Tackling the type of question usually reserved for science fiction, researchers from IQC and IBM recently investigated whether time travel can be utilized to solve difficult computational problems.IBM researchers Charles Bennett, Graeme Smith and John Smolin and IQC faculty member Debbie Leung examined whether "closed timelike curves" (CTCs), in which a particle's path through spacetime returns to its point of origin, can allow a computer to more efficiently solve difficult problems.
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