Quantum magic cube has an infinite number of states to solve

Creating a quantum version of the Rubik’s cube has become a project at the University of Colorado School of Engineering and Applied Science in Boulder, USA, based on a bet made in the summer of 2022 between Noah Lordi and Maedée Trank-Greene and their friends. colleagues . The challenge was: How many possible states can a quantum Rubik’s Cube have?

The idea was soon “bought” by professor Josh Combs, who came up with some rules: The colors of the colored faces would need to be “replaced with quantum particles known as fermions (particles that change when you change them).” [pois] Solving the Quantum Cube will be completely different from solving an ordinary Rubik’s Cube.”

The study, which has been turned into a paper and is hosted on the arXiv preprint repository and has not yet been peer-reviewed, explains: “A single identical particle type will replace all the blue pieces, etc., with all the other colors.” This means that not all particles of the same color can be distinguished from each other, but particles of different colors can be distinguished. This allows you to count the number of changes.

How does a quantum Rubik’s cube work?

In principle, the quantum Rubik’s Cube works exactly like its common analogue. Naturally, the team narrowed the number of possible movements to two: a rotation on the z-axis and a rotation on the y-axis; other movements were combinations of the two. This would require a maximum resolution of 3.13 seconds, which is the current world record for humans.

But in the quantum realm, things work out because there is one movement that is only possible in this type of configuration: “The square root of a permutation,” the team explains. Well, In a quantum magic cube, edges can be moved and unmoved at the same time.

This makes this object “completely different from common toy store permutation puzzles,” the authors say. This is because there are an infinite number of possible states in the quantum version of the cube. However, it is not completely unsolvable.

How to solve the quantum magic cube?

According to the authors, there are two ways to escape this truly quantum entanglement, and both are nearly simple. In the first, you only measure the state in which the particle is located (check if it is moving!). This would be equivalent to opening Schrödinger’s cat box, as it would eliminate the superposition and allow the particle to function like a normal cube face.

Another alternative would be to simply cheat. For example, you can create your quantum cube with the same fermions. These particles keep the puzzle in a low-energy state no matter what move you make. This creates a constraint on the “state space” of the cube, that is, it limits the possible configurations it can assume..

And you? Will you take a risk and try to solve the quantum magic cube? Tell us about social media. Until later!