The Rochester scheme thus completes its search in a single operation. David A. Meyer of the University of California, San Diego and some other theorists had previously argued that a computer using classical physics can perform as well as any quantum computer in some calculations that involve only interference. Until now, however, there's been no actual interference-based classical computer for testing the idea. The Rochester team's work has experimentally verified this theory, Meyer says. Walmsley says that his group is preparing experiments to see if the new approach might even work for some quantum calculations that are expected to require entanglement to be carried out quickly and efficiently.
Computation takes a quantum leap.
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