Quantum computers imitate black holes to probe cosmic secrets

The difference between traditional computers and quantum computers is shrinking in their ability to simulate the jamming of quantum information.

A team of four RIKEN researchers successfully used two small quantum computers to simulate the jamming of quantum information, a key process in quantum information science. Their success highlights one of the promising applications that future quantum computers could provide.

Although a stage of early development, quantum computers are starting to find practical uses. As technology progresses, they should transform computers deeply.

Scrambling information simulation

Promising use for quantum computers is to model quantum information, a fundamental process where information is dispersed in a quantum system, from exotic materials as strange metals with extreme environments such as black holes.

When the information is first coded in a region of a quantum system, it is gradually diluted by different interactions until it is distributed throughout the system.

Although the information is always present, rebuilding it becomes much more difficult because it requires access to the whole system. Black holes represent the most extreme example of this process, acting like the ultimate fogs of quantum information.

It is essential to better understand how the jamming work works to tackle some of the deepest questions in quantum physics.

“The jamming of quantum information interests us because we can use it to do additional calculations, such as statistical physics calculations,” explains Kazuhiro Seki of the Riken Center for Quantum Computing (RQC).

One way to study the shuffle of quantum information is to perform simulations, this is where quantum computers can help, because they are better suited to such simulations than conventional computers.

Use of quantum computers of 20 qubit

Now, Seki and Seiji Yunoki, also from RQC, and two colleagues, have used two quantum computers with 20 qubits – the quantum bits equivalent – to simulate quantum information jam circuits.

For simulation, researchers have used cutting -edge quantum computers via the cloud, which are based on qubits formed from trapped ions. They used quantum computers to perform three simulations, which included the creation of a blurred state and use it to carry out quantum statistical mechanical calculations.

While a powerful conventional computer could have been used to perform simulation, the complexity of simulations approaches the field where quantum computers will be essential for such calculations.

“We only used 20 qubits to conduct simulations in this study,” explains Yunoki. “If we can use more than 50 qubits to perform similar calculations, it can be too difficult for a classic computer to manage.”

A quantum trapped and trapped computer was installed in Riken in February 2025. “We hope to upgrade it over the next two years, so that it will have about 50 qubits,” notes Yunoki.

Reference: “Simulation of the shutling circuits of the floquets on quantum trapped-ion computers” by Kazuhiro Seki, Yuta Kikuchi, Tomoya Hayata and Seiji Yunoki, April 10, 2025, Physical examination.
DOI: 10.1103 / Physrevresearch. 7.023032

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