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Feynman Simulating

This document summarizes a keynote talk given by Richard Feynman at the first conference on Physics and Computation at MIT in 1981. In the talk, Feynman explores whether different types of physics can be simulated by different types of computers. He argues that while classical physics can be simulated by a classical computer, quantum physics cannot be simulated efficiently by a classical computer due to the exponential resources required. He conjectures that a universal quantum simulator built with quantum mechanical components could efficiently simulate any physical system by exploiting the same computational powers that nature uses. This would open up the possibility of using quantum computers to simulate quantum systems.

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217 views28 pages

Feynman Simulating

This document summarizes a keynote talk given by Richard Feynman at the first conference on Physics and Computation at MIT in 1981. In the talk, Feynman explores whether different types of physics can be simulated by different types of computers. He argues that while classical physics can be simulated by a classical computer, quantum physics cannot be simulated efficiently by a classical computer due to the exponential resources required. He conjectures that a universal quantum simulator built with quantum mechanical components could efficiently simulate any physical system by exploiting the same computational powers that nature uses. This would open up the possibility of using quantum computers to simulate quantum systems.

Uploaded by

Ashwin Ashwin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Simulating

Physics
with
Computers

Richard P.
Feynman
Presented by Pinchas Birnbaum
and Eran Tromer,
Weizmann Institute of Science

Richard P. Feynman
1918-1988

MIT (B.Sc.)
Princeton (Ph.D., research assistant),
Manhattan Project (atomic bombs),
Cornell (professor),
Caltech (professor)
Quantum electrodynamics (Nobel prize in 1965),
superfluidity,
weak nuclear force,
quark theory
Famous hobbies: drumming (including a Samba band in
Copacabana), safecracking, nude painting for Pasadena
massage parlor, space shuttle disaster investigation...

Richard P. Feynman:
educator
A lecture by Dr. Feynman is a rate treat indeed. For
humor and drama, suspense and interest it often rivals
Broadway stage plays. And above all, it crackles with
clarity. If physics is the underlying 'melody' of science,
then Dr. Feynman is its most lucid troubadour
Los Angeles Times science
editor, 1967

Richard P. Feynman:
author

Numerous textbooks / lecture transcripts

Feynman Lectures on Physics


Feynman Lectures on Computation
The Character of Physical Law
Quantum Electrodynamics
Statistical Mechanics
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
...

Popular books

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!


What Do You Care What Other People Think?
...

Background (1981)

Quantum theory has matured (to the extent relevant here)

Computer science is up and running

Computers have been used extensively for physical


computation
Recently understood links between physics and
computation:

Maxwell's Daemon: relation between irreversibility in


computation and thermodynamics
[Landauer 1961][Penrose 1970][Bennett 1982]

Universal reversible computation and equivalence to


general computation [Bennett 1973][Toffoli 1980]
Realization of (classical) Turing machine under quantum
formalism
[Benioff 1980]
which spurs...

1st conference on Physics and Computation, MIT, 1981

1st conference on Physics and Computation, MIT, 1981

Simulating Physics with Computers


Richard P. Feynman
Keynote talk, 1st conference on Physics and Computation, MIT, 1981
(International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 21: 467488, 1982)

1.Can classical physics be simulated by a classical


computer?
2.Can quantum physics be simulated by a classical
computer?
Classical vs. quantum computational separation
3.Can physics be simulated by a quantum computer?
Quantum computers
4.Can a quantum simulation be universal?
Quantum computation theory

Simulating physics?

Inherent part of using physics in other sciences and in


technology
Inherent part of doing physics:

Connection between theory and experiment


Derivation of known quantities from first principles
Identifying deficiencies in the theory
(e.g., diverging integrals)
Developing interpretations of the theory and
conceptualizations of its implications
(e.g., Feynman diagrams)

Computation lead to breakthroughs in linguistics,


psychology, logic. Apply computer-type thinking to
physics too.

(Meanwhile, behind the Iron Curtain...)

R. P. Poplavskii, Thermodynamical models of information


processing (in Russian), Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk,
115:3, 465501, 1975

Computational infeasibility of simulating quantum systems


on classical computers, due to superposition principle

Yuri I. Manin, Computable and uncomputable (in


Russian), Moscow, Sovetskoye Radio, 1980

Exploit the exponential number of basis states.


Need a theory of quantum computation that captures the
fundamental principles without committing to a physical
realization.

Simulation requirements

Exact
The computer will do exactly the same as nature
Dismisses numerical algorithms which yield an
approximate view of what physics have to do.
Linear size
Number of computer elements required for simulation
a physical system is proportional (!) to the space-time
volume of the physical system.
Locality
No long wires (equiv., non-zero propagation delay).

1. Can classical physics be simulated


by a classical computer?

Discretization

Problem: space and time are continuous, but


a (classical) computer is discrete.
Solution: assume/hope/pretend that the laws of nature
are discrete at a level sufficiently fine that no current
experimental evidence is contradicted.
Note: discretization quantization.

Simulating time

Classical physics is causal, so we can simulate the


system's time evolution step by step.
But then the time is not simulated at all, it is imitated
in the computer.
Alternative computational model, where each cell in a
space-time computational mesh is a function of its
neighbors (both past and future).
Wonders about classical algorithms for solving this
constraint-satisfaction problem...
?!

Simulating probability: explicitly

How to deal with probabilistic laws of nature (e.g.,


quantum mechanics)?
Explicit: the simulation outputs the probability of every
outcome
Problem: discretized probabilities can't be exact.
Problem: with R particles and N points in space, a
configuration of the physical system contains ~NR
probabilities. Too large to store (explicitly) in a
computer of size O(N).
We can't expect to compute the probability of
configurations for a probabilistic theory.

Roughly: claiming #P P or #P ZPP

(Implicit representations and time/space tradeoffs are not discussed.)

Simulating probability: implicitly

Implicit: the simulation outputs each a (destination of)


each outcome with correct probability.
Probabilistic simulator of a probabilistic nature.
Monte Carlo computation:
To get a prediction, run the simulator many times and
compute its statistics. You will get the same accuracy
as in measurements of the physical system.
?!

But if an approximation vs. resources trade-off is


allowed, why can't it allowed for the explicit simulator?
The probability discretization problem remains (up to a
polymomial factor)

2. Can quantum physics be simulated


by a classical computer?

Q&A

Can a quantum system be probabilistically simulated


by a classical (probabilistic, I assume) universal
computer? In other words, a computer which will give
the same probabilities as the quantum system does.
(with discretized time and space, and implicit output)

The answer is certainly, 'No!' This is called the hiddenvariable theorem: It is impossible to represent the
result of quantum mechanics with a classical universal
device.
[Bell 1964]
(Proof omitted.)

Standard modern argument

A state of the physical system corresponds to a


function assigning a value to every basis configuration.
The number of states is thus exponential in the size of
the system.

Moreover, these values are continuous.

Different computational paths may add up.

Nature makes this computation efficiently.

But can a classical computers do so?


Sure. I've just described probabilistic classical physics
and probabilistic classical computation.

Quantum vs. classical

A classical (stochastic) state is represented by


probability function:
P(x,p)

A quantum (mixed) state is represented by a


state matrix function:
(x,x')

The state matrix behaves like probability in many


ways, except it may be negative (or complex).

(Note that the state matrix formalism differs from state function
formalism more often employed in quantum computation.)

Negative probabilities

Conveniently, quantum mechanics does not allow


measurement of arbitrary events over this probability
space (the Uncertainty Principle).
The allowed events have non-negative probability.
But inside the computation, you can get spooky
behavior with no classical analog: interference.

Contradicts locality, by Bell's theorem.

We assumed locality for the computer.

Hence, can't simulate that classically.


(Implicitly assumes a locality-preserving mapping of
the physical system to the computer.)

Can't we?

Explicit simulation

Explicitly keep track of the full state matrix (x,x') and


compute its evolution.
Exponential in number of the size of the system,
contradicts proportional size requirement.

Summation along computational paths

Quantum mechanics is linear


Do a depth-first search on the computation tree;
compute the probability of each path separation and
keep a running sum.
Exponential time, polynomial space (BQP in PSPACE)
Essentially: path integral
[Feynman 1948]
(No discussion of time complexity.)

A side remark:.

3. Can quantum physics be simulated


by a quantum computer?
4. Can this simulation be universal?

A quantum computer

If physics is too hard for classical computers, then build a


physical computer that exploits that power.
It does seem to be true that all various field theories have
the same kind of behavior, and can be simulated every
way.
Example: phenomena in field theory imitated in solid state
theory (e.g, spin waves in spin pattice imitating Bose particles in field theory).
Proposes to investigate the simulability relations between
different (quantum) physical systems.
Quantum analog of Church-Turing thesis.
Conjecture: there exists a universal quantum simulator
which is physically realizable and can simulate any
physical system.

A universal quantum simulator

I believe it's rather simple to answer that question [..],


but I just haven't done it.
Proposes (the basis of) a solution:

Two-state system (e.g., polarized photon) with the


4 Pauli operators operators
A qubit
[Schumacher]

Many copies with local coupling

Conjectures universality.

(No proof or suggestion of concrete realization.)

Feynman's conclusion

Nature isn't classical, dammit, and if you want to


make a simulation of Nature, you'd better make it
quantum mechanical, and by golly it's a wonderful
problem, because it doesn't look so easy.

Quantum computation: progress

Universal (inefficient) quantum Turing machine [Deutsch 1985]


Universal (efficient) quantum Turing machine [Bernstein
Vazirani 1993][Yao 1993]
Equivalence between quantum Turing machines and (uniform)
quantum circuits [Yao 1993]

Quantum complexity theory [Bernstein Vazirani 1993]

Separation results: relativized, communication complexity

Factoring [Shor 1994]

Promise problem [Simon 1994]

Quantum searching [Grover 1996]

Quantum error correction [Knill Laflamme 1996]

Quantum cryptography (e.g., key distribution)

Entanglement

Experimental realizations

Quantum computation: challenges

Practice

Controlling decoherence
Scalable implementations
Programming paradigms

Theory

New algorithms and protocols


New settings (e.g., game theory)
Structural complexity, proving separations
Convincing the skeptics

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