Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) have achieved a remarkable breakthrough in quantum computing with their new 105-qubit machine called Zuchongzhi-3. This superconducting quantum computing prototype, equipped with 105 qubits and 182 couplers, operates at speeds that significantly outperform classical supercomputers.
Zuchongzhi-3 performs computations 1015 times faster than today’s most powerful supercomputers and one million times faster than Google’s latest published quantum computing results. This achievement represents a major step forward in the quest for quantum supremacy—the ability of quantum computers to perform tasks beyond the capabilities of classical computers.
Led by Jianwei Pan, Xiaobo Zhu, and Chengzhi Peng, the research team built upon the success of their previous 66-qubit Zuchongzhi-2 system. The new processor achieves impressive performance metrics, including a coherence time of 72 μs, single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.90%, two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.62%, and readout fidelity of 99.13%.
To demonstrate Zuchongzhi-3’s capabilities, the team conducted an 83-qubit, 32-layer random circuit sampling task. The results showed computational power that surpasses the world’s most powerful supercomputer by 15 orders of magnitude and exceeds Google’s latest quantum computing results by six orders of magnitude. This establishes the strongest quantum computational advantage in a superconducting system to date.
The USTC team’s work represents significant progress in the evolution of quantum computing. In 2019, Google’s 53-qubit Sycamore processor completed a task in 200 seconds that was estimated to take 10,000 years on classical systems. However, by 2023, improved classical algorithms had reduced this time to just 1.6 seconds on supercomputers, challenging Google’s initial claims of quantum supremacy.
Following this achievement, the USTC researchers are advancing their work in quantum error correction, quantum entanglement, quantum simulation, and quantum chemistry. They’ve implemented a 2D grid qubit architecture that improves qubit interconnectivity and integrated surface code for error correction, with plans to extend this approach to larger systems.
The research, published in Physical Review Letters, has received widespread acclaim and recognition for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in quantum computing technology.
Reference: “Establishing a New Benchmark in Quantum Computational Advantage with 105-qubit Zuchongzhi 3.0 Processor” by Dongxin Gao, Daojin Fan, Chen Zha, Jiahao Bei, Guoqing Cai, Jianbin Cai, Sirui Cao, Fusheng Chen, Jiang Chen, Kefu Chen, Xiawei Chen, Xiqing Chen, Zhe Chen, Zhiyuan Chen, Zihua Chen, Wenhao Chu, Hui Deng, Zhibin Deng, Pei Ding, Xun Ding, Zhuzhengqi Ding, Shuai Dong, Yupeng Dong, Bo Fan, Yuanhao Fu, Song Gao, Lei Ge, Ming Gong, Jiacheng Gui, Cheng Guo, Shaojun Guo, Xiaoyang Guo, Lianchen Han, Tan He, Linyin Hong, Yisen Hu, He-Liang Huang, Yong-Heng Huo, Tao Jiang, Zuokai Jiang, Honghong Jin, Yunxiang Leng, Dayu Li, Dongdong Li, Fangyu Li, Jiaqi Li, Jinjin Li, Junyan Li, Junyun Li, Na Li, Shaowei Li, Wei Li, Yuhuai Li, Yuan Li, Futian Liang, Xuelian Liang, Nanxing Liao, Jin Lin, Weiping Lin, Dailin Liu, Hongxiu Liu, Maliang Liu, Xinyu Liu, Xuemeng Liu, Yancheng Liu, Haoxin Lou, Yuwei Ma, Lingxin Meng, Hao Mou, Kailiang Nan, Binghan Nie, Meijuan Nie, Jie Ning, Le Niu, Wenyi Peng, Haoran Qian, Hao Rong, Tao Rong, Huiyan Shen, Qiong Shen, Hong Su, Feifan Su, Chenyin Sun, Liangchao Sun, Tianzuo Sun, Yingxiu Sun, Yimeng Tan, Jun Tan, Longyue Tang, Wenbing Tu, Cai Wan, Jiafei Wang, Biao Wang, Chang Wang, Chen Wang, Chu Wang, Jian Wang, Liangyuan Wang, Rui Wang, Shengtao Wang, Xiaomin Wang, Xinzhe Wang, Xunxun Wang, Yeru Wang, Zuolin Wei, Jiazhou Wei, Dachao Wu, Gang Wu, Jin Wu, Shengjie Wu, Yulin Wu, Shiyong Xie, Lianjie Xin, Yu Xu, Chun Xue, Kai Yan, Weifeng Yang, Xinpeng Yang, Yang Yang, Yangsen Ye, Zhenping Ye, Chong Ying, Jiale Yu, Qinjing Yu, Wenhu Yu, Xiangdong Zeng, Shaoyu Zhan, Feifei Zhang, Haibin Zhang, Kaili Zhang, Pan Zhang, Wen Zhang, Yiming Zhang, Yongzhuo Zhang, Lixiang Zhang, Guming Zhao, Peng Zhao, Xianhe Zhao, Xintao Zhao, Youwei Zhao, Zhong Zhao, Luyuan Zheng, Fei Zhou, Liang Zhou, Na Zhou, Naibin Zhou, Shifeng Zhou, Shuang Zhou, Zhengxiao Zhou, Chengjun Zhu, Qingling Zhu, Guihong Zou, Haonan Zou, Qiang Zhang, Chao-Yang Lu, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Xiaobo Zhu and Jian-Wei Pan, 3 March 2025, Physical Review Letters. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.090601
