{"id":233,"date":"2008-02-11T00:34:17","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T05:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=233"},"modified":"2008-02-11T00:36:27","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T05:36:27","slug":"quantum-computers-and-the-death-of-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/?p=233","title":{"rendered":"Quantum computers and the death of chemistry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/quantum-chemistry.jpg\" title=\"Quantum chemistry\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/quantum-chemistry.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"Quantum chemistry\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to chemistry, computer simulations suck. The best they can do is simulate the electron dynamics of a helium atom, which is almost as simple as it gets. Never mind the rest of the periodic table and how the elements interact with each other.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s gonna change when we get quantum computers, says Ivan Kassal, a chemist at Harvard University. He and a few buddies have worked out that a relatively simple quantum computer could generate an &#8220;exact, polynomial-time simulation of chemical reactions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>It might not be long before we see the fruits of this kinda computation. Kassal calculates that a quantum computer with only 100 qubits could simulate the entire quantum dynamics of a lithium atom, a feat that is beyond all the conventional computer power on the planet right now.That&#8217;s impressive and destined to make chemistry even more unpopular than it already is.  Who&#8217;ll want to mess around with test tubes and bunsen burners when a quantum computer can work out the answer while ya put ya feet up?<\/p>\n<p>So how long before the quantum death of chemistry? That&#8217;s hard to say. Physicists are already messing around with quantum comuters that work with 10 quibits, not nearly enough to do anything interesting with yet.  So we&#8217;ll need an order of magnitude improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Sticking my neck out, I&#8217;d say we&#8217;ll have 100 quibit quantum computers within 7 years, based on nonlinear optical technology (gulp).<\/p>\n<p>Ref: <a href=\"http:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/0801.2986\">arxiv.org\/abs\/0801.2986<\/a>: Quantum Algorithms for the Simulation of Chemical Dynamics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to chemistry, computer simulations suck. The best they can do is simulate the electron dynamics of a helium atom, which is almost as simple as it gets. Never mind the rest of the periodic table and how the elements interact with each other. But that&#8217;s gonna change when we get quantum computers, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-calculatin","category-the-ant-playground"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/arxivblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}