Qudit Quantum Computer Simulates “Pixel” of the Electromagnetic Vacuum

Researchers at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) led by Dr. Christine Muschik and the University of Innsbruck in Austria led by Dr. Martin Ringbauer have performed a quantum simulation of a two-dimensional particle physics theory on a new type of quantum computer. This research achieves for the first time a quantum simulation of a “pixel” of the electromagnetic vacuum. This is accomplished using a novel high-dimensional quantum computer that goes beyond binary qubits using so-called qudits. One pixel is just the beginning, in the future we may be able to simulate thousands of pixels comprising an entire “quantum photograph” of the vacuum and the fundamental particles in it.

See the full details of the research in the Nature Physics paper found here: Nautre Physics 21, 570 (2025)

See the article by Nature on the research results here: Meet ‘qudits’: more complex cousins of qubits boost quantum computing

Here is a link to the video describing the Nature Physics qudit research: https://youtu.be/QtOtJLS1N8I