11
Getting Physical
The non-physicist finds it hard to believe that really
the ordinary laws of physics, which he regards as the
prototype of inviolable precision,
should be based on the statistical tendency of matter
to go over into disorder.
Erwin Schrödinger [26]
It’s now time to discuss some considerations about how we go from theoretical mathematics and physics to the applied and experimental.
The qubits we make in the lab for research and those we will create for commercial use are physical hardware devices. As such, they are subject to noise from the environment, electronic components, and manufacturing choices. Hardware improvements decrease the disturbances, but software and system ones can too. The long-term goal is to have fully error corrected, fault-tolerant quantum computing devices.
Since we’re talking about physics, I explain the questionable fate of Schrödinger...
