Quantinuum Helps Award-Winning High Schooler Test Algorithm
By Amy Wolff For Quantinuum
For most high school students, summers are for hanging out, playing video games, and staying up too late. Well, most high-schoolers are not Max Bee-Lindgren, a senior at Decatur High School in Decatur, Georgia. In 2021, Max spent his summer calculating transition matrix elements, the rate at which atoms, molecules, and other quantum-mechanical systems change states when interacting with their environments.
One important calculation is the emission of light from an excited electron in an atom. This state change is difficult to model accurately on current (classical) computers. Quantum computers, like those being developed by Quantinuum, hold great promise for modeling quantum systems but require new algorithms to make efficient use of their capabilities in a way that is robust to noise.
“I’ve always wanted to know how things worked — more specifically — why things happen,” said Max. “When I was a kid, I would endlessly ask my parents ‘why.’ When they answered, it would just trigger more and more questions down an endless chain until eventually the answer would end up being ‘it’s a complicated physics thing we can’t explain.’ So, I figured if I wanted to actually know why things happen, I should probably learn physics.”
For several months last summer, Max had the chance to collaborate online with other physics fanatics, including his mentor, Dr. Dean Lee, a nuclear physics professor at Michigan State University, and Kenneth Choi, a freshman at MIT who created the original rodeo algorithm during his apprenticeship with Dr. Lee in 2020. They were also joined by MSU students Zhengrong Qian, Jacob Watkins, Gabriel Given and Joey Bonitati.
The team met several times a week to discuss new developments in the rodeo algorithm research, collaborate about next steps, and get any big news updates on the project. The time spent paid off when Max was notified that he, along with 39 other high schoolers from across the U.S., was a finalist in the Regeneron Science Talent (STS) Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.
Like many people, when a call from an unknown number came in on his phone, Max declined the call. But when the Washington, D.C., number called back a second time, he picked up and was “shocked” to discover he had made the competition’s top 40.
“Being a part of this intensive summer program has driven me to complete the project in the best way possible,” Max said. “Without the support of Dr. Lee and his team, I would still be researching, but not fully applying myself nor putting my experience into practice. It is nice to have a direct and present force driving me to succeed, and thanks to the STS program and my experiences, I’ve met a lot of amazing people who are as focused on physics as I am.”
Quantinuum is an integral partner in the success of this research project.
“The purpose of this collaboration is one of mutual benefits,” said Dr. David Hayes, a principal theorist at Quantinuum. “Professor Lee and his students get to test their theories on real hardware and identify any weaknesses in the proposal. Quantinuum benefits by helping the world get a little closer to identifying quantum algorithms that yield a computational advantage over classical algorithms.”
“Quantinuum is well served by the world-wide effort to advance these algorithms, so we try to identify the most promising ones and provide testbeds for them,” Hayes added. “Professor Lee's proposal caught our eye last year as a new idea for simulating quantum materials, which we believe to be the most promising avenue toward a near-term quantum advantage.”
The 2022 Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists were selected from more than 1,800 highly qualified entrants based on their projects’ scientific rigor and their potential to become world-changing scientists and leaders. Each finalist is awarded at least $25,000, and the top 10 awards range from $40,000 to $250,000.
“Max’s award is for the design of the two-state rodeo algorithm,” said Dr. Lee. “The potential promise of the rodeo algorithm lies in its ability to be robust against noise and exponentially more efficient than other well-known methods for quantum state preparation.”
Max shares his notebook with the Quantinuum theory group regularly and is looking forward to implementing his algorithm soon on the company’s System Model H1 quantum technologies, Powered by Honeywell.
“In the next few months, we’ll get a chance to run the two-state rodeo algorithm on the H1, which is very exciting,” Max stated. “The H1 is a good bit less error prone than other available systems, by an order of magnitude, so the results should be interesting as they unfold.”
“Max was a great person to work with,” noted Professor Lee. “No matter what I gave him, he never got really stuck on anything. Max truly loves his work, and he’s very humble. He has a maturity beyond his years, which will serve him well in future endeavors.”
While Max is unsure about his college choice for next year, he is certain of one thing, “I can’t wait to get to college to just study more physics.”
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
At the heart of quantum computing’s promise lies the ability to solve problems that are fundamentally out of reach for classical computers. One of the most powerful ways to unlock that promise is through a novel approach we call Generative Quantum AI, or GenQAI. A key element of this approach is the Generative Quantum Eigensolver (GQE).
GenQAI is based on a simple but powerful idea: combine the unique capabilities of quantum hardware with the flexibility and intelligence of AI. By using quantum systems to generate data, and then using AI to learn from and guide the generation of more data, we can create a powerful feedback loop that enables breakthroughs in diverse fields.
Unlike classical systems, our quantum processing unit (QPU) produces data that is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to generate classically. That gives us a unique edge: we’re not just feeding an AI more text from the internet; we’re giving it new and valuable data that can’t be obtained anywhere else.
The Search for Ground State Energy
One of the most compelling challenges in quantum chemistry and materials science is computing the properties of a molecule’s ground state. For any given molecule or material, the ground state is its lowest energy configuration. Understanding this state is essential for understanding molecular behavior and designing new drugs or materials.
The problem is that accurately computing this state for anything but the simplest systems is incredibly complicated. You cannot even do it by brute force—testing every possible state and measuring its energy—because the number of quantum states grows as a double-exponential, making this an ineffective solution. This illustrates the need for an intelligent way to search for the ground state energy and other molecular properties.
That’s where GQE comes in. GQE is a methodology that uses data from our quantum computers to train a transformer. The transformer then proposes promising trial quantum circuits; ones likely to prepare states with low energy. You can think of it as an AI-guided search engine for ground states. The novelty is in how our transformer is trained from scratch using data generated on our hardware.
Here's how it works:
- We start with a batch of trial quantum circuits, which are run on our QPU.
- Each circuit prepares a quantum state, and we measure the energy of that state with respect to the Hamiltonian for each one.
- Those measurements are then fed back into a transformer model (the same architecture behind models like GPT-2) to improve its outputs.
- The transformer generates a new distribution of circuits, biased toward ones that are more likely to find lower energy states.
- We sample a new batch from the distribution, run them on the QPU, and repeat.
- The system learns over time, narrowing in on the true ground state.
To test our system, we tackled a benchmark problem: finding the ground state energy of the hydrogen molecule (H₂). This is a problem with a known solution, which allows us to verify that our setup works as intended. As a result, our GQE system successfully found the ground state to within chemical accuracy.
To our knowledge, we’re the first to solve this problem using a combination of a QPU and a transformer, marking the beginning of a new era in computational chemistry.
The Future of Quantum Chemistry
The idea of using a generative model guided by quantum measurements can be extended to a whole class of problems—from combinatorial optimization to materials discovery, and potentially, even drug design.
By combining the power of quantum computing and AI we can unlock their unified full power. Our quantum processors can generate rich data that was previously unobtainable. Then, an AI can learn from that data. Together, they can tackle problems neither could solve alone.
This is just the beginning. We’re already looking at applying GQE to more complex molecules—ones that can’t currently be solved with existing methods, and we’re exploring how this methodology could be extended to real-world use cases. This opens many new doors in chemistry, and we are excited to see what comes next.
Last year, we joined forces with RIKEN, Japan's largest comprehensive research institution, to install our hardware at RIKEN’s campus in Wako, Saitama. This deployment is part of RIKEN’s project to build a quantum-HPC hybrid platform consisting of high-performance computing systems, such as the supercomputer Fugaku and Quantinuum Systems.
Today, a paper published in Physical Review Research marks the first of many breakthroughs coming from this international supercomputing partnership. The team from RIKEN and Quantinuum joined up with researchers from Keio University to show that quantum information can be delocalized (scrambled) using a quantum circuit modeled after periodically driven systems.
"Scrambling" of quantum information happens in many quantum systems, from those found in complex materials to black holes. Understanding information scrambling will help researchers better understand things like thermalization and chaos, both of which have wide reaching implications.
To visualize scrambling, imagine a set of particles (say bits in a memory), where one particle holds specific information that you want to know. As time marches on, the quantum information will spread out across the other bits, making it harder and harder to recover the original information from local (few-bit) measurements.
While many classical techniques exist for studying complex scrambling dynamics, quantum computing has been known as a promising tool for these types of studies, due to its inherently quantum nature and ease with implementing quantum elements like entanglement. The joint team proved that to be true with their latest result, which shows that not only can scrambling states be generated on a quantum computer, but that they behave as expected and are ripe for further study.
Thanks to this new understanding, we now know that the preparation, verification, and application of a scrambling state, a key quantum information state, can be consistently realized using currently available quantum computers. Read the paper here, and read more about our partnership with RIKEN here.
In our increasingly connected, data-driven world, cybersecurity threats are more frequent and sophisticated than ever. To safeguard modern life, government and business leaders are turning to quantum randomness.
What is quantum randomness, and why should you care?
The term to know: quantum random number generators (QRNGs).
QRNGs exploit quantum mechanics to generate truly random numbers, providing the highest level of cryptographic security. This supports, among many things:
- Protection of personal data
- Secure financial transactions
- Safeguarding of sensitive communications
- Prevention of unauthorized access to medical records
Quantum technologies, including QRNGs, could protect up to $1 trillion in digital assets annually, according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum and Accenture.
Which industries will see the most value from quantum randomness?
The World Economic Forum report identifies five industry groups where QRNGs offer high business value and clear commercialization potential within the next few years. Those include:
- Financial services
- Information and communication technology
- Chemicals and advanced materials
- Energy and utilities
- Pharmaceuticals and healthcare
In line with these trends, recent research by The Quantum Insider projects the quantum security market will grow from approximately $0.7 billion today to $10 billion by 2030.
When will quantum randomness reach commercialization?
Quantum randomness is already being deployed commercially:
- Early adopters use our Quantum Origin in data centers and smart devices.
- Amid rising cybersecurity threats, demand is growing in regulated industries and critical infrastructure.
Recognizing the value of QRNGs, the financial services sector is accelerating its path to commercialization.
- Last year, HSBC conducted a pilot combining Quantum Origin and post-quantum cryptography to future-proof gold tokens against “store now, decrypt-later” (SNDL) threats.
- And, just last week, JPMorganChase made headlines by using our quantum computer for the first successful demonstration of certified randomness.
On the basis of the latter achievement, we aim to broaden our cybersecurity portfolio with the addition of a certified randomness product in 2025.
How is quantum randomness being regulated?
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the cryptographic regulations used in the U.S. and other countries.
- NIST’s SP 800-90B framework assesses the quality of random number generators.
- The framework is part of the FIPS 140 standard, which governs cryptographic systems operations.
- Organizations must comply with FIPS 140 for their cryptographic products to be used in regulated environments.
This week, we announced Quantum Origin received NIST SP 800-90B Entropy Source validation, marking the first software QRNG approved for use in regulated industries.
What does NIST validation mean for our customers?
This means Quantum Origin is now available for high-security cryptographic systems and integrates seamlessly with NIST-approved solutions without requiring recertification.
- Unlike hardware QRNGs, Quantum Origin requires no network connectivity, making it ideal for air-gapped systems.
- For federal agencies, it complements our "U.S. Made" designation, easing deployment in critical infrastructure.
- It adds further value for customers building hardware security modules, firewalls, PKIs, and IoT devices.
The NIST validation, combined with our peer-reviewed papers, further establishes Quantum Origin as the leading QRNG on the market.
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It is paramount for governments, commercial enterprises, and critical infrastructure to stay ahead of evolving cybersecurity threats to maintain societal and economic security.
Quantinuum delivers the highest quality quantum randomness, enabling our customers to confront the most advanced cybersecurity challenges present today.