A quantum computer has simulated a wormhole for the first time

A quantum computer was used to simulate a holographic wormhole for the first time. In this case, the word ‘holographic’ refers to a way of simplifying physical problems involving both quantum mechanics and gravity, rather than literal holograms, so such a simulation would be able to combine these two concepts. It could help us understand how to combine it with the theory of quantum gravity. It is the most difficult and most important problem in physics today.

Quantum mechanics, which governs the very small, and general relativity, which describes gravity and the very large, have been very successful in their respective domains, but these two fundamental theories do not agree. This incompatibility is especially pronounced in areas where both theories should apply, such as in and around black holes.

These areas are very complex and that’s where holography comes into play. A physicist can create a simple system equivalent to the original, just as a 2D hologram can show his 3D details.

Maria Spirople Caltech and her colleagues used Google’s Sycamore quantum computer to simulate a holographic wormhole, a tunnel through spacetime with black holes at each end. They simulated the type of wormhole a message could theoretically pass through, and examined the process by which such a message could make its journey.

In real wormholes, that movement is primarily mediated by gravity, but in holographic wormholes quantum effects are used instead of gravity to remove relativity from the equations and simplify the system. So when a message passes through a wormhole, it actually undergoes quantum teleportation. This is the process by which information about a quantum state is transmitted between two separated but entangled particles. In this simulation, the “message” was a signal containing quantum states (qubits of both 1 and 0 superpositions).

“The signal becomes confused, muddy, chaotic, undone, and appears white on the other side,” says Spiropulu. “Even with this small system, we were able to prop up the wormhole and observe what we expected.” This is caused by quantum entanglement between two black holes. This keeps information that fell at one end of the wormhole at the other end. This process is part of why quantum computers are useful for this kind of experiment.

Only 9 quantum bits (qubits) were used in the simulation, so the resolution was very low. Like a photo of a bird taken from afar, it had the same overall shape as the object, but the simulation had to be carefully adjusted to show the wormhole features. “If you want to view this as a wormhole, there are some similarities, but that’s definitely a matter of interpretation,” he said. Adam Brown He was not involved in this research.

A more powerful quantum computer would allow us to focus the image. “This is just a small wormhole, the first step in testing the theory of quantum gravity. As quantum computers scale up, we will use larger quantum systems to test bigger ideas with quantum gravity.” need, ”he says Spiropulu.

This is very important because some theories of quantum gravity are difficult or even impossible to fully understand using classical computing alone. “I know quantum gravity is a very confusing thing and it’s very difficult to draw predictions from theory. The dream is to do something with a quantum computer that we don’t know about quantum gravity yet,” Brown said. says. “This isn’t it. It’s a quantum computer so tiny that it’s perfectly possible to simulate everything on a laptop without even starting a fan.”

However, simulation similarities Penetration into a real wormhole suggests that we might be able to use quantum computers to formulate and test ideas about quantum gravity, and eventually make sense of it.