Physicists Finally Find a Problem Only Quantum Computers Can Do | Quanta Magazine
Physicists Finally Find a Problem Only Quantum Computers Can Do | Quanta Magazine
Researchers have shown that a problem about the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum computers but hard for classical ones.
Unfortunately not the best headline. No, quantum supremacy has not been proven, exactly. What this is is another kind of candidate problem, but one that's universal, in the sense that a classical algorithm for it could be used to solve all other BQP problems (so BQP=P). That would include Shor's algorithm, and would make Q-day figuratively yesterday, so let's hope this is an actual example.
Weirdly enough, they kind of skip that detail in the body of the article. Maybe they're planning to do one of their deep dives on it. Still, this is big news.
I initially read the title as if the quantum computers were causing the problem, not solving it.
I'm also interested on the news, and let down by the lack of details. The possibility of using quantum computers to solve quantum problems is exciting; and even if it turns out wrong ("if a classical algorithm can achieve the same results, it means physicists must be wrong about many other things"), it's still great!