{"id":37430,"date":"2026-05-21T18:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/?p=37430"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:12:17","slug":"classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical Computer Beats Quantum Machine in Physics Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-blockquote uagb-block-e7eb3fc3 uagb-blockquote__skin-border uagb-blockquote__stack-img-none\"><blockquote class=\"uagb-blockquote\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__content\">Researchers at the Flatiron Institute cracked a quantum physics problem that a separate team had declared impossible for classical computers \u2014 using nothing more than a laptop and clever math. The breakthrough challenges assumptions about quantum supremacy and opens new directions for simulating quantum materials.<\/div><footer><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__author-wrap uagb-blockquote__author-at-left\"><\/div><\/footer><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-space-between is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-b0ffac9c wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><div style=\"font-size:16px\" class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">The University Network<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share uagb-social-share__outer-wrap uagb-social-share__layout-horizontal uagb-block-ee584a31\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-ec619ce7\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"facebook\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M504 256C504 119 393 8 256 8S8 119 8 256c0 123.8 90.69 226.4 209.3 245V327.7h-63V256h63v-54.64c0-62.15 37-96.48 93.67-96.48 27.14 0 55.52 4.84 55.52 4.84v61h-31.28c-30.8 0-40.41 19.12-40.41 38.73V256h68.78l-11 71.69h-57.78V501C413.3 482.4 504 379.8 504 256z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-32d99934\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"twitter\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M389.2 48h70.6L305.6 224.2 487 464H345L233.7 318.6 106.5 464H35.8L200.7 275.5 26.8 48H172.4L272.9 180.9 389.2 48zM364.4 421.8h39.1L151.1 88h-42L364.4 421.8z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-1d136f14\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"linkedin\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\"><path d=\"M416 32H31.9C14.3 32 0 46.5 0 64.3v383.4C0 465.5 14.3 480 31.9 480H416c17.6 0 32-14.5 32-32.3V64.3c0-17.8-14.4-32.3-32-32.3zM135.4 416H69V202.2h66.5V416zm-33.2-243c-21.3 0-38.5-17.3-38.5-38.5S80.9 96 102.2 96c21.2 0 38.5 17.3 38.5 38.5 0 21.3-17.2 38.5-38.5 38.5zm282.1 243h-66.4V312c0-24.8-.5-56.7-34.5-56.7-34.6 0-39.9 27-39.9 54.9V416h-66.4V202.2h63.7v29.2h.9c8.9-16.8 30.6-34.5 62.9-34.5 67.2 0 79.7 44.3 79.7 101.9V416z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A team of physicists has pulled off something the quantum computing world said couldn&#8217;t be done: solving a complex quantum dynamics problem on an ordinary classical computer \u2014 and, in some cases, a personal laptop. The work, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.adx2728\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">published<\/a> May 21 in <em>Science<\/em>, directly counters a high-profile claim made just months earlier that a quantum computer had achieved a feat beyond the reach of conventional machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Claim They Set Out to Challenge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March 2025, a separate group of quantum computing researchers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.ado6285?adobe_mc=MCMID%3D57506338385801561763229571663719816105%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1779480148&amp;adobe_mc=MCMID%3D57506338385801561763229571663719816105%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1779480150&amp;adobe_mc=MCMID%3D57506338385801561763229571663719816105%7CMCORGID%3D242B6472541199F70A4C98A6%2540AdobeOrg%7CTS%3D1779480154\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">published findings<\/a> in <em>Science<\/em> asserting they had simulated the behavior of hundreds of interacting qubits \u2014 the quantum equivalent of classical computing bits \u2014 in a way that no classical computer could replicate. Physicists at the Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) at the Simons Foundation&#8217;s Flatiron Institute, along with collaborators at Boston University, were not convinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Whenever we [at the CCQ] see these kinds of claims, we&#8217;re always a bit skeptical,&#8221; Joseph Tindall, an associate research scientist at the CCQ and first author of the new study, said in a news release. &#8220;Like, &#8216;Did you try this? Did you try that?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rather than selecting an abstract benchmark, the team decided to take their tools &#8220;out for a test drive&#8221; on the very problem the quantum computing group had flagged as classically impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We could have picked some more arbitrary target,&#8221; co-author and CCQ research scientist Miles Stoudenmire said in the news release. &#8220;But it was like &#8216;Why not pick this one that has a big claim attached to it?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Quantum Systems Are So Hard to Simulate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The core difficulty lies in something called quantum entanglement. Unlike classical bits, which are either 0 or 1, qubits can exist in a superposition of states simultaneously. When hundreds of qubits interact, they become entangled \u2014 meaning you can&#8217;t analyze them in isolation, even if they&#8217;re physically distant from one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This interdependence produces what physicists call a wave function: a mathematical object that encodes the full state of a quantum system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;When you have lots of particles that interact by quantum physics, you have this wave function that describes the state of the system,&#8221; Tindall added. &#8220;It&#8217;s this huge object that rapidly gets bigger and bigger the more particles there are.&#8221; <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The wave function grows exponentially with each additional particle, making direct storage on any computer a practical impossibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I just can&#8217;t directly store it on my computer,&#8221; added Tindall.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Tensor Network Trick<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CCQ team&#8217;s solution was to use tensor networks \u2014 a mathematical framework that compresses enormously complex wave functions into a manageable form. Tindall describes it as &#8220;a zip file for the wave function where you&#8217;ve taken all this information, and you&#8217;ve compressed it into this mathematical data structure full of these small tables of numbers that are interconnected to each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The approach is powerful but technically demanding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s this very powerful compression that can be very effective, but it&#8217;s a pretty complex mathematical object,&#8221; Tindall said. &#8220;This really is a bit of a frontier, because working with these objects \u2014 especially in three dimensions \u2014 is very untrodden. You need sophisticated codes and algorithms to deal with them; it&#8217;s a software engineering challenge in itself.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of the heavy lifting was done using ITensor, a high-performance tensor network software library developed at the CCQ. The simulations extended tensor methods into three dimensions, a significant technical leap for the field. An older algorithm called belief propagation \u2014 originally developed in the 1980s and recently adapted for quantum systems \u2014 made many of the computations accessible even on modest hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a little more approximate than some of the other methods, but it&#8217;s way cheaper, and we can run it much more directly on lots of harder problems,&#8221; Stoudenmire said of the approach, contrasting it with &#8220;more sophisticated methods in the past of our field&#8221; that &#8220;wouldn&#8217;t be able to even start going for some of these three-dimensional problems, because they&#8217;re so big.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why It Matters for Students and Researchers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For students studying physics, computer science or materials science, the implications of this work are far-reaching. The ability to simulate quantum materials \u2014 including superconductors \u2014 using classical computers could dramatically lower the barrier to entry for quantum research. You don&#8217;t need access to a multimillion-dollar quantum machine to make progress; in some cases, a well-written algorithm running on a laptop will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The finding also reframes the relationship between classical and quantum computing, which is often portrayed as a rivalry. Tindall sees it differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe good side of the classical versus quantum computing debate is that there\u2019s a lot of synergy between the kind of simulations we\u2019re interested in and the codes we write and what can be realized on these quantum computers,\u201d Tindall said. \u201cThat can help guide us, and it can also help guide quantum computing researchers, because, obviously, the barrier for entry for us to simulate certain things is a lot easier than for them, because we don\u2019t have to build a quantum computer. I can just write some code and press \u2018run\u2019 on my personal computer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team&#8217;s simulations produced results that matched theoretical predictions and aligned with what the quantum computing group had reported \u2014 but without requiring any quantum hardware at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Comes Next<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CCQ researchers are already looking beyond qubits to a harder class of problems involving electrons that can hop between atomic sites \u2014 a challenge directly relevant to understanding real quantum materials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;They&#8217;re really, quantitatively, a lot harder problems,&#8221; Stoudenmire said. &#8220;So that&#8217;s one of our next big bars that we want to clear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:11px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonsfoundation.org\/2026\/05\/21\/quantum-dynamics-breakthrough-overturns-claim-of-quantum-supremacy-opens-new-research-directions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">Simons Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the Flatiron Institute cracked a quantum physics problem that a separate team had declared impossible for classical computers \u2014 using nothing more than a laptop and clever math. The breakthrough challenges assumptions about quantum supremacy and opens new directions for simulating quantum materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-no-separators","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[129,2255,2256,2257,952,953,2258,2254],"class_list":["post-37430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-boston-university","tag-classical-computing","tag-computational-physics","tag-flatiron-institute","tag-quantum-computing","tag-quantum-physics","tag-simons-foundation","tag-tensor-networks"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown.png",1536,1024,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown-768x512.png",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown-1024x683.png",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown.png",1536,1024,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/classical-computer-beats-quantum-machine-in-physics-showdown.png",1536,1024,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"The University Network","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/author\/funky_junkie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Researchers at the Flatiron Institute cracked a quantum physics problem that a separate team had declared impossible for classical computers \u2014 using nothing more than a laptop and clever math. The breakthrough challenges assumptions about quantum supremacy and opens new directions for simulating quantum materials.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37430"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37535,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37430\/revisions\/37535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}