Demonstrating an unconditional separation between quantum and classical information resources

Abstract

A longstanding goal in quantum information science is to demonstrate quantum computations that cannot be feasibly reproduced on a classical computer. Such demonstrations mark major milestones: they showcase fine control over quantum systems and are prerequisites for useful quantum computation. To date, quantum advantage has been demonstrated, for example, through violations of Bell inequalities and sampling-based quantum supremacy experiments. However, both forms of advantage come with important caveats: Bell tests are not computationally difficult tasks, and the classical hardness of sampling experiments relies on unproven complexity-theoretic assumptions. Here we demonstrate an unconditional quantum advantage in information resources required for a computational task, realized on Quantinuum's H1-1 trapped-ion quantum computer operating at a median two-qubit partial-entangler fidelity of 99.941(7)%. We construct a task for which the most space-efficient classical algorithm provably requires between 62 and 382 bits of memory, and solve it using only 12 qubits. Our result provides the most direct evidence yet that currently existing quantum processors can generate and manipulate entangled states of sufficient complexity to access the exponentiality of Hilbert space. This form of quantum advantage -- which we call quantum information supremacy -- represents a new benchmark in quantum computing, one that does not rely on unproven conjectures.