SYDNEY, July 25 (Xinhua) -- An Australian-led group of researchers on Wednesday said they have demonstrated a ground-breaking way to simulate chemical bonds and reactions via powerful quantum computers, an emerging technology that scientists are racing to apply in fields ranging from medicine to industrial chemistry.
"Even the largest supercomputers are struggling to model accurately anything but the most basic chemistry. Quantum computers simulating nature, however, unlock a whole new way of understanding matter. They will provide us with a new tool to solve problems in materials science, medicine and industrial chemistry using simulations," University of Sydney physicist Dr Cornelius Hempel, who led the team of international researchers, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Quantum computers, using technology based on quantum mechanics or fundamental physics at the atomic and subatomic level, are considered to be significantly more powerful in computing power than their common counterparts.
While the "moving parts" of anything but the most-simple chemical processes are beyond the capacity of the biggest and fastest supercomputers, the quantum computers can be harnessed to plug those gaps. Most experts now agree that quantum chemistry, the science of understanding the complicated bonds and reactions of molecules under the quantum mechanics framework, is going to be one of the first "killer apps" of the emergent technology, said the researchers. Their work has been published in the Physical Review X scientific journal.
The findings can have significant applications for industries including the production of fertilizers, development of organic solar cells and design of personalized medicines, they said.
"Quantum chemistry is an example where the advantages of a quantum computer will very soon become apparent in practical applications," said research paper co-author Professor Rainer Blatt from the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Innsbruck, Austria.
