Researchers at the University at Buffalo have advanced a powerful yet affordable quantum modeling method known as the truncated Wigner approximation.
Their improved version can now solve complex, real-world quantum problems on ordinary laptops. The breakthrough could make high-level quantum simulations faster, cheaper, and widely accessible to scientists everywhere.
Quantum Complexity in Reach
Imagine peering deep inside matter at the quantum level, where unimaginably small particles can interact in over a trillion different ways at once.
That kind of complexity is staggering. To make sense of it, physicists often depend on powerful supercomputers or artificial intelligence to simulate how these quantum systems behave and evolve.
But what if many of these simulations could be done using an ordinary laptop instead?
Scientists have long suspected this was possible in theory, yet turning that idea into something practical has taken much longer to achieve.
Simplifying the Quantum Chaos
Researchers at the University at Buffalo have now brought this goal within reach. They expanded a cost-effective computational technique known as the truncated Wigner approximation (TWA) — essentially a physics shortcut that simplifies quantum mathematics — so that it can be used to tackle complex problems once thought to demand immense computing power.
Equally significant, their new version of TWA, described in a study published in September in PRX Quantum (a journal of the American Physical Society), introduces a clear, accessible framework that enables researchers to input their data and produce reliable results in just a few hours.
Making Quantum Tools Accessible
“Our approach offers a significantly lower computational cost and a much simpler formulation of the dynamical equations,” says the study’s corresponding author, Jamir Marino, PhD, assistant professor of physics in the UB College of Arts and Sciences. “We think this method could, in the near future, become the primary tool for exploring these kinds of quantum dynamics on consumer-grade computers.”
Marino, who joined UB this fall, conducted work on the study while at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany. The study’s co-authors include two of his students there, Hossein Hosseinabadi and Oksana Chelpanova, the latter of whom is now a postdoctoral researcher in Marino’s lab at UB.
The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the German Research Foundation and the European Union.
Expanding the Quantum Frontier
Not every quantum system can be solved exactly. Doing so would be impractical, as the required computing power grows exponentially as the system becomes more complex.
Instead, physicists often turn to what’s known as semiclassical physics — a middle-ground approach that keeps just enough quantum behavior to stay accurate, while discarding details that have little effect on the outcome.
The Power of Semiclassical Physics
TWA is one such semiclassical approach that dates back to the 1970s, but is limited to isolated, idealized quantum systems where no energy is gained or lost.
So Marino’s team expanded TWA to the messier systems found in the real world, where particles are constantly pushed and pulled by outside forces and leak energy into their surroundings, otherwise known as dissipative spin dynamics.
“Plenty of groups have tried to do this before us. It’s known that certain complicated quantum systems could be solved efficiently with a semiclassical approach,” Marino says. “However, the real challenge has been to make it accessible and easy to do.”
Turning Complexity Into Clarity
In the past, researchers looking to use TWA faced a wall of complexity. They had to re-derive the math from scratch each time they applied the method to a new quantum problem.
So, Marino’s team turned what used to be pages of dense, nearly impenetrable math into a straightforward conversion table that translates a quantum problem into solvable equations.
“Physicists can essentially learn this method in one day, and by about the third day, they are running some of the most complex problems we present in the study,” Chelpanova says.
Freeing Supercomputers for the Hard Stuff
The hope is that the new method will save supercomputing clusters and AI models for the truly complicated quantum systems. These are systems that can’t be solved with a semiclassical approach. Systems with not just a trillion possible states, but more states than there are atoms in the universe.
“A lot of what appears complicated isn’t actually complicated,” Marino says. “Physicists can use supercomputing resources on the systems that need a full-fledged quantum approach and solve the rest quickly with our approach.”
Reference: “User-Friendly Truncated Wigner Approximation for Dissipative Spin Dynamics” by Hossein Hosseinabadi, Oksana Chelpanova and Jamir Marino, 8 September 2025, PRX Quantum.
DOI: 10.1103/1wwv-k7hg
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4 Comments
Imagine staring deep inside (imaginary thingies) to see the tiniest particles (there are no particles).
Why, you’d have to use your best math to make odd little number cages to surround them, like corralling a farm animal. Number systems extending around these little thingies (someone made up) just to see how they behaved (when it is math’s behavior entirely).
Gotta make sure no one thinks differently (was it Musk who talked about people finally getting on to understanding the “true nature” of the universe?) because look at all the reputations at stake.
My mother once said, “Do you think you’re the only one who is right, and everyone else is wrong?”
Hmmm…
I like the added “Hmmm..?”
Yes I just simulate the entire universe using MHUTE THEORY (Major Howell’s Unifying Theory of Everything) 🤭
TWA is an exciting new way to find a simpler approach to solving problems with quantum physics. I am surprised that such a solution was discovered now and not years in the future. Bravo! I can’t wait to read more of your solution as it develops in the future.