Authored by Haley Zaremba via OilPrice.com,
Scientists are getting closer and closer to unlocking the intricate dance of quantum physics to revolutionize the way we produce energy. As the computing industry threatens to run out of energy on the back of the artificial intelligence boom, scientists are racing to bring quantum computing into reality as a means of solving critical energy security dilemmas while also turning computing technology on its head.
We know that the potential of quantum physics and quantum computing is massive within the energy sector, but there is still a lot that we don’t understand about the science behind it. Observing the quantum world is exceedingly difficult because the behaviors and reactions involved are happening at such a tiny scale, and so lightning fast, that the processes are all but invisible to humans.
But scientists are getting better at overcoming this challenge. At MIT, researchers have developed an ingenious way of scaling up a recreation of the quantum Hall effect to more effectively observe a phenomenon that usually occurs at a scale too small and too fast to study. Instead of observing electrons, the MIT team has found a way to superchill sodium atoms and control their spatial arrangement with lasers in a way that allows them to mimic the phenomenon of interest – a so-called “edge state.”
Normally, electrons move freely in all directions, scattering randomly when they encounter an obstacle due to friction. However, in certain contexts and with certain exotic materials, they behave differently, flowing together and in one direction along the material’s edge. This is known as the quantum Hall effect. And now, MIT scientists have found a way to meaningfully study this effect so that we can one day harness “edge-state” physics to revolutionize computing with virtually limitless energy.
“In this rare ‘edge state,’ electrons can flow without friction, gliding effortlessly around obstacles as they stick to their perimeter-focused flow,” explains an MIT news article. “Unlike in a superconductor, where all electrons in a material flow without resistance, the current carried by edge modes occurs only at a material’s boundary.”
This lack of resistance means a lack of energy loss, which could have enormous and disruptive implications for virtually any sector that uses modern technology. According to reporting from Interesting Engineering, ”such frictionless movement of electrons can enable data and energy transfer across devices without any transmission losses, leading to the development of super-efficient electronic circuits and quantum computers.”
Quantum computing has garnered increasing attention for its potential to fundamentally change computational processes in ways that could increase efficiency and thereby drastically reduce the tech sector’s energy needs. In certain applications, quantum computers could be up to 100 times more energy efficient than current supercomputers. This could have enormous implications for AI and its ballooning energy footprint, as quantum computing could be especially well-suited to AI processing.
While normal computation is binary, with 1s and 0s serving as on- and off-switches, quantum computing operates via qubits, which can be both on and off simultaneously, like a coin spinning in the air before it lands as heads or tails. This simultaneous one-and-off state is called superposition, and it could completely change the fundamentals of computing.
Quantum computing and the field of quantum physics more broadly still have a very long way to go before they enter any kind of commercial domain. But our understanding of these phenomena – and their potential applications in the energy and tech sectors – are rapidly advancing. The recent breakthrough at MIT, by providing a reliable and more observable stand-in for quantum processes, could catalyze quantum experimenting, bringing us one major step closer to an infinite-energy future.