One of the long-promised benefits of quantum computers is simulating molecules very quickly, but it turns out that these extra-fast speeds might not be possible
Technology 16 August 2022
By Alex Wilkins
An artist’s impression of a quantum computer
Bartlomiej K. Wroblewski/Shutterstock
Quantum computers may not be able to simulate molecules and solve other problems in chemistry as fast as researchers had hoped, a new analysis has found.
The promise of quantum computers is that they can solve some tasks exponentially faster than ordinary computers, but this hasn’t yet been demonstrated for useful, real-world problems.
One highly anticipated application is calculating the energy levels of molecules, an important task in chemistry. But Garnet Chan at the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues, including …