The game mancala may have originated as far back as 6000 BCE in Jordan and is played around the world to this day. It consists of stones that players move between a series of small pits on a wooden game board. The point of the game is to get all the stones into the last pit at the end of the board.
In a new study published in AVS Quantum Science, researchers at Tulane University apply a modified solitaire version of mancala, which they call ManQala, to quantum state engineering, a field of quantum physics that deals with putting quantum systems into specific states.
The central problem quantum state engineering is trying to solve, said Ryan Glasser, associate professor of physics at the School of Science and Engineering, is “what do I need to do to get my quantum system to be in the state I desire?” Essentially, researchers need to know how to get particles to be in certain places or have certain energies in order to study them and to use quantum computers.
This is more difficult with quantum particles than it is with, for instance, the stones on a mancala board. “Quantum things are, generally speaking, very delicate and difficult to control,” said Glasser. “The system can fall apart quickly and make you lose any quantum advantage you have or desire to have.”
Quantum physicists already have a few methods to solve these problems, but the simulations researchers did in this study showed that ManQala is more effective, even in simpler systems. “We see advantages already, even in these simplified systems of three stones and three pits,” said Glasser.
2023-08-14 09:24:02
Source from phys.org
