Quantum computers promise unbeatable computing power , capable of performing any type of operation incredibly quickly. But is there a limit to how fast they can do it?
But quantum computing also has its limits . In fact, studies that several research groups have been conducting during the last decade have observed that these limits are those of classical speed (the speed that we all intuit and understand, that of the space traveled per unit of time when traveling by car or going out to run).
Previous researchers had suggested that quantum speed limits are purely quantum in nature and that they disappear for classical systems. But the investigations carried out by two study groups – one formed by Brendan Shanahan and Adolfo del Campo at the University of Massachusetts along with Aurelia Chenu and Norman Margolus at MIT; the other – Manaka Okuyama from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Masayuki Ohzeki from Tohoku University – indicate something quite different.
In quantum mechanics, velocity is defined as fluctuations in energy that take place in relation to elapsed time (generally measured in nanoseconds). The limits of said speed would refer to a situation of uncertainty, based on the proposal that Heisenberg elaborated in 1927, and would come to mean something like that, if we know very precisely the position of a subatomic particle, we will not be able to know in a very precise way. so precise its speed and vice versa, but transferred to the time-energy relationship.
For its part, the only known limitation of the speed of classical systems is that objects cannot travel faster than the speed of light , but this has nothing to do with the energy-time relationship at the limits of quantum speed. .
However, the aforementioned works show that speed limits based on a balance between energy and time are also given for classical systems. Ultimately, the results show that quantum speed limits are not based on any underlying quantum phenomenon , but rather are a universal property of the description of any physical process, be it quantum or classical.
