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Concept
Quantum simulator
Summary
Quantum simulators permit the study of a quantum system in a programmable fashion. In this instance, simulators are special purpose devices designed to provide insight about specific physics problems. Quantum simulators may be contrasted with generally programmable "digital" quantum computers, which would be capable of solving a wider class of quantum problems.
A universal quantum simulator is a quantum computer proposed by Yuri Manin in 1980 and Richard Feynman in 1982. Feynman showed that a classical Turing machine would not be able to simulate a quantum effect, while his hypothetical universal quantum computer would be able to mimic needed quantum effect.
A quantum system of many particles could be simulated by a quantum computer using a number of quantum bits similar to the number of particles in the original system. This has been extended to much larger classes of quantum systems.
Quantum simulators have been realized on a number of experimental platforms, including systems of ultracold quantum gases, polar molecules, trapped ions, photonic systems, quantum dots, and superconducting circuits.
Many important problems in physics, especially low-temperature physics and many-body physics, remain poorly understood because the underlying quantum mechanics is vastly complex. Conventional computers, including supercomputers, are inadequate for simulating quantum systems with as few as 30 particles because the dimension of the Hilbert space grows exponentially with particle number. Better computational tools are needed to understand and rationally design materials whose properties are believed to depend on the collective quantum behavior of hundreds of particles. Quantum simulators provide an alternative route to understanding the properties of these systems. These simulators create clean realizations of specific systems of interest, which allows precise realizations of their properties. Precise control over and broad tunability of parameters of the system allows the influence of various parameters to be cleanly disentangled.
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