Speaker: Mile Gu, CQT, NUS & NTU
Abstract: Complexity and quantum science appear at first to be two fields that bear little relation. One deals with the science of the very large – seeking the understand how unexpected phenomena can emerge in vast systems consisting of many interacting components. Quantum theory, on the other hand, deals with particles at the microscopic level and is usually considered limited to the domain of individual photons and atoms. Yet, different as they appear, there is growing evidence that in interface ideas from quantum and complexity science, we may unveil new perspective in either both fields.
In this presentation, I first introduce computational mechanics, a branch of complexity science captures structure by building the simplest causal models of natural observations. I then illustrate how many processes that require complex classical models may be simulated by remarkably simple quantum devices, and describe recent experiments to test this laboratory conditions. I then survey the potential consequences these developments to long-standing topics of interesting in both complexity and quantum science. The former in indicating that well-established notions of structure, complexity, may change when the quantum properties of information are taken into account. The latter in uncovering a new source of highlighting how a new source of temporal asymmetry can arise through classicalization.
