Question

I must be clear; this is not a 'specific' question, but rather a hypothetical one.

As of now, computer physics simulations are becoming more and more advanced, and I am programming one now. I was interested in the feasibility that perhaps one could emulate quantum physics or relativity in a physics simulation. Obviously, there are many problems at first, but I think that it would be very interesting to attempt such a simulation to observe the systems in a controlled environment.

Answer 1

This was meant to be a comment but ended up being too long. In a sense, both special relativity and quantum physics are incorporated in simulations already. One example would be be Monte Carlo event generators used for simulating collider physics. MC generators use random numbers to simulate probabilistic quantum mechanical effects which represent probabilities of interactions occurring. MC generators also incorporate relativity, because the initial and final state particles are usually relativistic. But relativity is much easier to simulate than quantum mechanics. The covariant formulation of SR makes it so. Take a look at this game-like simulation, called a Slower Speed of Light It is currently believed that to simulate full QM effects (effects like entanglement, tunneling etc.) we would need a universal quantum simulator which is essentially a fully operational quantum computer which itself works on quantum mechanical laws, thus avoiding huge (exponential actually) simulation times. This is a paper by Richard Feynman which discusses the matter further, called "Simulating Physics with Computers". I do not know of any current developments on the subject, so any corrections will be happily considered.