Chemistry is to quantum computing like financial transactions are to blockchain. It is the most obvious case for the technology and, most likely, the starting point.
A lot is written about quantum computing. There are many ups and downs with it. Nevertheless, we are seeing billions dedicated to research with many major players involved. In addition to governments such as the United States and China, there is Microsoft, Google, Intel, and Amazon to just name a few.
Quantum could be the most powerful technology ever uncovered by the human race. If the projections are met and the technology evolves, we could see a radical change in every area of life.
The digital world has been changing our physical one for decades. Probably the most obvious case example is how information use to be in hard copy form, written or printed on paper. Today, we see information created, transmitted, and stored in digital form. This led to an explosion of information.
Our physical world might have seen the breakthrough it needed to completely alter how things are done. As I mentioned, chemistry is one of the most likely first use cases for quantum computing. The advantage is the power that quantum provides (or is expected to) versus supercomputers.
One of the quests in chemistry is Full Configuration Interactions (Full-CI) calculations which have the potential to predict chemical reactions. This would be a game charger in fields such as medicine and materials research. The time savings alone would cut down research costs while bringing products to market. They could also be contoured to specific results.
The challenge always has been solving the the Schroedinger Equation (SE). Quantum Mechanics is made up of wave functions which "can afford any information of electrons within atoms and molecules, predicting their physicochemical properties and chemical reactions."
When mathematical theories were thrown at SE, the number of variables involved with Full-CI leads run into astronomical figures (exponential explosion). This gets too big for a supercomputer.
The solution comes after 20 years of studying Full-CI and quantum computing. Instead of calculating the energy exponentially, the idea is to do it polynomially against the number of variables of the system.
Another problem arises in all of this and it is the "Quantum Dilemma". Previously used algorithms involve dissociation of chemical bonds which create elections that do not participate rending the algorithms basically useless.
This challenge was solved by creating a new algorithm generating wave functions called configuration state functions (CSFs).
The OCU researchers have introduced a diradical character, yi(0 ~ 1), to measure and characterize the nature of open shell electronic structures, and have exploited the diradical characters to construct multiconfigurational wave functions required for chemical reactions, executing the Full-CI calculations along the whole reaction pathway on quantum computers.
"This is the first example of a practical quantum algorithm that makes quantum chemical calculations for predicting chemical reaction pathways realizable on quantum computers equipped with a sizable number of qubits. The implementation empowers practical applications of quantum chemical calculations on quantum computers in many important fields of chemistry and materials science."
https://phys.org/news/2019-01-quantum-chemistry.html
I know this is a hot lot of technical mumbo jumbo. Trust me, I had to read through it a few times myself to grasp what is going on.
This could have huge implications on the world around us. The ability to forecast chemical reactions is amazing. It is akin to using Excel versus ledger paper and a calculator. Researchers will be able to try any number of chemical combinations to see how they react. This will create some incredible products.
For example, what if we wanted to create a wall that was extremely lightweight, impossible to penetrate, yet could be produced very inexpensively. Quantum chemistry would enable researchers to take known properties of different chemicals, run them through the algorithm, and have an answer in nanoseconds.
A few hours spent testing different combinations would probably eliminate months of work (or years) using the present technology.
While this is very exciting, I wouldn't jump online looking to buy a quantum computer to start your at home quantum chemistry business. Quantum computing is in the earliest of stages with a great many basic questions still needing resolution. The physicists are doing a wonderful job advancing this space forward. What is a challenge is on the engineering. Physically creating a quantum computer that scales up is very difficult.
Everything in this realm revolves around the qubit (quantum bit). Dealing with these is like herding cats. In other words, it is an extremely difficult realm to develop.
Nevertheless, when you think about all the areas of life that chemistry affects and how the physical world is made up of chemical combinations, it is exciting to know this is on the horizon. It might still be 5 or 10 years away but when it does hit, it will thrust progress forward in a way we never saw before.
This also shows why it is so hard to project what is going to happen over the next 20-30 years for humanity. There is so much taking place that will make the last 30 years of progress look like nothing.
It certainly is a wild time to be alive.
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