Zhang Bin/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images
Over the past decade, quantum computing has grown to one billion dollars. It seems that everyone is investing, from technology giants, such as IBM and Google, to the American army.
but IGNACIO CIRAC At the Max Planck Institute for quantum optics in Germany, a pioneer in technology, has a more realistic evaluation. “The quantum computer is something that is not at the present time,” he says. This is because one building already works – which is practical to use – is very difficult.
This story is part of our own concepts, in which we reveal how experts think about some of the most interesting ideas in science. Read more here
Instead of “parts” traditional machines, computers use these quantum bits, or Qubits, to encrypt the information. These can be made in several ways, from the supernatural circles of highly connecting to very cold atoms, but they are all complicated.
The upward trend is that its quantum properties can be used to make certain types of account more quickly than standard computers.
This speed is attractive to a set of problems struggled by regular computers, from simulating exotic physics systems to schedule passenger trips efficiently or grocery delivery operations to supermarkets. Five years ago, quantum computers seemed to improve these other computer challenges.
Today, the situation is more accurate. It is recognized that the progress in building the largest quantum computers ever was amazing, as many companies have evolved machinery that included more than 1000 quarter. But this also revealed impossible difficulties.
One of the main problems is that with the increase in the size of these computers, it tends to make more errors, and find ways to prevent or repair them, it has proven to be more difficult than expected. Last year, Google researchers have achieved the most prominent of them in this problem so far, but though, the quantum computers were not completely useful here – CIC indicated.
For this reason, the list of realistic applications for these machines may be shorter than we were hoping. The cost of one construction is weighs against the smaller savings of imaginations that it can provide, and for many cases of use, it may not have an economic meaning. “The biggest wrong belief is that the quantum computer can accelerate any problem,” says Cirac.
Therefore, what are the problems that may still benefit from the quantum account? Quantum computers can break the encryption systems that we currently use for safe communication, and this makes technology interesting for governments and other institutions that can be exposed to their security, Scott Aronson At the University of Texas in Austin.
Another place where quantum computers should remain useful in chemical modeling and interactions. This is because quantum computers themselves are a system of quantum organisms, perfectly suitable for simulating other quantum systems, such as electrons, atoms and molecules.
“These will be simplified models,” he says. “But if you designed the system appropriately, they will have enough real material properties that you can learn something about their physics,” he says. Daniel Gotsman At the University of Maryland.
Quantum chemistry simulations may seem more place than scheduling flights, but some potential-finding consequences for room temperature, for example-will be transformed.
The extent to which all this really realizes is highly dependent on quantum algorithms, and the instructions that tell quantum computers how to operate – and help correct these annoying errors. This is a new field full of challenges Vedran Dongko At the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, researchers like him are forced to face basic questions about information and computing.
“This provides a great motivation to study the hardness of problems and the power of computing devices,” says Dunjko. “For me, this will be a sufficient reason to perpetuate a large part of my life for these questions.”
Read other stories in this series using the links below:
Topics:
2025-06-23 14:00:00