Contrary to classical bits, quantum bits can assume two states at the same time: Right and left, yellow and blue, zero and one.
Credit: KIT
Hurricanes, traffic jams, demographic development – to predict the effect of such events, computer simulations are required. Many processes in nature, however, are so complicated that conventional computers fail. Quantum simulators may solve this problem. One of the basic phenomena in nature is the interaction between light and matter in photosynthesis. Physicists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now made a big step towards quantum mechanics understanding of plant metabolism. This is reported in Nature Communications.
“A quantum simulator is the preliminary stage of a quantum computer. Contrary to a quantum computer, however, it is not able to make any calculations, but designed for the solution of a certain problem,” Jochen Braumüller of KIT’s Physikalisches Institut (Institute of Physics) says. As the high efficiency of the process of mass and energy conversion of plants with the help of light cannot be understood completely with classical physical theories, researchers like Braumüller use a quantum model.
The high efficiency of this mechanism of nearly 100% suggests that it is subject to rules of quantum physics, which is difficult to simulate with classical computers and simple bits. Braumüller and his co-authors have now developed one of the first functioning components for a quantum simulator of light-matter interaction:
Superconducting circuits as quantum bits represent the atoms, i.e. matter, while electromagnetic resonators represent the photons, i.e. light. The physicists succeeded in producing an effect with the quantum bit and the resonator assuming two opposite states at the same time. “Qubit and resonator are coupled,” says Michael Marthaler of KIT’s TFP. “This also is the reason for the exponentially improved calculation capacity compared to classical computers.” Fulfilling of this fundamental principle of quantum mechanics has demonstrated feasibility of analog quantum simulation with superconducting circuits, the researchers say.
As a next step, they plan to extend their system by many other building blocks. “Classical simulation of this extended system would take longer than the age of the universe,” says Martin Weides, who has been heading a working group at KIT’s Physikalisches Institut since 2015. If the planned quantum mechanics simulation will be successful, this will be a “milestone on the way towards a universal quantum computer.”
https://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2017_143_quantum-simulator-first-functioning-component.php
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