The Algorithm
Melvin found out that the most simple realization
can be asymmetric
and therefore counterintuitive
(Copyright: Robert
Fickler, Universität Wien).
(February 22, 2016) Algorithm
does not work intuitive – just as quantum physics
Quantum physics is counterintuitive. Many of the phenomena
in the quantum world do not have a classical analog: In the quantum world, a
coin is not either heads or tails – but can have both properties at the same
time. For a better understanding of such phenomena, laboratory experiments are
indispensable. Quantum physicist Mario Krenn and his colleagues in the group of
Anton Zeilinger from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna and the
Austrian Academy of Sciences have developed an algorithm which designs new
useful quantum experiments. As the computer does not rely on human intuition,
it finds novel unfamiliar solutions. The research has just been published in
the journal Physical Review Letters.
The idea was developed when the physicists wanted to create
new quantum states in the laboratory, but were unable to conceive of methods to
do so. “After many unsuccessful attempts to come up with an experimental
implementation, we came to the conclusion that our intuition about these
phenomena seems to be wrong. We realized that in the end we were just trying
random arrangements of quantum building blocks. And that is what a computer can
do as well – but thousands of times faster”, explains Mario Krenn, PhD student
in Anton Zeilinger’s group and first author research.