Analog quantum computing (AQC) and the need for time-symmetric physics

This paper discusses what will be necessary to achieve the full potential capabilities of analog quantum computing (AQC), which is defined here as the enrichment of continuous-variable computing to include stochastic, nonunitary circuit elements such as dissipative spin gates and address the wider range of tasks emerging from new trends in engineering, such as approximation of stochastic maps, ghost imaging and new forms of neural networks and intelligent control. This paper focuses especially on what is needed in terms of new experiments to validate remarkable new results in the modeling of triple entanglement, and in creating a pathway which links fundamental theoretical work with hard core experimental work, on a pathway to AQC similar to the pathway to digital quantum computing already blazed by Zeilinger’s group. It discusses the most recent experiments and reviews two families of alternative models based on the traditional eigenvector projection model of polarizers and on a new family of local realistic models based on Markov Random Fields across space–time adhering to the rules of time-symmetric physics. For both families, it reviews lumped parameter versions, continuous time extension and possibilities for extension to continuous space and time.