\u201d the team said in a press release.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Jiuzhang 4.0 operates with 1,024 squeezed-state inputs across an 8,176-mode interferometric network, and can manipulate and detect up to 3,050 photons \u2013 more than 10 times the scale achieved in previous experiments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has unveiled its latest photonic quantum computer, Jiuzhang 4.0, with researchers saying it can outperform the world\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":960742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3845],"tags":[12634,3801,1395,131408,268428,867,109805,3772,268426,507,729,121524,268427,74,70,16,15,49,121525],"class_list":{"0":"post-960741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-beijing","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-el-capitan","12":"tag-gaussian-boson-sampling","13":"tag-google","14":"tag-hefei","15":"tag-ibm","16":"tag-jiuzhang","17":"tag-microsoft","18":"tag-nature","19":"tag-pan-jianwei","20":"tag-photonic-quantum-computer","21":"tag-physics","22":"tag-science","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-university-of-science-and-technology-of-china"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116576615413615488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}