MvL-Kolloquium: Prof. Dr. Ignacio Cirac

Quantum computers promise to solve problems that the most advanced supercomputers will never be able to tackle. They range from simple mathematical operations to the simulation of quantum materials or chemical compounds. Spectacular advances in recent years have led to the first prototypes of quantum computers, which can already perform some calculations much more efficiently than any classical device. However, they have imperfections and are not easy to scale up. Still, there is much hope that these prototypes will already be useful in some applications; that is, with them one could gain a (quantum) advantage over existing supercomputers. In this talk I will discuss some of these problems and, in particular, about the quantum simulation of materials and other physical systems. In addition, I will discuss the difficulty of obtaining quantum advantage for other cases, such as optimization problems. Finally, I will mention the prospects and consequences of scaling up quantum computers.

Im Anschluss an das Kolloquium findet ein Stehempfang auf der Galerie des Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Baus, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Abbestraße 2–12, 10587 Berlin, statt.