Physicists have opened the door to the simulation of previously unsolvable problems in chemistry, materials research or high-energy physics.
Many scientists are currently working on investigating how quantum advantage can be exploited on hardware already available today. Using a new method, researchers have now surpassed these limits. They use a programmable ion trap quantum computer with 20 quantum bits as a quantum coprocessor, in which quantum mechanical calculations that reach the limits of classical computers are outsourced. The quantum simulator takes over the computationally complex quantum problems and the classical computer solves the remaining tasks.
The researchers can check whether the quantum system delivers the right result. They have solved this question for the first time by making additional measurements in the quantum system. Based on the results, the quantum machine assesses the quality of the simulation. Such a verification mechanism is the prerequisite for even more complex quantum simulations because the necessary number of quantum bits increases sharply.