A new study in Nature Communications has established a link between the Riemann Hypothesis and dynamical phase transitions in engineered quantum systems, demonstrating the effect on a quantum processor.

First posed in 1859, the Riemann Hypothesis is one of the longest-standing unsolved problems in mathematics. It underpins parts of cryptography, as well as more than a thousand theorems proved on the assumption that it is true.

Physicists have previously proposed physical counterparts to this mathematical statement. The aim was to map the Riemann Hypothesis to something concrete, such as the energy levels of a quantum system. The new study ties the hypothesis to how a quantum system evolves over time.