[mcncm]

I work in a QC lab, and here's my perspective. There is one pretty good reason for executing programs on real hardware: because we're still pre-error-correction, errors are rampant, but they are hard to model correctly. After all, if you could model them, you could simulate quantum mechanics, and then... why were you building the thing? So, simulators have to make some strong assumptions. Running programs on real devices can teach us more about the physics of those devices and about how compile programs for them.

There's one other really good reason: it's fun!

[helixc]

Very insightful! Could you share how many qubits you can use in your lab? I guess one need at least 3 qubits to run some interesting quantum algorithms?

[mcncm]

As a matter of fact, we published just this year on a novel algorithm using just two qubits! The trick is that this algorithm is in some sense "generic" over arbitrary data structures, so we were able to claim victory by tackling the simplest possible case. It was still a challenge in practice, since it required a lot of sneaky tricks and record (to our knowledge) two-qubit gate fidelities.

We're also working with larger devices, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to comment on those right now :)

[helixc]

Super interesting! Could you share the link to your 2 qubit algorithm paper? I'm also doing quantum research, bit on the hardware side, and really interested in knowing algorithm development.