Since Plato was a little child, questions about whether our world is a simulation of something deeper have kept philosophers and scholars up at night.
Adding to the list of issues that The Matrix will not solve are a couple of physicists who have demonstrated that quantum craziness involving space-time twists cannot possibly be recreated. Sorry, Neo.
Researchers in theoretical physics Zohar Ringel and Dmitry
Kovrizhin from the Hebrew University in Israel and the University of Oxford
discovered a significant barrier to the solution of algorithms using
quantum-based Monte Carlo simulations.
In essence, it means that not even the most powerful computer
could simulate the known laws of physics.
You are not a part of a simulation. At least not likely.
Continue with us? Come on down, then.
Calculations based on random sampling of a system are called
Monte Carlo simulations. They aren't unique to quantum physics, but they can
help make the realm of possibilities a little bit more predictable.
Most of the time, they can assist in quickly solving certain
many-body issues, which are systems containing several quantum objects
travelling across various dimensions.
However, quantum Monte Carlo simulations are far from
flawless. A sign issue, or a particular cancelling out of positives and
negatives, can occur.
It might be avoided with sign-free representation, but there
are many physics issues for which this is not yet obvious how can be done. In
fact, it could even be impossible for certain people.
Is there any type of obstacle to discovering a sign-free
method of using Monte Carlo simulations on certain quantum systems? That was
the issue Ringel and Kovrizhin were attempting to answer.
If not, then perhaps, just perhaps, you are resting in a
gel-filled pod with tubes in your brain as a massive computer uses you as the
world's most inefficient battery to generate power.
If there is a barrier, however, that means that classical
computers will never be able to solve the underlying mathematics to reflect
what we are seeing in quantum physics. You may eat that steak knowing that it
is made entirely of beef muscle and not just numbers.
The thermal Hall effect, which occurs when a solid object
with a hot end and a cool end is placed inside a magnetic field, causes a
temperature gradient throughout the object as well, is a phenomenon in condensed
matter physics.
If you're a high-energy physicist, you may call it a
gravitational anomaly, which is a little like thinking of space-time as skewed
or twisted in simple words.
Theorists calculated the figures for models that used Monte
Carlo simulations to resolve gravitational anomalies, showing that the sign
problem is unavoidable no matter how you look at it.
Intriguing connections between gravitational anomalies and
computing complexity are made by our work, according to Ringel.
Additionally, it demonstrates that the thermal Hall
conductance is a true quantum phenomenon for which there is no local classical
equivalent.
Putting Hollywood aside, certain intellectual groups are
serious about the possibility of simulating the Universe, whether it is the one
we now inhabit or one we create ourselves.
Based on a number of assumptions about the passage of time
and advancements in technology, British philosopher Nick Bostrom has argued
that it is plausible.
Physicists have noted that, given that electrons and atoms
are not small balls travelling predictably across space, quantum physics
renders this exceedingly implausible.
Ringel and Kovrizhin have given us even more reason to believe that, even if we were all using an extraterrestrial version of Windows 11, it was not something we could readily conceive.
It seems like we are confined to this situation. So why not start making the most of it?
Science Advances reported the results of this study.
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