Topological Field Theory and Computing with Instantons

It is well known that dynamical systems may be employed as computing machines. However, not all dynamical systems offer particular advantages compared to the standard paradigm of computation, in regard to efficiency and scalability. Recently, it was suggested that a new type of machines, named digital –hence scalable– memcomputing machines (DMMs), that employ non‐linear dynamical systems with memory, can solve complex Boolean problems efficiently. This result was derived using functional analysis without, however, providing a clear understanding of which physical features make DMMs such an efficient computational tool. Here, we show, using recently proposed topological field theory of dynamical systems, that the solution search by DMMs is a composite instanton. This process effectively breaks the topological supersymmetry common to all dynamical systems, including DMMs. The emergent long‐range order – a collective dynamical behavior– allows logic gates of the machines to correlate arbitrarily far away from each other, despite their non‐quantum character. We exemplify these results with the solution of prime factorization, but the conclusions generalize to DMMs applied to any other Boolean problem.