Thermal physics meets quantum computing

E. Mainsah

Jie Pan

Howard E. Brandt, Young Shin Kim, Margarita A. Man’ko

The Feynman Festival is a new interdisciplinary conference developed for studying Richard Feynman and his physics. The first meeting of this new conference series was held at the University of Maryland on 23--28 August 2002 ( http://www.physics.umd.edu/robot/feynman.html ) and the second meeting is scheduled for August 2004 at the same venue. According to Feynman, the different aspects of nature are different aspects of the same thing. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of the conference is to find Feynman's same thing from all different theories. For this reason, the first meeting of the Festival did not begin with a fixed formula, but composed its scientific programme based on responses from the entire physics community. The conference drew the most enthusiastic response from the community of quantum computing, the field initiated by Feynman. Encouraged by the response, we decided to edit a special issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics on quantum computing in connection with the first Feynman Festival. The authorship is not restricted to the participants of the Feynman Festival, and all interested parties were encouraged to submit their papers on this subject. Needless to say, all the papers were peer reviewed according to the well-established standards of the journal. The subject of quantum computing is not restricted to building and operating computers. It requires a deeper understanding of how quantum mechanics works in materials as well as in our minds. Indeed, it covers the basic foundations of quantum mechanics, measurement theory, information theory, quantum optics, atomic physics and condensed matter physics. It may be necessary to develop new mathematical tools to accommodate the language that nature speaks. It is gratifying to note that this special issue contains papers covering all these aspects of quantum computing. As Feynman noted, we could be discussing these diversified issues to study one problem. In our case, this `one problem' is to build quantum computers.

Machiel Blok, Gabriel Teixeira Landi

Begüm İpek

Next-generation mobility systems—ranging from electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles to hypersonic aircraft and high-efficiency autonomous drones—require advanced aerothermal and structural optimization techniques to meet demands for safety, performance, and sustainability. Traditional computational approaches, such as finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and multi-physics simulation, face increasing computational burdens due to the nonlinear interactions among thermal loads, aerodynamic behavior, material deformation, and structural integrity. This study investigates the role of quantum computing in accelerating and improving aerothermal and structural optimization workflows. Leveraging quantum algorithms, including quantum annealing, variational quantum eigensolvers (VQE), quantum approximate optimization algorithms (QAOA), and quantum-inspired multi-objective solvers, the proposed framework enhances the exploration of high-dimensional design spaces and improves the computational efficiency of complex optimization tasks. Early experiments on benchmark aerothermal–structural models demonstrate improved convergence rates, superior Pareto-optimal solutions, and enhanced predictive accuracy compared to classical methods. The findings show that quantum computing has the potential to fundamentally transform mobility system design by enabling faster iteration cycles, better thermal–structural co-optimization, and more energy-efficient architectures suitable for sustainable transportation futures.

Jaeyoon Cho