First quantum computer simulator operates at the speed of light

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First quantum computer simulator operates at the speed of light

Physicist Richard Feynman first proposed it in 1982, and now it exists: the first universal, digital quantum simulator— that is, a very basic quantum computer that, only using a few quantum bits, can perform functions at the level of a modern supercomputer, only at the speed of light.

“We show in our experiment that our method works and that we can virtually recreate and investigate many systems,” said Benjamin Lanyon from the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in a press release. “When we want to study another phenomenon, we only need to reprogram our simulator.”

The memory is in the form of a handful of trapped ions controlled by laser pulses that can be used to process giant mathematical descriptions of whatever phenomenon a scientist would like to study, such as protein folding, semiconductors, or any other mysterious behavior of super tiny things.

“This is one of those computations that can be done on quantum computers that always takes second fiddle to discussions about cryptography,” said Christopher Slowe, the chief scientist at Hipmunk who has a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard. “Honestly, being able to factor huge numbers is pretty amazing, but being able to efficiently simulate other quantum systems is even more amazing.”

Via