Thermodynamic Veto

In the paper's words

The realization of commercially viable, fault-tolerant quantum computing is precluded not by engineering immaturity but by a fundamental percolation phase transition driven by correlated noise and thermodynamic constraints, which render the required system scales physically uncorrectable. The status of integer factorization within quantum information theory rests on a conflation of mathematical validity with physical realizability. While the derivation holds within the standard quantum circuit model, it necessitates axioms of ideal unitary evolution and infinite precision that violate the thermodynamic constraints of open systems.

The abstract, verbatim, and its opening sentence is the claim. Every line below is quoted from the text.

Numbers it reports

1. The experimentally observed correlation length establishes a specific critical threshold for system size, estimated at 400 qubits, beyond which the processor exits the correctable subcritical phase.

   from Empirical

2. Divergence of Required versus Critical Scales Operational constraints for cryptographic quantum utility are defined by the resource overhead of surface code implementations, necessitating approximately 20 million physical qubits to factor standard integers given current gate fidelities.

   from Empirical

How it is done

1. the Foundational Myth of Shor’s Algorithm The status of integer factorization within quantum information theory rests on a conflation of mathematical validity with physical realizability.

   from Deconstructing

What would falsify it

The paper's text states no explicit falsification criterion; the limits below are what it says about where the claim stops.

Where the claim stops

1. Concurrently, the underlying complexity model assumes a constant operational cost independent of system size, ignoring the argument that the thermodynamic resources required to maintain coherence must scale with the non-degeneracy of the state space.

   from Deconstructing

2. Thermodynamic constraints challenge this independence assumption, as correlated noise in large-scale systems drives a percolation phase transition rather than asymptotic suppression.

   from The Percolation

3. However, environmental radiation deposits energy into substrates, generating phonon cascades and quasiparticle poisoning that manifest as spatially correlated error bursts.

   from The Percolation

Where to read

1. Correlated62 words · 1 min
2. Deconstructing188 words · 1 min
3. Landauer’s295 words · 1 min
4. The Percolation215 words · 1 min
5. Empirical222 words · 1 min
6. Toward a262 words · 1 min