Finding guide → ~/Desktop/quantum-work
What this is. A navigable index pointing back at the rich quantum work tree on Erik's machine (
/Users/erikbethke/Desktop/quantum-work/). The actual material isn't in this strategy repo — it lives there. This page tells humans (Nao, Ken, Erik, anyone else) where to look for what.Why this exists. Sized up while prepping for the Derek / IonQ meeting Thursday. Erik asked for a finding guide so the prep team can navigate the quantum surface in ≤ 2 clicks. This is that.
The 60-second answer — “I want to…”
| If you want to… | Look at |
|---|---|
| Show Derek a polished IonQ engagement deck | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/ionq-engagement-deck/ — HTML investment proposals (v1, v2, and current), pptx, slide images. Two copies: pick the freshest. |
| Walk through a quantum paper reproduction | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/iter-qaoa/ (Iter-QAOA on JSSP) · or q-paper-neutron-scattering/ · or the deep-dive docs at quantum/docs-site/docs/papers/ |
| Explain Q-Work / Q-Portal as a platform | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/q-work/README.md (the runtime / examples) · ~/Desktop/quantum-work/q/README.md (the monorepo) · quantum/docs-site/docs/q-work/ and q-portal/ |
| Show the IonQ-specific knowledge corpus | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/ionq-knowledge/ — acquisitions, competitive, cloud, sales-enablement, playbooks, products, EXPEDITION-LOG.md |
| Show our optimization-domain knowledge base | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/optimization-knowledge/ — assignment, continuous, economic, general-or, DEEP-CARTOGRAPHER-TECHNIQUE.md |
| Show OptiHashi the product (viz + tooling) | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/optimal-viz/ · plus optihashi-encounter-generator.html at the root |
| Walk through the B4M Quantum Research Lab program | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/quantum/ — README + the full docs-site (cd docs-site && npm start). See “The docs-site” below. |
| Show IBM-side work / Gambetta briefing | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/ibm-quantum-lab-meeting/ and ibm-gambetta-briefing-2026-04-07.zip at root · plus quantum/docs-site/docs/ibm-quantum/ |
| See active paper reproductions | iter-qaoa/ (live on IonQ Forte) · deep-dive write-ups under quantum/docs-site/docs/papers/ |
Top-level map of ~/Desktop/quantum-work
Codebases (the platform)
| Folder | What it is |
|---|---|
q-work/ | The Q-Work runtime. Examples + legacy v1 + active work/ dir. README documents canonical examples: durable-cached workflow, IBM QPU sampler, IBM gateway sampler (+ cache reuse), IonQ gateway steps, IonQ multi-circuit. Provider abstraction: IBM + IonQ + classical. |
q/ | The Q monorepo — Q-Portal + Q-Work toolkit. Apps, packages, agentic, docs, infra. README: “Internal toolkit that lets Million on Mars researchers and engineers submit, monitor, and manage long-running quantum-enabled workloads across QPU, GPU, and classical compute targets.” |
quantum/ | B4M Quantum Research Lab. 24-month research program in partnership with IonQ and IQMetry. Contains the full docs-site (see below), plus quantumLab/, quantum-research/, control-plane/, DFAL/, fusion/, PGGI/, papers/, spikes/, showerThoughts/, briefing materials. |
optimal-viz/ | The OptiHashi visualization platform. From the README: “Business optimization visualization platform with QUBO and quantum solver integration. Interactive visualizations, QUBO encodings, and solver comparisons across 8 pattern families.” Has a docs/ subtree, multiple packages/, SST-deployed. |
Paper reproductions
| Folder | What it is |
|---|---|
iter-qaoa/ | Iter-QAOA reproduction. Reproducing arXiv:2510.26859v2 — “A Non-Variational Quantum Approach to the Job Shop Scheduling Problem.” Active on IonQ Forte (24/32/33/36q on QPU, 50q/97q in MPS sim). PLAN.md, qaoa/, jssp/, mitigation/, backends/, scripts/, analysis/. The reproduction that landed fast enough to surprise IonQ and reframe the engagement. |
q-paper-neutron-scattering/ | Neutron-scattering paper reproduction. AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, papers/, reproduction/, results/. |
Knowledge bases (curated corpora)
| Folder | What it is |
|---|---|
ionq-knowledge/ | IonQ-specific knowledge corpus. acquisitions/, cloud/, competitive/, playbooks/, products/, sales-enablement/, plus EXPEDITION-LOG.md, manifest.json, cartographer.py. |
optimization-knowledge/ | Optimization domain knowledge. assignment/, continuous/, economic/, general-or/, plus DEEP-CARTOGRAPHER-TECHNIQUE.md, EXPEDITION-LOG.md, cartographer.py, manifest.json. Same shape as ionq-knowledge/ — looks like the cartographer pattern applied to two domains. |
Customer-facing artifacts
| Folder / file | What it is |
|---|---|
ionq-engagement-deck/ + ionq-engagement-deck 2/ | IonQ engagement deck. Three HTML investment proposals (v1, v2, current), a pptx, slide images, a generate-pptx.py. Two near-identical copies of the folder — check timestamps; use the freshest. |
ibm-quantum-lab-meeting/ | IBM Gambetta meeting prep. erik-prep-conversation-2026-03-31.md + the meeting prep doc in both .docx and .md. |
ibm-gambetta-briefing-2026-04-07.zip (root) | The full IBM Gambetta briefing artifact from April 7. (Duplicate ZIP also present.) |
ionq-engagement-deck.zip (root) | ~10 MB zipped engagement deck. |
optihashi-encounter-generator.html (root) | Single-file HTML demo — the OptiHashi encounter-generator standalone demo. |
The docs-site — quantum/docs-site/
This is the substantial documentation site for the B4M Quantum Research Lab. Run it locally:
cd ~/Desktop/quantum-work/quantum/docs-site && npm start
It's a Docusaurus site (same engine as this strategy site) with the following sections under docs/:
Research narrative
journal/— research journal entrieslearning-journey/— the learning path through the programdeepthought/— design principles (design-principles/), RLM (Recursive Language Model) spike (rlm-spike/)quantum-research/— core research lab contentquantum-landscaping/— landscape mapping, includes ataxonomy/
Papers (the deep-dive library)
The richest folder. 11 paper deep-dives under docs-site/docs/papers/:
| Deep dive | Topic |
|---|---|
iterative-qaoa-deep-dive/ | The Iter-QAOA paper analysis |
iterative-qaoa-reproduction/ | The active reproduction docs |
protein-folding-deep-dive/ | Protein folding quantum approaches |
aircraft-loading-deep-dive/ | Aircraft loading optimization |
flight-gate-deep-dive/ | Flight gate scheduling |
unit-commitment-deep-dive/ | Power unit commitment (energy markets) |
kcuf3-neutron-deep-dive/ | KCuF3 neutron scattering |
varqite-linear-algebra-deep-dive/ | VarQITE on linear algebra |
var-it-deep-dive/ | Variational iteration techniques |
k2-taste/ | Cross-pollination with K2 / taste |
k2-kanji/ | Cross-pollination with K2 Kanji |
Platform & tooling
q-portal/— the Q-Portal product surfaceq-work/— the Q-Work runtimecontrol-plane/— control plane / orchestrationtooling/— misc toolingreference/— reference material:math-primer/,qiskit-field-guide/,frameworks/
Adjacent science
ibm-quantum/— IBM-side materialdfal/— DFAL (data-driven approach to discovering / analyzing…)fusion/— fusion research; includestae-deep-dive/(TAE Technologies?)other-quantum/— other quantum work that doesn't fit elsewhere
Operational
bizLegal/at the docs-site root — business / legal docsblog/— lab blogGROOMING_PLAN.md— the working plan for grooming the docs-site itselfBrownBagOMatic.md+DeepDiveOMatic.md— templates for the brown-bag / deep-dive content generation
Where the strategic threads connect
Cross-links between this guide and the rest of the strategy site:
- OptiHashi catalog page — the product framing for the conversational optimization product. The quantum work in this guide is the substrate underneath OptiHashi.
- B4M V3 Blueprint — the architecture for splitting the B4M platform into packages and blueprints; the IonQ Bucket 1 quantum work is the customer acid test for V3.
- Strategy update 2026-04-04 — Quantum section — the engagement framing: Bucket 1 / Bucket 2, the OptiHashi-drove-the-pivot story. (That update predates the May team change — see quantum-prep tactic for current context.)
- 2026 Roadmap — QUBO Appendix — the dogfooding-our-own-quantum-optimizer-on-our-own-portfolio thesis.
- Tactic: Quantum prep → Derek Thursday — the active prep work this guide supports.
Pre-packaged paths for the Thursday meeting
If Erik (or Derek) wants to navigate to a specific kind of artifact mid-meeting, these are the shortcuts:
| Demo intent | Path |
|---|---|
| Open the engagement deck | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/ionq-engagement-deck/IQMetry-IonQ-Investment-Proposal-v2.html (latest version — check timestamps in case there's newer) |
| Open the OptiHashi standalone demo | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/optihashi-encounter-generator.html (just open in a browser) |
| Run the research-lab docs-site | cd ~/Desktop/quantum-work/quantum/docs-site && npm start — serves locally |
| Walk through Iter-QAOA reproduction | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/iter-qaoa/PLAN.md and README.md, then ~/Desktop/quantum-work/quantum/docs-site/docs/papers/iterative-qaoa-reproduction/ |
| Show Q-Work in action | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/q-work/README.md for the examples list; ~/Desktop/quantum-work/q-work/examples/ionq-multi-circuit-gateway/ is the most demo-friendly one |
| Show the paper deep-dive library | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/quantum/docs-site/docs/papers/ — 11 deep-dives; pick whichever maps to the conversation |
| Show the optimization knowledge corpus | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/optimization-knowledge/DEEP-CARTOGRAPHER-TECHNIQUE.md introduces the cartographer pattern |
| Show the IBM-side briefing material | ~/Desktop/quantum-work/ibm-quantum-lab-meeting/erik-prep-conversation-2026-03-31.md |
What this guide is NOT
- Not a Q/Work user manual. Q/Work's own README and the
quantum/docs-site/docs/q-work/section are the real docs. This guide just points at them. - Not an OptiHashi spec. That's the OptiHashi catalog page. This guide just says where the OptiHashi viz / encounter-generator artifacts live.
- Not a paper-reproduction tutorial. It tells you where the reproductions live, not how to run them.
- Not exhaustive. If something useful exists in
~/Desktop/quantum-work/that's not in this guide, that's a bug — submit a PR to add it.
Last verified: 2026-05-17. Run a fresh ls -la ~/Desktop/quantum-work if the directory has been restructured since.