Physics Colloquium : "Are `analog computers' back in fashion?"

Date: 
Mon, 02/12/202412:00-13:30
Location: 
Place: Levin building, Lecture Hall No. 8
Lecturer:  Prof. Oren Raz, Weizmann Institute

Abstract:
In the last decade there have been several efforts to use physical systems as 'physical computers': D-Wave is using super-conducting qubits as an adiabatic computer, the Israeli company Light-Solver uses lasers to find optimal solutions to optimization algorithm, HP is developing `memristor computation', and companies like Toshiba and Fujitsu are commercializing products like `Bifurcation machines' and `Digital annealers'... In the talk I will review this topic, show some results, what we do and don't understand, and try to provide some intuition on what physical mechanisms are expected to give real benefits.