Researchers blur the line between classical and quantum physics by connecting chaos and entanglement
Sonia Fernandez, University Of California - Santa Barbara
Experimental link between quantum entanglement (left) and classical chaos (right) found using a small quantum computer. It consists of hundreds of years’ worth of study including Newton’s laws of motion, electrodynamics, relativity, thermodynamics as well as chaos theory—the field that studies the behavior of highly sensitive and unpredictable systems. All systems are fundamentally quantum systems, according Neill, but the means of describing in a quantum sense the chaotic behavior of, say, air molecules in an evacuated room, remains limited. And, it turns out that thermalization is the thing that connects chaos and entanglement. The study’s findings have fundamental implications for quantum computing.