https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-026-02504-7
Regular Article
A short suite: (position xor velocity) is unknown
1
DMI, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
2
Istituto Nazionale di Ricerche Demopolis, Palermo, Italy
a
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Received:
25
January
2026
Accepted:
25
June
2026
Published online:
5
July
2026
Abstract
Basic concepts of quantum mechanics sometimes appear as esoteric and remote from everyday practice to large sections of the population, including many people working in the hard sciences. Perhaps, precisely because of this distance, they have begun to attract creators and artists, especially as they have become more widespread in popular culture. On the one hand, artists use quantum principles as a source of creative inspiration. At the same time, artists can employ the counter-intuitive structures and properties of quantum theory, now implementable through emulators and the online availability of machine time on real quantum computers, to augment creative artefacts in ways that are not possible with traditional computer-science techniques. Is it possible to implement both approaches simultaneously, in order to create works of art that are truly, and essentially, quantum-to-the-core? This article describes the preparation, software, performance layout, score-generation process, and execution instructions for a short suite in four movements titled (position xor velocity) is unknown, as an example of this double approach. The suite is compositionally based on Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and belongs to the field of Quantum Computer Music through its use of quantum algorithms to generate some of the parameters that characterise a single performance event of the composition.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
