An Example for Quantum Supremacy: Quantum Bomb Detection

Learning objectives:

• The students become familiar with concepts that are essential for quantum computing: superposition and measurement of quantum objects
• The students discover quantum supremacy, i.e. how quantum physics has an advantage over classical physics.

In part of this lesson, students are expected to work independently with minimal input from the teacher. They will solve tasks on their own by using interactive simulations/games:

• The Quantum Mechanics Visualization Project (QuVis) created at the University of St. Andrews
• The Quantum Flytrap. The game is available in several languages.

Structure of the unit

This lesson is based on two student activities and a PowerPoint presentation. The activities and files are designed in such a way that the students can work with them independently with minimal input from the teacher. The solutions are included in the version for teachers.

The first part of the activity is covered by Tasks Part 1 and 2; the goals and structure are:

• To understand the setup of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer using the simulation of the University of St. Andrews (10 mins). Click here: Interferometer experiments
• To investigate the behaviour of a classical particle vs. the behaviour of a photon (a quantum object) in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (10 mins).
• To be able to explain the observed interference effects for a single photon using the concept of superposition.
• To investigate what happens when a measurement is performed on the superposition state of the photon using the Quantum flytrap simulation (5 mins). Click here: Game 'Peeking at a photon'

The second part of the activity covers the quantum bomb detection itself. To explain the experiment, the teacher can use a presentation (approx. 15 minutes). The presentation explains how to detect working light-sensitive bombs without making them explode, using a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. 

At the end of the presentation, the students get the task to apply and test their knowledge using the simulation Quantum Bomb Detection.This task might also be assigned as homework.

Download the presentation as pdf or as pptx.

As an alterantive to the presentation, the students can explore the experiment using the interactive worksheet Tasks Part 3. Thsi activity is more time-consuming and emanding. It might be better suited for advanced or fast-working students or as a homework assignment.

References

Here you can find all links and online material that has been mentioned and used to develop this lesson. The links could be passed on to the students to deepen their knowledge: