IQM finds nature is quantum, and that’s where the trouble starts

IQM is challenging a long-held assumption within quantum computing: that building a quantum computer automatically solves the problem of simulating nature. Physicists at the company have focused on investigating where a quantum system truly ends and its environment begins, a question that complicates the pursuit of accurate simulations. “Nature isn’t classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you’d better make it quantum mechanical…,” observed Richard Feynman, a sentiment IQM now argues requires deeper interrogation as teams attempt to translate quantum intuition into practical applications. The team’s work reveals that simply being quantum isn’t enough; a direct microscopic description of nature is unsuitable for current quantum computers. Investigations into non-Markovian dynamics reveal that defining a clean boundary between a quantum system and its surroundings is often impossible, as the environment can correlate with the system and feed information…