NIST's Quantum Simulator Mimics Hundreds of Qubits Interacting
A Layer of Super-Cooled Beryllium Ions Can Act as a Quantum System Simulator Britton/NIST In a case that's somewhat chicken-and-egg, one of the many reasons computer scientists and physicists are pursuing a working quantum computer is to model quantum systems themselves. Modeling some quantum properties for systems even with a just a few dozen particles is impossible on even the biggest conventional supercomputers, and the pursuit of new materials and next-level science requires that we find a way to do so. So it's notable that physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have constructed a quantum simulator can simulate interaction between hundreds of quantum bits. This isn't the holy grail of quantum computing by any means, but it's an exciting step forward. The NIST simulator is basically a single layer of beryllium ions, hundreds of them stretching across a circular plane less than one millimeter in diameter hovering...
Read the whole article on PopSci
More from PopSci
Related
- NIST physicists benchmark quantum simulator with hundreds of qubitsThu, 26 Apr 2012, 0:34:22 EDT
- Quantum computers will be able to simulate particle collisionsFri, 1 Jun 2012, 14:34:07 EDT
- NIST develops 'dimmer switch' for superconducting quantum computingWed, 28 Apr 2010, 10:53:57 EDT
- Quantum simulation with light: Frustrations between photon pairsThu, 5 May 2011, 11:06:38 EDT
- World record: Julich supercomputer simulates quantum computerWed, 31 Mar 2010, 5:29:35 EDT