Quantum Processors Model the Flow of Information in Complex Materials

Algorithmiq, in collaboration with IBM, Flatiron Institute, EPFL, and the University of Ljubljana

Richard Feynman's 1981 insight - that quantum systems should be used to simulate other quantum systems - has guided four decades of scientific effort.

Here, we describe an experiment that realizes this vision in a physically meaningful regime: using a Heron IBM processor, we have modeled operator dynamics in heterogeneous quantum materials, revealing information-flow patterns beyond the reach of classical computation.

The model, designed and theoretically studied by Algorithmiq, demonstrates how structured disorder shapes transport, localization, and entanglement.

The results, benchmarked against state-of-the-art classical simulation methods, including techniques from Flatiron Institute and EPFL, inaugurate an openly verifiable era of useful quantum advantage.

In 1981, Feynman asked whether a classical computer could efficiently simulate quantum mechanics.

He concluded that it could not - the number of variables required grows exponentially with system size - and proposed instead a new kind of computer that "obeys quantum laws."

Four decades later, that question has evolved.

Rather than seeking abstract proofs of "quantum supremacy," today's researchers aim to demonstrate useful quantum advantage: cases where quantum hardware yields physically meaningful insight that no known classical method can reproduce.

At Algorithmiq we have designed one of the most flexible and programmable models to simulate quantum systems capturing regions of different degrees of complexity, including cases that defy all state-of-the-art classical computational methods attempted so far.

In his 1981 speech, "Simulating Physics with Computers," Richard Feynman says: "Nature isn't classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of Nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly it's a wonderful problem, because it doesn't look so easy." Complex materials like the Algorithmiq's models of heterogeneous structures on the left, are hard to simulate classically but currently available quantum computers are capable of doing that with proper algorithms.