Dalhousie University

Purpose

The simulation of photochemistry involves a dynamical, quantum mechanical treatment of electrons and atomic nuclei in molecules. As a result, commonly used approximations that separate the equations for electrons and nuclei break down. This has greatly limited the ability to simulate and to understand photochemical processes. Quantum computers offer the possibility of quantum simulations at a low computational cost, but most current quantum hardware is severely limited in both resources and simulation time due to noise. Analog quantum computers have the potential to solve problems in the near term, since they are system-specific devices that evolve in the same way and have the same properties as a system of interest.