The year 1982 is often credited as the year that theoretical quantum computing was started with a keynote speech by Richard Feynman, who proposed a universal quantum simulator, the idea being that if you had such a machine you could in principle “imitate any quantum system, including the physical world.” With that in mind, we present an algorithm for a continuous-variable quantum computing architecture which gives an exponential speedup over the best-known classical methods. Specifically, this relates to efficiently calculating the scattering amplitudes in scalar bosonic quantum field theory, a problem that is believed to be hard using a classical computer. Building on this, we give an experimental implementation based on continuous-variable states that is feasible with today's technology.

• Received 31 March 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.063825