Guo-Liang Ma

When two lead nuclei collide at tremendous speed, they flatten and shatter into thousands of particles. The shape of this debris depends on how the nuclei were structured before the impact. Inside the nucleus, protons and neutrons are not distributed identically: neutrons stick out slightly beyond the edge: this is called the neutron skin.

In a noisy hall, an interpreter tries to catch every word, but rustles and echoes muddle the meaning. That's roughly how conventional computer methods handle complex quantum systems: the more particles and the stronger their correlations, the faster calculations drown in interference.