diff --git a/public/images/toqito_first_commit.png b/public/images/toqito_first_commit.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..138f6d3e Binary files /dev/null and b/public/images/toqito_first_commit.png differ diff --git a/public/images/toqito_logo.png b/public/images/toqito_logo.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fbc9d30e Binary files /dev/null and b/public/images/toqito_logo.png differ diff --git a/public/images/toqito_stars.png b/public/images/toqito_stars.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..baf8e3ef Binary files /dev/null and b/public/images/toqito_stars.png differ diff --git a/src/content/blog/2024_toqito.md b/src/content/blog/2024_toqito.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..82686139 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/blog/2024_toqito.md @@ -0,0 +1,181 @@ +--- +title: "toqito: Quantum Information Science Impact through Open Source" +author: Vincent Russo and Purva Thakre +day: 8 +month: 10 +year: 2024 +tags: + - python + - toqito + - microgrant + - qis +--- + +![](/images/toqito_logo.png) + +## The Origins of toqito +In early 2020, the humble [initial +commit](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito/commit/a2f2449c4b9de81becff41cb25f1bca3fa180e8b) of the toqito project +([repo](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito)|[docs](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html)) made its way onto +GitHub. + +![](/images/toqito_first_commit.png) + +toqito began as a research tool, designed by Vincent Russo to accelerate his work in quantum information. In the years +since, it has evolved into a robust, open-source Python library providing powerful tools for researchers and enthusiasts +alike. + +

+ +## Expanding Quantum Research with toqito +toqito has grown significantly in the past four years. It allows users to study fundamental objects in quantum +information: [quantum states](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro_tutorial.html#states), +[quantum channels](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro_tutorial.html#channels), and +[quantum measurements](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro_tutorial.html#measurements). With tools to tackle +problems in entanglement theory, nonlocal games, and convex optimization, toqito has made strides in democratizing +quantum research. + +toqito's main focus is providing tools in Python, inspired by the [QETLAB](https://qetlab.com/) MATLAB library, but +without the licensing restrictions of MATLAB. Researchers can work with quantum systems using Python’s widely used +scientific ecosystem. + +There have also been a number of academic publications that have made used of `toqito` to numerically define and analyze +certain problems in quantum information. A collection of these can be seen here + +- Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro and Russo, Vincent, _Distinguishing a maximally entangled basis using LOCC and shared entanglement_[^1] + +- Tavakoli, Armin and Pozas-Kerstjens, Alejandro and Brown, Peter and Araújo, Mateus, _Semidefinite programming relaxations for quantum correlations_[^2] + +- Johnston, Nathaniel and Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Tight bounds for antidistinguishability and circulant sets of pure quantum states_[^3] + +- Pelofske, Elijah and Bartschi, Andreas and Eidenbenz, Stephan and Garcia, Bryan and Kiefer, Boris, _Probing Quantum Telecloning on Superconducting Quantum Processors_[^4] + +- Philip, Aby and Rethinasamy, Soorya and Russo, Vincent and Wilde, Mark, _Quantum Steering Algorithm for Estimating Fidelity of Separability_[^5] + +- Miszczak, Jarosław Adam, _Symbolic quantum programming for supporting applications of quantum computing technologies_[^6] + +- Casalé, Balthazar and Di Molfetta, Giuseppe and Anthoine, Sandrine and Kadri, Hachem, _Large-Scale Quantum Separability Through a Reproducible Machine Learning Lens_[^7] + +- Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Inner products of pure states and their antidistinguishability_[^8] + +## Core Concepts: Quantum States, Channels, and Measurements +In quantum information science, quantum states represent the fundamental objects we manipulate, quantum channels +describe the transformations applied to these states, and quantum measurements allow us to extract information from +states. + +### Example: Defining and Analyzing a Quantum State +In this example, we calculate the fidelity between two quantum states—-a fundamental task in quantum state comparison. + +For example, in the event where we calculate the fidelity between states that are identical, we should obtain the value +of 1. This can be observed in toqito as follows. + +```py +>>> from toqito.state_metrics import fidelity +>>> import numpy as np +>>> rho = 1 / 2 * np.array( +... [[1, 0, 0, 1], +... [0, 0, 0, 0], +... [0, 0, 0, 0], +... [1, 0, 0, 1]] +... ) +>> sigma = rho +>>> fidelity(rho, sigma) +1.0 +``` + +### Quantum State Discrimination +A more engaging example is quantum state discrimination, a widely applicable problem in cryptography and quantum +computing. The goal is to distinguish between different quantum states in an optimal way. This is typically formulated +as a convex optimization problem. + +In toqito, this problem can be tackled efficiently using semidefinite programming (SDP). Below is an example of +discriminating between two quantum states. + +In the following example, we see that it is possible to perfectly distinguish (with minimum-error) amongst the four Bell +states: + +```py +>>> import numpy as np +>>> from toqito.states import bell +>>> from toqito.state_opt import state_distinguishability + +>>> states = [bell(0), bell(1), bell(2), bell(3)] +>>> probs = [1 / 4, 1 / 4, 1 / 4, 1 / 4] +>>> res, measurements = state_distinguishability(vectors=states, probs=probs, primal_dual="primal") +np.around(res, decimals=2) +np.float64(1.0) +``` + +Quantum distinguishability is a rich field of research and having the ability to pull "off the shelf" techniques to +determine the probability of distinguishing a set of quantum states is a useful technique for rapidly iterating on +research in this domain. + +## Unitary Fund accelerates toqito + +In the early days of toqito, Vincent showed some basic functionality to co-workers with a quantum information +background. One of them suggested the Unitary Fund’s [microgrant program](https://unitary.fund/grants/). To his delight, +toqito was accepted as a microgrant recipient after making a short video for the application. Not only was the monetary +reward a nice boost of encouragement, but the associated support from the UnitaryFund team pushed him to reach out to +other scientists and researchers who may benefit from toqito and potentially guide its development. + +One of the opportunities suggested by the Unitary Fund to promote toqito included a talk to the [New York Quantum +Computing Meetup group](https://www.meetup.com/new-york-quantum-computing-meetup/) participants. Vincent recorded the +subsequent [first video on the UnitaryFund YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R7qSszJwBI) that outlined +the basic premise of toqito at that time. To promote toqito to a broader audience, a short +[whitepaper](https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.03082) was published in the Journal of Open Source Software. + +Later that year, the first [UnitaryHACK 2021](https://unitary.fund/posts/unitaryhack2021/) event took place. This +hackathon allows maintainers of quantum open-source (QOSS) software repositories to participate by adding a set of +bountied issues to improve the participating QOSS project. This hackathon also involved some of the earliest external +contributors to toqito. + +toqito has since continued to be a participating project at subsequent UnitaryHACKs +([2022](https://unitary.fund/posts/2022unitaryhack/), [2023](https://unitary.fund/posts/2023_unitaryhack/), and +[2024](https://unitaryhack.dev/)) and has gained more users, contributors, and essential features that have been +invaluable to the broader community. + +As toqito continued to gain usage and traction, another [UF microgrant](https://unitary.fund/grants/) to further develop +the project was awarded to a prior contributor of UnitaryHACK 2023 ([Purva Thakre](https://github.com/purva-thakre)). +These funds allowed dedicated time to delve into some of the more in-depth feature requests and continue to improve +additional aspects of the project, such as thorough testing, documentation, CI/CD, and tutorials. + +In addition to being cited and used in peer-reviewed research papers on quantum information, toqito has also been +recognized elsewhere. toqito was voted one of the [top quantum simulators for 2024 by +QuantumInsider](https://thequantuminsider.com/2022/06/14/top-63-quantum-computer-simulators-for-2022/). Recently, +[KaiCode](https://www.kaicode.org/2024.html) awarded toqito the first place prize for being the best project of 400+ +projects judged on clean code, good project structure, etc. Furthermore, as of September 2024, toqito is now an +[affiliated project of NumFOCUS](https://numfocus.medium.com/august-september-project-updates-e3dac6f86aa8). + +## The future of toqito + +The toqito project continues to be used and contributed to by numerous researchers and software developers in the +quantum ecosystem. For instance, another UF microgrant was recently awarded to [Aidan +Sims](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-sims) to port [cvxquad](https://github.com/hfawzi/cvxquad) functions written in +MATLAB into toqito’s channels/ module. + +There are many exciting plans for [the future of toqito](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito/wiki). If you feel that +toqito may enhance your research workflow or the toqito roadmap lacks a particular feature, don’t hesitate to contact +the developers through the [Discord channel](https://discord.com/channels/764231928676089909/1172282184833454090). If +you want to contribute to the project, consult the [contribution +guide](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing.html), open a PR, or add an issue to [the +board](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito/issues). + +We look forward to seeing where toqito goes from here! + +------------------------------------------------------ + +[^1]: Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro and Russo, Vincent, _Distinguishing a maximally entangled basis using LOCC and shared entanglement_ (2024) [arXiv:2406.13430](https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.13430). + +[^2]: Tavakoli, Armin and Pozas-Kerstjens, Alejandro and Brown, Peter and Araújo, Mateus. _Semidefinite programming relaxations for quantum correlations_ (2023) [arXiv:2307.02551](https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.02551). + +[^3]: Johnston, Nathaniel and Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Tight bounds for antidistinguishability and circulant sets of pure quantum states_ (2023) [arXiv:2311.17047]((https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.17047)) + +[^4]: Pelofske, Elijah and Bartschi, Andreas and Eidenbenz, Stephan and Garcia, Bryan and Kiefer, Boris, _Probing Quantum Telecloning on Superconducting Quantum Processors_ (2023) [arXiv:2308.15579](https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.15579) + +[^5]: Philip, Aby and Rethinasamy, Soorya and Russo, Vincent and Wilde, Mark, _Quantum Steering Algorithm for Estimating Fidelity of Separability_ (2023) [arXiv:2303.07911](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.07911) + +[^6]: Miszczak, Jarosław Adam, _Symbolic quantum programming for supporting applications of quantum computing technologies_ (2023) [arXiv:2302.09401](https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.09401) + +[^7]: Casalé, Balthazar and Di Molfetta, Giuseppe and Anthoine, Sandrine and Kadri, Hachem, _Large-Scale Quantum Separability Through a Reproducible Machine Learning Lens_ (2023) [arXiv:2306.09444](https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.09444) + +[^8]: Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Inner products of pure states and their antidistinguishability_ (2023) [arXiv:2206.08313](https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.08313)