The experimental system uses quantum properties for effective treatment at room temperature.
Engineers work to design computers capable of managing a difficult class of tasks called combinatorial optimization problems. These challenges are at the heart of many daily applications, including telecommunications planning, planning and optimization of routes for travel.
Current IT technologies face physical limits on the quantity of processing power which can be integrated into a chip and the energy required to train artificial intelligence The models are enormous.
A collaborative team of UCLA And UC Riverside introduced a new strategy to respond to these limits and tackle some of the most difficult optimization problems. Instead of representing all the information digitally, their system processes data via a network of oscillators – components that move in the defined frequencies. This architecture, called machine ising, excels in parallel computers, allowing many calculations to execute at the same time. The solution to the problem is achieved when the oscillators fall into synchronization.
Quantum properties at room temperature
In their report published in Applied physical reviewThe researchers have described a device that relies on quantum properties connecting electrical activity with vibrations within a material. Unlike most existing quantum calculation Approaches, which must be cooled at extremely low temperatures to preserve their quantum condition, this device can operate at room temperature.
“Our approach is IT inspired by physics, which has recently become a promising method for solving complex optimization problems,” said corresponding author Alexander Balandin, engineering professor and eminent professor of materials and materials engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. “It exploits physical phenomena involving electron-phon-phon-phon condensates strongly correlated to carry out calculations directly by calculation through physical processes, thus achieving greater energy and speed efficiency.”
Materials connecting quantum and classic physics
Research has shown that oscillators naturally evolve towards a fundamental state, in which they are synchronized, allowing the machine to solve combinatorial optimization problems.
Balandin and his colleagues used a special material to fill the gap between quantum mechanics – counter -intuitive rules governing the interactions between the subatomic particles – and the more familiar physics of daily life. Their material prototype is based on a form of tantalum sulfide, a “quantum material” which makes it possible to reveal the switching between the electric and vibratory phases.
The new technology has the low -power operating potential; At the same time, it can be compatible with conventional silicon technology.
“Any new physics -based equipment must be integrated into digital digital digital technology to have an impact on data information processing systems,” said California Nanosystems Institute of UCLA or CNSI. “The material with two -dimensional load density that we have selected for this demonstration has the potential of such integration.”
Reference: “Quantum oscillator networks with load density waves to solve combinatorial optimization problems” by Jonas Olivier Brown, Taosha Guo, Fabio Pasqualetti and Alexander A. August 18, 2025, Applied physical review.
Two: 10.1103 / ZMLJ-6NN7
The oscillators coupled with this research were built in the UCLA Nanofabrication Laboratory, managed jointly by CNSI and UCLA Samueli, and tested in the Phonon Optimizered Materials of the UCLA.
The study was funded by the Office of Naval Research and the army research office.
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