Quantum Starter References...

...With Extra Credit!

¹

Dr. Bob Sutor’s Sutor Group kicked off “Quantum Starter References” with resources to learn about neutral atom qubits. He offered extra credit for looking up Johannes Rydberg and locating rubidium and cesium on the periodic table, and as the 2nd least qualified person in quantum, I need every extra credit point I can get.

This week’s extra credit:

• Johannes Rydberg

• periodic table (column 1, rows 5 and 6)

This week’s IQT News:

• Microsoft is making significant advances in quantum computing across multiple qubit modalities

• 300+ attendees, 40 sponsors/exhibits, 72 speakers, 22 countries

• IQT Sunday Edition

This week’s premium content:

• Wait... what... a profitable company?!?!?

• JHPC-quantum Test user program

• The World’s Smallest Neutral Atom Quantum Computer (Tied)

• Xanadu’s PennyLane’s MatchCake

This week’s Friends of The Quantum Dragon:

• Transatlantic Strategic Collaboration... For The Win by Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, CEO and Founder of Nu Quantum

• Errors must remain controlled as quantum computers scale. by Dr. Amit Ben Kish, CTO and co-founder of Quantum Art

• Reach new milestones faster. by Jérôme Bourassa, Co-Founder and CEO of Qubic

• “A 2030 deadline does not protect data being harvested in 2026.” by Simon Pamplin, CTO at Certes

• Helping Customers Build the Most Powerful Quantum Computers by Matt Rijlaarsdam, CEO of QuantWare

• Quantum is about near-term strategic capabilities. by Dr. Stefan Leichenauer, VP of Engineering and Lead Scientist at SandboxAQ

This week’s Thirty Mile Dragon (TMD):

• IONQ NOW HAS A SIGNIFICANT EQUITY INTEREST IN NEWS AND RESEARCH SERVICE – RESONANCE

In this edition:

• “Quantum Bits” ain’t just for novices.

• Point-Counterpoint

• Quantum Writers You Need to Follow

• The Quantum Computing Hype Filter

• Kwan-tek’s Visual Explainer of NV Centers

• You don’t know how AI works?!?!?

• Origin Quantum said the quiet part aloud.

• Compressing Shor’s Algorithm: QMill Circuit Compression

• What does Alice & Bob’s “Helium” look like?

• The Shaving Cream Problem

• Quantum Noise Detector

“Quantum Bits” ain’t just for novices.

You could be forgiven for thinking that a comic strip anthology would provide high-level explanations for novices, but Yuval Boger’s explanation of “readout” describes QuEra’s process for neutral atom readout slightly differently than the way I thought they did it. Who knows? Maybe there’s something new in there for you, too?

Point-Counterpoint

I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me. Point-Counterpoint takes a point made by Dr. Bob “The Godfather of The Quantum Dragon” Sutor and argues a counterpoint for entertainment purposes.

Quantum Writers You Need to Follow

It’s an honor to be grouped by Brian Lenahan with Dr. Bob Sutor of Sutor Group intelligence and Advisory, Sergio Gago of Quantum Pirates, HKA Marketing Communications of The Quantum Spin, and Matt Swayne of The Quantum Insider. This link may require a LinkedIn account.

The Quantum Computing Hype Filter

This 57:49 video looks like Dr. Bob “The Godfather of The Quantum Dragon” Sutor’s full interview with the Thinking On Paper podcast. You should cancel your Netflix and just watch this in a loop. I’m awarding admittedly worthless bonus points to whoever edited the video to lead off with a brief rant on AI slop.

Kwan-tek’s Visual Explainer of NV Centers

This starts off at a high level for general audiences and then gradually dives deeper and deeper. Although the spoken language is French, YouTube can provide English captions for it. For more about KWAN-TEK’s KWANTEACH, check out “I want to learn quantum physics.”

You don’t know how AI works?!?!?

It baffles me when some quantum folks, especially QML researchers, claim that WE don’t know how AI works. WE is a lot of people. THEY don’t know how AI works. As proof, here’s a 1:44:30 lecture on LLMs from Stanford to get you started. If you want to get hands-on with AI in general, SoloLearn was good to me back in the day.

Origin Quantum said the quiet part aloud.

Origin Quantum claims to have protected its Wukong superconducting quantum computer with quantum-resistant protocols, “achieving a synergistic ‘spear’ and ‘shield’.” That’s China admitting it wants a “spear.” Fortunately, Wukong is a blunt, chipped spear. This link may require a Twitter account.

Compressing Shor’s Algorithm: QMill Circuit Compression

We’ve put Shor’s algorithm on a diet, restricting its gate count and slimming it down quite a bit. The problem is: it’s a yo-yo diet. When we transpile a circuit for real hardware, it’ll bloat up again. But what if we could put it in a corset, thus keeping it svelte even after transpilation?

What does Alice & Bob’s “Helium” look like?

It’s not the real deal, the cat qubit superconducting quantum computer, but we can see a mockup of it. It seems quite detailed for its size, with a magnifying glass as a prop… I want one! I’m going to tag Niccolò Coppola and hope this becomes swag. This link may require a Twitter account.

The Shaving Cream Problem

I’ve never encountered a shaving cream analogy for… well… anything. Kudos to Russ Fein for making me feel utterly unimaginative.

²

Quantum Noise Detector

Alan Ho and Prof. Michael Biercuk inspired the Resuscitated Quantum Bullshit Detector, but the original(?) has resurfaced on Bluesky. It’s back to reposting a simple “bullshit” or “not bullshit,” so The Quantum Dragon will continue to monitor for challenges, controversies, and debates under this new name from Dr. Bob Sutor.

• Prof. Amit Hagar criticized Dr. Jay Gambetta for following a BCG datapoint with an irrelevant IBM datapoint.

• Prof. Henry Legg criticized Microsoft’s topological qubit claims again and published it this time in Nature.

1. Image generated by Google’s language model AI.

2. Image generated by an AI model provided by Microsoft Copilot.