Quantum chess: Unraveling the mysteries of quasicrystals

In our recent podcast, we interviewed Dr. Felix Flicker , a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol. We explore the potential of quasicrystals in solving real-world problems inspired by chess moves.

Meet our guest

Dr. Felix Flicker is a theoretical physicist and Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Bristol. His research concerns the quantum underpinnings of matter. He is the author of The Magick of Matter: Crystals, Chaos and the Wizardry of Physics .

His and his team’s work combines the movement of chess pieces with the study of quasicrystals. This groundbreaking research can potentially revolutionize fields ranging from carbon capture to quantum computing.

Inspired by Chess

Felix and his team’s quasicrystal journey begins with a well-known chess problem called the “Knight’s Tour.” In this challenge, the knight, a piece that moves in an L-shape (two squares in one direction and one square perpendicular), must visit every square on the chessboard exactly once before returning to its starting point.

This puzzle is not just a brain teaser but an example of a Hamiltonian cycle , a concept from graph theory that involves visiting every point in a network exactly once without retracing any steps.

Dr. Flicker explains, “With the knight’s tour, you take the knight, you know the horse, which moves like two forwards and one across, or vice versa, and you try to make it hop to every square on the chessboard exactly once before returning to a starting square. So then that’s an example of a Hamiltonian cycle.” This idea sparked the team’s interest in how such cycles could be applied to more complex structures, like those found in quasicrystals.

The wonderful world of quasicrystals

So, what exactly are quasicrystals ? Unlike regular crystals with atoms arranged in a repeating, periodic pattern, quasicrystals have a non-repeating arrangement. Dr. Flicker describes them as “higher dimensional objects” because they can be considered projections of six-dimensional shapes into our three-dimensional world.

This unique structure of quasicrystals has practical implications. For instance, their irregular patterns can potentially allow for more efficient packing of molecules on their surfaces, which is crucial for processes like adsorption—a critical method for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

Potential applications

One of the most exciting applications of this research lies in carbon capture, a process vital for combating climate change. The intricate mazes formed by Hamiltonian cycles on the surface of quasicrystals can potentially be used to design highly efficient filters.

Due to the quasicrystals’ structure, these filters would have a high surface area, allowing them to capture more CO2 molecules.

Dr. Flicker elaborates, “When they do this industrially with crystals, you want to maximize the surface area that you have available. Quasi-crystals are very good at grinding into dust because they’re very brittle and don’t naturally like forming big crystals.”

This brittleness means that quasicrystals can be broken down into tiny grains, each with a large surface area for capturing CO2 molecules. Beyond carbon capture, quasicrystals could also play a significant role in catalysis, speeding up chemical reactions without consumption. Catalysts are essential in numerous industrial processes, including the production of fertilizers.

Dr. Flicker points out, “Catalysis is the process of finding some route to reacting things that require less energy than would otherwise be required. A typical way this happens is to absorb molecules onto a surface, where they bond together on the surface and then come off again.”

With their varied atomic environments, the unique surface properties of quasicrystals could provide new pathways for such reactions, making industrial processes more efficient.

Potential scientific applications

Another exciting application of this research is scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), a technique used to image surfaces at the atomic level. STM relies on a sharp tip that scans the surface of a material, measuring the quantum tunneling of electrons between the tip and the surface.

Dr. Flicker’s team discovered that the Hamiltonian cycles in quasicrystals could define the most efficient paths for the STM tip to follow, significantly speeding up the imaging process. “We found the maximally efficient paths a scanning tunneling microscopy tip could take on certain quasicrystals. This could significantly reduce the time required to scan these surfaces,” he explains.

Faster scanning means more data in less time, which is crucial for advancing research in materials science.

Challenges and future prospects

Despite these promising applications, there are challenges to overcome. Quasicrystals are rare and can be difficult to produce. Most known natural quasicrystals have been found in a single meteorite in Siberia, while others were created accidentally during extreme conditions, such as the first atomic bomb test in 1945.

Dr. Flicker is optimistic, however. “There are potential advantages. For example, you want to maximize the surface area that you have available. Quasicrystals are very good at grinding into dust because they’re very brittle and don’t naturally like forming big crystals. They like to be very small,” he explains.

This inherent brittleness could be leveraged to produce the necessary materials for practical applications.

A quantum leap

The research also hints at potential advancements in quantum computing. Quantum computers rely on quantum bits (qubits) that can exist in multiple states simultaneously, thanks to a property called entanglement. Maintaining quantum coherence , or the ability of qubits to remain entangled over long distances, is a significant challenge.

While Dr. Flicker’s current work is primarily classical, he notes that quasicrystals’ unique properties could inspire new approaches to quantum computing. “These weird patterns that the atoms form mean that you get a wider range of possible angles between atoms on the surface,” he says.

This variety could help design systems that maintain coherence better than current technologies. Dr. Flicker and his team are pioneering a fascinating intersection of chess, quasicrystals, and real-world applications.

Their research not only pushes the boundaries of theoretical physics but also promises practical solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from reducing greenhouse gases to improving industrial processes and advancing quantum computing.

As Dr. Flicker aptly puts it, “Basically, you get these weird symmetries in quasicrystals, and something weird is going to come out and probably quite exciting.”

This innovative approach may be a game-changer in physics, where every move can lead to discoveries.