Communications of the ACM
Clarifying Complex Chemical Processes With Quantum Computers
Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland say future quantum computers will be able to evaluate a complex chemical reaction.
Credit: ETH Zurich
Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland say they have demonstrated a concrete example of a future application for quantum computers: evaluating a complex chemical reaction.
The researchers used simulations to demonstrate how a complex chemical reaction could be calculated with the help of a quantum computer.
The team chose a complex biochemical reaction as the example for its study, as certain microorganisms use a special enzyme called nitrogenase to split atmospheric nitrogen molecules in order to create chemical compounds with single nitrogen atoms.
The researchers demonstrated that a hypothetical quantum computer with 100 to 200 quantum bits has the potential to compute complex sub-problems within a few days, producing results that could be used to determine the reaction mechanism of nitrogenase step by step.
"Quantum computers need to be thought of more like a co-processor capable of taking over particular tasks from classical computers, thus allowing them to become more efficient," says ETH professor Markus Reiher.
From ETH Zurich
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