The so-called hyperchaos in quantum computers was discovered by a team of researchers from the Competence Center of the National Technology Initiative in the direction of Robotics and Mechatronics Component Technologies, together with researchers from Loughborough University (UK).
It was previously known that in systems associated with qubits – bits in quantum physics that can be simultaneously in two different states between 0 and 1, that is, in superposition, oscillations can be observed. However, it was the first time the experts were able to show that in such systems not only chaos is possible, but also heprchaos.
In the course of theoretical studies of the far from equilibrium dynamics of two-level quantum systems, scientists have found that two coupled qubits can exhibit chaotic behavior. In this case, in systems with five or more elements, hyperchaos arises, which prevents qubits from performing their functions in quantum computers, where they are objects for storing and transmitting information.
So, the recording of information in a system of qubits occurs when they are stationary in a periodic structure (lattice). Some of them are transformed by external laser radiation into an excited state, that is, their electrons are transferred from the main energy level to a high level.
At certain parameters of external radiation, the difference between the number of electrons begins to perform periodic oscillations. Their scientists are able to predict and control easily. Russian physicists have discovered that these oscillations can become chaotic, as a result of which the entire system goes out of control, and with a larger number of qubits, hyperchaos can arise, and it is almost impossible to control the system. Thus, scientists were able to detect the parameters of the occurrence of hyperchaos, but at the same time they were able to find methods for its effective suppression.
“The computing power of quantum computers directly depends on the number of qubits: the more there are, the more powerful the devices,” said Alexander Tormasov, Advisor of the Russian Quantum Center, Rector of Innopolis University. “Controlling hyperchaos in quantum objects will allow working with larger quantum devices.”
Developments in the field of quantum systems can potentially allow scientists to dramatically increase the computing power, and the results of this study, according to physicists, will bring closer to the practical implementation of high-power quantum computers. They will be several thousand times more powerful than classical computers, and with them humanity will receive new technologies for information security, the creation of drugs and precise positioning systems, as well as new ways of transportation.
According to the head of the Laboratory of Neuroscience and Cognitive Technologies of the NTI Competence Center at the Innopolis University, Alexander Khramov, the problem of the possibility of chaos in quantum systems is currently one of the actively discussed in quantum physics.
He noted that the growing adoption of modern quantum technologies requires scientists to improve the properties of quantum elements, including increasing the size of chains or lattices of qubits, but this may be caused by unstable dynamics in their networks.
“An important and not completely clear question remains – how can chaos arise in a quantum system, what are the mechanisms and scenarios of such a regime,” Khramov noted. “We believe that now there is a lack of a convenient theoretical basis on the basis of which it will become clear how a complex nonlinear dynamics in qubit networks ”.
An article about this study was published in the journal Nature.
On January 18, it became known that specialists from the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed an optical-electronic system of relative navigation for docking with satellites. As explained at the institute, the system includes a narrow-angle and wide-angle TV cameras, a time-of-flight camera that transmits 3D images of an object, and a laser distance meter.