AbdullahHakmi

ID:20122
Prof:AC

Quantumcomputing

MIS201

Project3
Sunday,July19,2009
ExecutiveSummary:
Aquantumcomputerisadeviceforcomputationthatmakesdirectuse
ofquantummechanicalphenomena,suchassuperpositionandentanglement,to
performoperationsondata.Thebasicprinciplebehindquantumcomputationis
thatquantumpropertiescanbeusedtorepresentdataandperformoperations
onthesedata.

Introduction:
Themassiveamountofprocessingpowergeneratedbycomputer
manufacturershasnotyetbeenabletoquenchourthirstforspeedand
computingcapacity.In1947,AmericancomputerengineerHowardAikensaid
thatjustsixelectronicdigitalcomputerswouldsatisfythecomputingneedsof
theUnitedStates.Othershavemadesimilarerrantpredictionsaboutthe
amountofcomputingpowerthatwouldsupportourgrowingtechnological
needs1.Ofcourse,Aikendidn'tcountonthelargeamountsofdatageneratedby
scientificresearch,theproliferationofpersonalcomputersortheemergenceof
theInternet,whichhaveonlyfueledourneedformore,moreandmore
computingpower.
1 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Willweeverhavetheamountofcomputingpowerweneedorwant?If,
asMoore'sLawstates,thenumberoftransistorsonamicroprocessorcontinues
todoubleevery18months,theyear2020or2030willfindthecircuitsona
microprocessormeasuredonanatomicscale.Andthelogicalnextstepwillbe
tocreatequantumcomputers,whichwillharnessthepowerofatomsand
moleculestoperformmemoryandprocessingtasks.Quantumcomputershave
thepotentialtoperformcertaincalculationssignificantlyfasterthanany
siliconbasedcomputer.
Althoughquantumcomputingisstillinitsimmaturity,experimentshave
beencarriedoutinwhichquantumcomputationaloperationswereexecutedon
averysmallnumberofqubits(quantumbinarydigits).Bothpracticaland
theoreticalresearchcontinueswithinterest,andmanynationalgovernmentand
militaryfundingagenciessupportquantumcomputingresearchtodevelop
quantumcomputersforbothcivilianandnationalsecuritypurposes,suchas
cryptanalysis.
Iflargescalequantumcomputerscanbebuilt,theywillbeabletosolve
certainproblemsmuchfasterthananyofourcurrentclassicalcomputers(for
exampleShor'salgorithm).Quantumcomputersaredifferentfromother
computerssuchasDNAcomputersandtraditionalcomputersbasedon
transistors.Somecomputingarchitecturessuchasopticalcomputersmayuse
classicalsuperpositionofelectromagneticwaves.Withoutsomespecifically

quantummechanicalresourcessuchasentanglement,itisconjecturedthatan
exponentialadvantageoverclassicalcomputersisnotpossible.

Methodology:
Whileaclassicalthreebitstateandaquantumthreequbitstateareboth
eightdimensionalvectors,theyaremanipulatedquitedifferentlyforclassical
orquantumcomputation,respectively.Forcomputingineithercase,thesystem
mustbeinitialized,forexampleintotheallzerosstring,correspondingtothe
vector(1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0).Inclassicalrandomizedcomputation,thesystem
evolvesaccordingtotheapplicationofstochasticmatrices,whichpreservethat
theprobabilitiesadduptoone(i.e.,preservetheL1norm).Inquantum
computation,ontheotherhand,allowedoperationsareunitarymatrices,which
areeffectivelyrotations(theypreservethatthesumofthesquaresaddupto
one,theEuclideanorL2norm).(Exactlywhatunitariescanbeapplieddepend
onthephysicsofthequantumdevice.)2Consequently,sincerotationscanbe
undonebyrotatingbackward,quantumcomputationsarereversible.
Technically,quantumoperationscanbeprobabilisticcombinationsofunitaries,
soquantumcomputationreallydoesgeneralizeclassicalcomputation.

2 Quantum Computing with Molecules" article in Scientific American

by Neil Gershenfeld and Isaac L. Chuang - a generally accessible
overview of quantum computing and so on.

Finally,uponterminationofthealgorithm,theresultneedstoberead
off.Inthecaseofaclassicalcomputer,itissampledfromtheprobability
distributiononthethreebitregistertogetonedistinctthreebitstring,say000.
Quantummechanicallymeasuresthethreequbitstate,whichisequivalentto
collapsingthequantumstatedowntoaclassicaldistribution(withthe
coefficientsintheclassicalstatebeingthesquaredmagnitudesofthe
coefficientsforthequantumstate,asdescribedabove)3followedbysampling
fromthatdistribution.Manyalgorithmswillonlygivethecorrectanswerwith
acertainprobability,howeverbyrepeatedlyinitializing,runningand
measuringthequantumcomputer,theprobabilityofgettingthecorrectanswer
canbeincreased.

Limitationsofthetechnology:

Scientistshavealreadybuiltbasicquantumcomputersthatcanperform
certaincalculations;butapracticalquantumcomputerisstillyearsaway.
Quantumcomputingisstillintheoryandthisisthemainlimitationthatithas
sofar.Therearefutureproblemsandchallengesthatareexpectedtohappenif
scientistshavereachedthistechnologyandwantedtoimplementitintouse.
Oneofthegreatestchallengesiscontrollingorremovingdecoherence.This
3 M. I. Dyakonov, Universit Montpellier (2006-10-14). "Is Fault-Tolerant Quantum
Computation Really Possible?". Retrieved on 2007-02-16.

usuallymeansisolatingthesystemfromitsenvironmentastheslightest
interactionwiththeexternalworldwouldcausethesystemtodecohere.This
effectisirreversible,asitisnonunitary,andisusuallysomethingthatshould
beavoided,ifnothighlycontrolled.Decoherencetimesforcandidatesystems,
inparticularthetransverserelaxationtimeT2,typicallyrangebetween
nanosecondsandsecondsatlowtemperature.
Theseissuesaremoredifficultforopticalapproachesasthetimescales
areordersofmagnitudelowerandanoftencitedapproachtoovercomingthem
isopticalpulseshaping.Errorratesaretypicallyproportionaltotheratioof
operatingtimetodecoherencetime,henceanyoperationmustbecompleted
muchmorequicklythanthedecoherencetime.
Iftheerrorrateissmallenough,itisthoughttobepossibletouse
quantumerrorcorrection,whichcorrectserrorsduetodecoherence,thereby
allowingthetotalcalculationtimetobelongerthanthedecoherencetime.An
oftencitedfigureforrequirederrorrateineachgateis104.Thisimpliesthat
eachgatemustbeabletoperformitstask10,000timesfasterthanthe
decoherencetimeofthesystem.
Meetingthisscalabilityconditionispossibleforawiderangeof
systems.However,theuseoferrorcorrectionbringswithitthecostofagreatly
increasednumberofrequiredqubits.Thenumberrequiredtofactorintegers
usingShor'salgorithmisstillpolynomial,andthoughttobebetweenLandL2,

whereListhenumberofbitsinthenumbertobefactored;errorcorrection
algorithmswouldinflatethisfigurebyanadditionalfactorofL.Fora1000bit
number,thisimpliesaneedforabout104qubitswithouterrorcorrection.
Averydifferentapproachtothestabilitydecoherenceproblemisto
createatopologicalquantumcomputerwithanyons,quasiparticlesusedas
threadsandrelyingonbraidtheorytoformstablelogicgates.
Benefitsofthetechnologytothebusiness:
Thistechnologywillnotonlyaffectbusiness,itwillcausetosolveso
manyoftheworldstechnicalproblems,itmayevencausenewdiscoveriesfor
scientists.Withthisnewinvention,computerswillhelpbusinessestowork
moreefficientlybyspeedinguptheprocessofanalyzingandtransformingdata.
ItwouldalsoopennewdoorsforEbusinessesbymakingitmoresecureand
efficient.

Conclusion:
Inconclusion,quantumcomputingisjustatheoryandaconceptforthefuture
ofthecomputerworldandtechnology.Quantumcomputercouldbea
replacementtothetechnologywenowusewhichissiliconships.This
inventionwithitsabilitytosolvecomplicatedalgorithmrealfastandtheability

tostoreinformationandexchangeitwidelywillhelpscientiststodiscovernew
things.

References

1. QuantumComputingwithMolecules"articleinScientificAmericanby
NeilGershenfeldandIsaacL.Chuangagenerallyaccessibleoverview
ofquantumcomputingandsoon.
2. Neumann,P.;Mizuochi,N.;Rempp,F.;Hemmer,P.;Watanabe,H.;
Yamasaki,S.;Jacques,V.;Gaebel,T.;etal.(June6,2008),
"MultipartiteEntanglementAmongSingleSpinsinDiamond",Science
320(5881):13261329,doi:10.1126/science.1157233,PMID
18535240,
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/320/5881/1326
3. http://news.cnet.com/Startupdemosquantumcomputer/21001008_3
6159152.html

4. UniversityofIllinoisatUrbanaChampaign. Quantumcomputersolves
problem,withoutrunning,www.physorg.com/news11087.html
5. M. I. Dyakonov, Universit Montpellier (2006-10-14). "Is Fault-Tolerant
Quantum Computation Really Possible?". Retrieved on 2007-02-16.