Scientists aim to tackle Alzheimer's and Parkinson's through quantum computing - The ion trap has become the leading alternative to superconducting qubits!

The contemporary world would not be what it is today without the efforts of scientists, who have focused on creating tools that allow the development of solutions to problems that human beings go through in the course of their lives. Computing has been a remarkable advance in our quality of life, giving us the ability to process information quickly and efficiently. Our productivity has improved drastically.

Computers today have applications in all fields. That is to say, they are used in the field of informatics, medicine, science (chemistry and physics), finance, etc. However, we must mention the capacity of today's computers, which, no matter how powerful they are, would not be up to the task of solving complex computational problems.

As we know, the architecture of a classical computer can store information in bits. These have two states, either it is 0 or it is 1; they cannot be both simultaneously. This is the reason why analyzing and processing highly complex data could take many years, which is neither efficient nor reasonable from any point of view.

Quantum computing could offer a revolutionary technology, and that is the reason why relevant research is being carried out across science. This type of technology would make it possible to take a linear computation to an exponential one, which would make data processing effective based on highly complex problems.

For this purpose, a quantum computer is not based on zeros and ones, but on a superposition of both. Under this scenario, qubits are used, so as to generate several states, as well as simultaneity, allowing parallel processing. Several companies have been investing in the development of this technology, such as IBM, Intel and Google.

---

Obtained from IonQ official site

---

Using superconducting qubits in the field of cryptography and artificial intelligence is something that could have a great benefit with respect to time-efficiency. At the moment, IBM has managed to exceed 1,000 qubits, although it could be considered a lot, more processing power is required, especially if we consider the errors that the qubits may have over time. In other words, the lower the exposure, the lower the errors would be, and the time required, the higher the number of qubits.

To address the error problem, various technologies are investigated, such as the “ion trap”. In this context, qubits are ionized atoms (electric charge) that levitate in a vacuum through electromagnetic fields. In addition, lasers are used for each ion, plus one of global range, so as to affect all simultaneously.

Another company using similar technology is Honeywell, although it uses a different procedure to achieve the entanglement between two ions and their manipulation through a laser. However, a company called Kipu Quantum, which is related to the team of researchers from the aforementioned company, has used an ion trap computer with 36 qubits, with which it intends to solve and understand the problem of protein folding with the aim of counteracting and tackling diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. At the moment the plans are to solve protein folding problems in up to 12 amino acids.

Looking ahead, there is much to be done, but the good news is that the focus on investing in quantum computing is being maintained. Researchers are doing their part to give humanity revolutionary new technology, which in turn will give hope to everyone who relies on science. There is no doubt that these advances are truly promising.