Despite high hopes for quantum computation in the 1990s, progress in the pastdecade has been slow; we still cannot perform computation with more than aboutthree qubits and are no closer to solving problems of real interest than adecade ago. Separately, recent experiments in fluid mechanics have demonstratedthe emergence of a full range of quantum phenomena from completely classicalmotion. We present two specific hypotheses. First, Kuramoto theory may give abasis for geometrical thinking about entanglement. Second, we consider a recentsoliton model of the electron, in which the quantum-mechanical wave function isa phase modulation of a carrier wave. Both models are consistent with oneanother and with observation. Both models suggest how entanglement anddecoherence may be related to device geometry. Both models predict that it willbe difficult to maintain phase coherence of more than three qubits in theplane, or four qubits in a three-dimensional structure. The soliton model alsoshows that the experimental work which appeared to demonstrate a violation ofBell's inequalities might not actually do so; regardless of whether it is acorrect description of the world, it exposes a flaw in the logic of the Belltests. Thus the case for the security of EPR-based quantum cryptography hasjust not been made. We propose experiments in quantum computation to test this.Finally, we examine two possible interpretations of such soliton models: one isconsistent with the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, whilethe other is an entirely classical model in which we do not have to abandon theidea of a single world where action is local and causal.
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