POSE: PHASE II: Mitiq OSE: Increasing and sustaining the open-source ecosystem for cross-platform quantum error mitigation

Dr. Nathan Shammah and Dr. William Zeng of Unitary Fund are supported by an award from the Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program in the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP) to grow the open-source ecosystem (OSE) around the quantum error mitigation tool Mitiq.

Drs. Shammah and Zeng will expand on their research in the field of quantum error mitigation to develop a sustainable OSE and infrastructure around the Python library Mitiq, a cross-platform compiler that enables programs to be more robust to the errors present in Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware devices. The growth of an OSE around Mitiq will improve the performance of currently available quantum computers for users everywhere, and will accelerate the development of use cases for this critical technology across academia, government, and industry.

Drs. Shammah and Zeng will develop an OSE around the open-source Python library Mitiq, a compiler that makes programs more robust to errors in quantum computers. Because quantum computers have high error rates, compiling for error robustness is critical for useful applications.

Among other applications, Mitiq has been used to better simulate correlated materials, to increase the resolution of the time evolution of quantum systems out of equilibrium, and to increase the effective quantum volume of quantum processors - a key benchmark. The Mitiq OSE will attract and support a large community of users and contributors that extends beyond today’s core developers and initial user base.

This expansion will include product management, infrastructure engineering, community management, governance, and user success. Specifically, this project will focus on user-led development of digital interfaces and resources, accelerated advancement in quantum error mitigation, compatibility with emerging hardware, dependencies and related software packages, establishment of standards and benchmarks, and dissemination of results and software integration.

By building the Mitiq OSE, Shammah and Zeng will increase open access to software based techniques that reduce noise sensitivities of programs and protocols, accelerating the adoption of cutting edge research by quantum computing users and improving quantum technology for all users across a significant new industry.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.