[Music up and under Narrator]
They exist as the tiniest
parts of all of us ...
everything on earth ...
and all matter in
the universe ...
yet in some ways, they are
more difficult to study
than galaxies billions
of light years away.
Subatomic particles ...
they are the components
that make up atoms ...
including protons,
neutrons and electrons ...
as well as other tiny
units such as quarks,
photons and neutrinos.
Stephen Jordan (on camera):
"Exploring the way these
particles interact ...
especially during collisions ...
can help us understand the inner
workings of the universe ...
even back to the Big Bang."
To do these studies scientists
currently use giant particle
accelerators like the large
Hadron collider in Switzerland
or the relativistic heavy
ion collider in New York.
But the science doesn't
come easily ...
While accelerators yield
valuable results their size
limits where they
can be built ...
They're expensive to operate
and it may require years
of collisions to
gather enough data
to properly study a particle.
What was needed was a virtual
means of studying collisions
to complement and support
the accelerator data.
The answer ...
as reported in the
journal science ...
was to create a special
mathematical algorithm.
John Preskill (on camera): "Our
algorithm simulates a collision
between particles at very
high energy on a computer.
The algorithm can be run over
and over again many times
collecting data very much
like the data that
would be obtained
in an accelerator experiment."
However...
such complex calculations
require tremendous computing
power even greater
than that possible
from the best supercomputers.
So the researchers designed
their algorithm to run
on a quantum computer a
device where the "ones"
and "zeros" used by
digital computers to select
between two choices are replaced
by subatomic quantum states.
These quantum bits or qubits
as they're called can
simultaneously represent all
possible solutions to a problem.
Unfortunately a practical
quantum computer is
at least a decade away.
The good news is that when
that day does arrive the quantum
computer will have a powerful
tool on hand that it
can put right to work.
Stephen Jordan (on camera): "We
don't have quantum computers yet
but we already have
an understanding
about the general features
of how they will work,
and our algorithm is
designed based only
on those general features.
So it should be able to run on
any quantum computer regardless
of the details of the hardware."
Not only will we gain
a richer knowledge
of how subatomic
particles interact ...
but we may even begin to define
the fundamental properties
of physics driving the universe.
[ Credits ]
