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The field of quantum computing has grown from concept to demonstration devices over the past 20 years. Universal quantum computing offers efficiency in approaching problems of scientific and commercial interest, such as factoring large numbers, searching databases, simulating intractable models from quantum physics, and optimizing complex cost functions. Here, we present an 11-qubit fully-connected, programmable quantum computer in a trapped ion system composed of 13 171Yb+ ions. We demonstrate average single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.5\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\%$$\end{document}%, average two-qubit-gate fidelities of 97.5\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\%$$\end{document}%, and SPAM errors of 0.7\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\%$$\end{document}%. To illustrate the capabilities of this universal platform and provide a basis for comparison with similarly-sized devices, we compile the Bernstein-Vazirani and Hidden Shift algorithms into our native gates and execute them on the hardware with average success rates of 78\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\%$$\end{document}% and 35\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\%$$\end{document}%, respectively. These algorithms serve as excellent benchmarks for any type of quantum hardware, and show that our system outperforms all other currently available hardware., The growing complexity of quantum computing devices makes presents challenges for benchmarking their performance as previous, exhaustive approaches become infeasible. Here the authors characterise the quality of their 11-qubit device by successfully computing two quantum algorithms.

Human platelets regulate agonist-evoked Ca2+ signalling through Ca2+ release from and sequestration into acidic organelles. Previous studies have pharmacologically characterised the presence of a Ca2+-H+ exchanger in these organelles. This exchanger appears to regulate a secondary plateau phase in agonist-evoked cytosolic Ca2+ signals in fura-2-loaded human platelets. Here we demonstrate that cytochalasin D treatment removes the secondary plateau in ADP-evoked Ca2+ signals elicited in the absence of external Ca2+. This effect was reversed by pretreatment with nigericin, a K+/H+ exchanger that short-circuits the Ca2+-H+ exchanger. Using Fluo-5N- or Lysosensor Green-loaded cells, cytochalasin D was found to enhance Ca2+ sequestration into acidic organelles by preventing their alkalinisation. Additional experiments demonstrated that ADP-evoked alkalinisation of acidic organelles and subsequent slowing of acidic organellar Ca2+ sequestration was mediated by autocrine 5-HT signalling. Enhancing this 5-HT signalling using fluoxetine overcame the inhibitory effect of cytochalasin D on ADP-evoked Ca2+ signals, indicating that cytochalasin D interferes with 5-HT autocrine signalling. The ability of Cytochalasin D to interfere with autocrine 5-HT signalling was downstream of the 5-HT2A receptor as secretion of [3H]-5-HT from ADP-stimulated human platelets was not reduced. These data provide the first evidence that the pH gradient across acidic organelles is dynamically regulated upon human platelet activation, and that this can play a significant role in controlling human platelet function by modulating Ca2+-H+ exchange and so [Ca2+]i.

Quantum computing leverages the quantum resources of superposition and entanglement to efficiently solve computational problems considered intractable for classical computers. Examples include calculating molecular and nuclear structure, simulating strongly interacting electron systems, and modeling aspects of material function. While substantial theoretical advances have been made in mapping these problems to quantum algorithms, there remains a large gap between the resource requirements for solving such problems and the capabilities of currently available quantum hardware. Bridging this gap will require a co-design approach, where the expression of algorithms is developed in conjunction with the hardware itself to optimize execution. Here we describe an extensible co-design framework for solving chemistry problems on a trapped-ion quantum computer and apply it to estimating the ground-state energy of the water molecule using the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) method. The controllability of the trapped-ion quantum computer enables robust energy estimates using the prepared VQE ansatz states. The systematic and statistical errors are comparable to the chemical accuracy, which is the target threshold necessary for predicting the rates of chemical reaction dynamics, without resorting to any error mitigation techniques based on Richardson extrapolation.

In the 1980s CK Vul was identified with Nova Vul 1670, as a potential "old nova" that could be used to test the "hibernation" scenario in relation to classical and dwarf novae. Since that time a number of different classifications have been suggested and discarded, including a classical nova, a very-late thermal pulse, a sub-Chandrasekhar mass supernova, a diffusion-induced nova and the ingestion of planets by their host star. Most recently the object has been linked to the red novae, of which V838 Mon is the most prominent member. The behaviour of this class is most likely due to a merger in a binary star system. However the characteristics of the brightening events in the 1670s that led to it being noticed by 17th Century astronomers, and the subsequent evolution, are inconsistent with a merger of any main sequence or giant progenitors. We have reviewed the data to date, and combined that with ALMA Cycle 4 results mapping dusty cocoons, gaseous bubbles, a jet and a central disc-like structure, to propose a new cause of "Nova Vul 1670". We suggest that both the original observations nearly 350 years ago and the current configuration of the system are consistent with a merger between a white dwarf and a brown dwarf. The disruption of the brown dwarf caused the brightening events in 1670, 1671 and 1672. In the process the collision of brown dwarf material with the white dwarf surface caused nucleosynthesis leading to the peculiar isotopic ratios seen in the ejecta. The encounter disrupted the brown dwarf, which formed a disc that persists to this day. The disc rotation and white dwarf magnetic fields generated bipolar jet outflows, which in turn inflated the gaseous bubbles. Over the intervening centuries these have grown to be about 12 arcsec in extent, and are surrounded by dusty cocoons, in a structure reminiscent of asymmetric planetary nebulae and pre-PNe. Further work remains to be done on the gas dynamics, and proposed observations will attempt to measure the central object mass directly from a disc rotation curve.