Braunschweig escape game at the world’s largest quantum bit

How do you describe the state of a quantum bit? At the Paderborn Computer Museum, colourful spheres illustrate quantum programming. Picture credits: Sergei Magel/HNF

Visitors can then program quantum bits themselves in a playful way with Braunschweig’s QuantumVR. Picture credits: Sergei Magel/HNF

In keeping with the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn has opened a new exhibition area dedicated to quantum computing. Among other things, the computer museum displays one of the original ion traps developed by Nobel Prize winner Wolfgang Paul, which forms the basis for the quantum computer being built by researchers in Braunschweig and Hanover at Quantum Valley Lower Saxony (QVLS). But to make the inner workings of a quantum computer clear and tangible, the museum is also relying on the physics teaching methods of TU Braunschweig. Supported by the QuantumFrontiers Cluster of Excellence, the researchers developed the escape game QuantumVR. Here, a cat, zebra and chameleon are waiting to be freed from a laboratory by correctly programming quantum algorithms. The computer game (available free of charge on Steam) now completes the exhibition and explains how the neighbouring, colourfully illuminated ‘world’s largest qubit’ is brought into the desired state.