A trio of theorists have already figured out a feature of quantum computers that are believed to be years away. These theorists believe physicists might be able to study the mysteries of the universe using this computer. This computer requires some technology that is not even available yet. But once this computer is ready, it might help people to solve some complex problems that are out of reach of the most powerful computer of today. This trio of theorists includes one theorist from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. If the news is true, physicists can expect to study the inner workings of the universe with raw power of quantum computers.
The switches used in these computers will take advantage of quantum mechanics. This will help the computers to find out all the possible solutions to a problem in a short amount of time. This outstanding ability could allow the computers to solve and break complex codes easily.
"We have this theoretical model of the quantum computer, and one of the big questions is, what physical processes that occur in nature can that model represent efficiently?" said Stephen Jordan, a theorist of NIST's Applied and Computational Mathematics Division. He also added "Maybe particle collisions, maybe the early universe after the Big Bang? Can we use a quantum computer to simulate them and tell us what to expect?"
The theorists also created an algorithm that can be used on any quantum computer no matter what technology will be used to build it. The team proved their algorithm using the principles of quantum mechanics. They displayed the algorithm is quite capable of summing up the effects of the contacts between colliding particles. This algorithm currently requires a large accelerator and years of effort to study. The colliding particles can be quite complex in its quantum state which make things challenging for today's computers.
"What's nice about the simulation is that you can raise the complexity of the problem by increasing the energy of the particles and collisions, but the difficulty of solving the problem does not increase so fast that it becomes unmanageable," says John Preskill of Caltech. "It means a quantum computer could handle it feasibly."
