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MonarQ

Connection Node

https://monarq.calculquebec.ca

Maintenance

MonarQ is currently under maintenance and is expected to be operational in February 2026. In the meantime, Calcul Québec can offer access to a similar but smaller machine with 6 qubits.

MonarQ is a 24-qubit superconducting quantum computer developed in Montreal by Anyon Systems and located at the École de technologie supérieure. For more information on MonarQ's specifications and performance, see Technical Specifications below.

The name MonarQ is inspired by the shape of the qubit circuit on the quantum processor, which resembles the monarch butterfly, a symbol of evolution and migration. The capital 'Q' refers to the quantum nature of the computer and its Québec origin. MonarQ's acquisition was made possible through the support of the Ministère de l'Économie, de l'Innovation et de l'Énergie du Québec (MEIE) and Développement Économique Canada (DEC).

Accessing MonarQ

  1. To begin the MonarQ access process, fill out this form. It must be completed by the principal investigator.
  2. You must have an Alliance account to access MonarQ.
  3. Meet with our team to discuss the specifics of your project, access, and billing details.
  4. Receive access to the MonarQ dashboard and generate your access token.
  5. To get started, see Getting Started on MonarQ below.

Contact our quantum team at quantique@calculquebec.ca if you have any questions or wish to have a more general discussion before requesting access.

Technical Specifications

Similar to quantum processors available today, MonarQ operates in an environment where noise remains a significant factor. Performance metrics, updated with each calibration, are accessible via the Thunderhead portal. Access to this portal requires MonarQ access approval.

The following metrics are available, among others: * 24-qubit quantum processor * Single-qubit gate with 99.8% fidelity and 32ns duration * Two-qubit gate with 96% fidelity and 90ns duration * Coherence time of 4-10μs (depending on state) * Maximum circuit depth of approximately 350 for single-qubit gates and 115 for two-qubit gates

Quantum Computing Software

Several specialized software libraries exist for quantum computing and developing quantum algorithms. These libraries allow you to build circuits that are executed on simulators that mimic the performance and results obtained on a quantum computer such as MonarQ. They can be used on all Alliance clusters.

The quantum logic gates of the MonarQ processor are called via a Snowflurry software library, written in Julia. Although MonarQ is natively compatible with Snowflurry, a PennyLane-CalculQuébec plugin developed by Calcul Québec allows circuits to be run on MonarQ while benefiting from the functionalities and development environment offered by PennyLane.

Getting Started on MonarQ

Prerequisites

Ensure you have MonarQ access and your login credentials (username, API token). For any questions, write to quantique@calculquebec.ca.

Step 1: Connect to Narval

  • MonarQ is only accessible from Narval, a Calcul Québec cluster. Access to Narval is via the connection node narval.alliancecan.ca.
  • For help connecting to Narval, see the SSH page.

Step 2: Create the Environment

  • Create a Python virtual environment (3.11 or later) to use PennyLane and the PennyLane-CalculQuébec plugin. These are already installed on Narval, and you will only need to import the software libraries you wish to use.
module load python/3.11
virtualenv --no-download --clear ~/ENV && source ~/ENV/bin/activate
pip install --no-index --upgrade pip
pip install --no-index --upgrade pennylane-calculquebec
python -c "import pennylane; import pennylane_calculquebec"

Step 3: Configure your MonarQ Credentials and Define MonarQ as a Device

  • Open a Python .py file and import the necessary dependencies, such as PennyLane and CalculQuebecClient in the example below.
  • Create a client with your credentials. Your token is available from the Thunderhead portal. The host is https://monarq.calculquebec.ca.
  • Create a PennyLane device with your client. You can also mention the number of qubits (wires) to use and the number of samples (shots).
  • For help, consult pennylane_calculquebec.
my_circuit.py
import pennylane as qml
from pennylane_calculquebec.API.client import CalculQuebecClient

my_client = CalculQuebecClient(host="https://monarq.calculquebec.ca", user="your username", access_token="your access token", project_id="your project_id")

dev = qml.device("monarq.default", client = my_client, wires = 3)

Step 4: Create Your Circuit

  • In the same Python file, you can now code your quantum circuit.
my_circuit.py
@qml.set_shots(1000)
@qml.qnode(dev)

def bell_circuit():
    qml.Hadamard(wires=0)
    qml.CNOT(wires=[0, 1]) 
    qml.CNOT(wires=[1, 2])

    return qml.counts()

result = bell_circuit()
print(result)

Step 5: Execute Your Circuit from the Scheduler

$ sbatch simple_job.sh
Submitted batch job 123456

With a Slurm script resembling this:

simple_job.sh
#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --time=00:15:00
#SBATCH --account=def-someuser # Your username
#SBATCH --cpus-per-task=1      # Modify if applicable
#SBATCH --mem-per-cpu=1G       # Modify if applicable
python my_circuit.py
* The circuit's result is written to a file named starting with slurm-, followed by the job ID and the .out suffix, for example, slurm-123456.out. * This file contains the result of our circuit in a dictionary {'000': 496, '001': 0, '010': 0, '011': 0, '100': 0, '101': 0, '110': 0, '111': 504}. * For more information on how to submit jobs on Narval, see Running Jobs.

Common Questions

Other Tools

Applications

MonarQ is suited for calculations requiring small quantities of high-fidelity qubits, making it an ideal tool for the development and testing of quantum algorithms. Other possible applications include modeling small quantum systems; testing new methods and techniques for quantum programming and error correction; and more generally, fundamental research in quantum computing.

Technical Support

If you have questions about our quantum services, write to quantique@calculquebec.ca. Sessions on quantum computing and programming with MonarQ are listed here.