Computer-inspired quantum experiments

Designing new experiments in physics is a challenge for humans; therefore, computers have become a tool to expand scientists' capabilities and to provide creative solutions. This Perspective article examines computer-inspired designs in quantum physics that led to laboratory experiments and inspired new scientific insights. The design of new devices and experiments has historically relied on the intuition of human experts. Now, design inspirations from computers are increasingly augmenting the capability of scientists. We briefly overview different fields of physics that rely on computer-inspired designs using a variety of computational approaches based on topological optimization, evolutionary strategies, deep learning, reinforcement learning or automated reasoning. Then we focus specifically on quantum physics. When designing new quantum experiments, there are two challenges: quantum phenomena are unintuitive, and the number of possible configurations of quantum experiments explodes exponentially. These challenges can be overcome by using computer-designed quantum experiments. We focus on the most mature and practical approaches to find new complex quantum experiments, which have subsequently been realized in the lab. These methods rely on a highly efficient topological search, which can inspire new scientific ideas. We review several extensions and alternatives based on various optimization and machine learning techniques. Finally, we discuss what can be learned from the different approaches and outline several future directions.