Atom only acts as a quantum computer and simulate molecules
A quantum computer has used a unique atom to model the complex dynamics of organic molecules that interact with light
A view within the quantum computer of trapped ions that carried out a simulation of molecular chemistry in the first of IT.
Sydney University/Sciencebrush.Design
A single atom has made the first complete quantum simulations of how certain molecules react to light. The researchers who carried out the feat say that the minimalist approach could drastically accelerate the path to a ‘quantum advantage’, when quantum computers can predict the behavior of chemicals or orddinys so that they are beyond.
“The key advantage of this approach is that it is incredible efficient in hardware,” says Ting Rei Tan, an experimental quantum physicist at Sydney University. The unique atom can encode the information that normally extends through a more or less ‘quubits’ boxes, the computational units used in most quantum computers. The findings were published on May 14 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
No quantum computer had simulated this level of complexity in the energy levels of the molecules before, says Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a computational chemist at the University of Toronto in Canada. “This is a-for-the tour that will remain in the history books.”
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Excited electrons
So and his colleagues simulated the behavior of three different organic molecules, Allene, Butatriene and Pyazine, when they are beaten with an energetic part called Foton. When this happens, it triggers a waterfall of events in the molecule that affects both how its atoms move with respect to each other vibration-as balls connected by spring and how its electrons affirm to greater energy or excited. Understanding the precise sequence of these events can help chemists design molecules that channel energy in the most used or efficient way, for example in solar panels or in the sunscreen lotion.
The researchers found a way to codify the different parameters thesis in a single ion Ytterbium trapped in a vacuum using pulsating electric fields: the excitement of the electrons of the molecule corresponded to a similar fashion fashion, and two divergent, and two beloved, and two discounts and the ion of two ions that ion in two different directions in two directions. The team also pushed the ion with laser pulses to adapt how all states interacted with each other. This forced the Ion to evolve over time, which means that it could imitate how the corresponding molecules act after being beaten by a photon.
Then, the team read the state of virtual molecules in a sequence of different internships measuring the changing probability that the ion electron was in an excited state in time.
The results coincide with what was known about these three molecules, which validates the approach, says Tan. Allene, Butatrieno and Pyrazine are still simple enough to be studied with ordinary computer simulations, but the thesis is exhausted when they have to embody 20 or more vibrating modes, which is not uncommon for more complex molecules.
Kenneth Brown, a quantum engineer from the University of Duke in Durham, North Carolina, calls the study “Great Work”, and says it is the first time that researchers have how to tune this technique to imitate the properties of specific molecules.
Simulating the chemistry of molecules and materials is often described as one of the most promising uses for quantum computers, but which will produce useful results only machines have reduced many millions of quubits. So and his collaborators predict that with their approach, a quantum computer could make useful simulations to use only a few boxes of boxes.
This article reproduces with permission and laundry. First published May 16, 2025.
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