Quantum Supremacy: Chapter 4
January 15, 2025
Summary
Explains why quantum computers are possible
Quick Notes
- A good physicist proves himself wrong as many times as possible
- Feynman got introduced to an idea of least action. Where if you imagine a ball rolling down a hill and all the paths it could take, how do you determine the path it does take? His teacher told him to consider all possible paths, even the crazy ones like going to the moon and back, and pick the path that has least amount of action. This equates to solving this problem using Newtonian physics of taking the gravitational forces acting on the ball at each moment to determine a path.
- He then formed the integral path equation that takes all possible paths and sums them up
- Copenhagen interpretation includes all waves collapsing but the Everett interpretation let's all waves exist without collapsing.
- If parallel worlds exist, we can't see them because we aren't coherent with the frequency of that world
- Parts of quantum theory that make quantum computers possible:
- superposition - before you observe an object, it exists in many states
- engtanglement - two particles are coherent despite the distance between them and can influence each other
- integral paths - when a particle travels between two points, it can take any path. Even though it will most likely take the gravitational path, all other paths are possible.
- tunneling - particles have a chance of penetrating a barrier