A team of four researchers at RIKEN has successfully used two small quantum computers to simulate quantum information scrambling, a key process in quantum information science. Their success highlights one of the promising applications that future quantum computers could provide.
Although still at an early stage of development, quantum computers are starting to find practical uses. As the technology advances, they are expected to transform computing in profound ways.
One promising use for quantum computers is modeling the scrambling of quantum information, a fundamental process where information disperses throughout a quantum system, from exotic materials like strange metals to extreme environments such as black holes.
When information is first encoded into one region of a quantum system, it gradually becomes diluted through different interactions until it is distributed across the entire system.
Although the information is still present, reconstructing it becomes far more difficult because it requires access to the whole system. Black holes represent the most extreme example of this process, acting as the ultimate scramblers of quantum information.
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