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| The quickest way to solve a maze exploits both quantum and classical processes, say physicists who have demonstrated the effect for the first time. |
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: The emerging discipline of quantum biology is attempting to understand the role quantum mechanics plays in the processes of life, such as photosynthesis—the capture of sunlight by plants and its conversion into stored energy.
One phenomenon that physicists have observed is the transfer of energy across giant protein matrices that appears to occur extremely rapidly with close to 100 percent efficiency. These matrices are like giant mazes so the question is how energy can find its way across the structures before it dissipates.
The classical solution to this problem is to explore the maze with a series of random hops. But this process would take so long that most of the energy would be lost.
That’s why physicists think that quantum processes must somehow be involved. Their initial thinking was that the quantum process of energy transfer might work by exploring many routes through the maze at the same time. This superposition of states would then collapse when the solution was found. In this way, the maze can be solved rapidly and the energy transferred efficiently.
Abstract
Escaping from a complex maze, by exploring different paths with several decision-making branches in order to reach the exit, has always been a very challenging and fascinating task. Wave field and quantum objects may explore a complex structure in parallel by interference effects, but without necessarily leading to more efficient transport. Here, inspired by recent observations in biological energy transport phenomena, we demonstrate how a quantum walker can efficiently reach the output of a maze by partially suppressing the presence of interference. In particular, we show theoretically an unprecedented improvement in transport efficiency for increasing maze size with respect to purely quantum and classical approaches. In addition, we investigate experimentally these hybrid transport phenomena, by mapping the maze problem in an integrated waveguide array, probed by coherent light, hence successfully testing our theoretical results. These achievements may lead towards future bio-inspired photonics technologies for more efficient transport and computation.
Physics arXiv: Fast Escape from Quantum Mazes in Integrated Photonics
Filippo Caruso, Andrea Crespi, Anna Gabriella Ciriolo, Fabio Sciarrino, Roberto Osellame
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