Physics Innovation Project

The Quantum BIT

~a new approach

Efforts By-
N.Ramanujam
Paras Prakash
Nakul Tyagi
Naveen Kumar

Aim:
To study the Quantum bit
Theory:

What is a Quantum Bit?

• In quantum computing, a qubit or quantum bit (sometimes qbit) is a unit of quantum
information—the quantum analogue of the classical binary bit.
• A qubit is a two-state quantum-mechanical system, such as the polarization of a
single photon: here the two states are vertical polarization and horizontal
polarization.
• However, quantum mechanics allows the qubit to be in a superposition of both states
at the same time, a property that is fundamental to quantum computing.

Why Quantum Bit?

• A qubit has a few similarities to a classical bit, but is overall very different. There are
two possible outcomes for the measurement of a qubit—usually 0 and 1, like a bit.
• The difference is that whereas the state of a bit is either 0 or 1, the state of a qubit can
also be a superposition of both.It is possible to fully encode one bit in one qubit.
However, a qubit can hold even more information.
• For a system of n components, a complete description of its state in classical physics
requires only n bits, whereas in quantum physics it requires 2n−1 complex numbers.
• But it's right up the alley of a quantum computer. A D Wave system would consider
all of the possible solutions at the same time, then collapse down to the optimal set of
player. It's more complicated than I'm making out, of course, but it's a good layman-
like example.
• So how much faster can quantum computers perform than their digital counterparts?
Before purchasing their own D Wave system a few years back, Google put it through
its paces and found that when the problem size got to the 500 qubit size range, the D
Wave system outperformed its binary cousins by 10,000 times – a solid win in
anyone's book.

How Qubit is controlled?

Computer scientists control the microscopic particles that act as qubits in quantum
computers by using control devices.
• Ion traps use optical or magnetic fields (or a combination of both) to trap ions.
• Optical traps use light waves to trap and control particles.
• Quantum dots are made of semiconductor material and are used to contain and
manipulate electrons.
• Semiconductor impurities contain electrons by using "unwanted" atoms found in
semiconductor material.
• Superconducting circuits allow electrons to flow with almost no resistance at very
low temperatures.

Classical Bit vs Quantum Bit

The device computes by
manipulating those bits with the
help of logical gates.
A classical computer has a memory
made up of bits, where each bit holds
either a one or a zero.
The device computes by
manipulating those bits with the
help of quantum logic gates.
A qubits can hold a one,a zero or
crucially a superpositoion of these.

Advantages and Disadvantages of using qbits

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Increase in computing power. Although qubit can hold many possible
values but only one classical result can be
obtained from every run.
Advance in security. Repeated runs may be necessary to obtain
the desired result.
Teleportation. It is impossible to copy qubits(no-cloning
theorem).

Present Status:
• Quantum physicists from the university of Innsbruck have set another world
record: They have achieved controlled entanglement of 14 quantum bits and, thus
realized the largest quantum register that has ever been produced.
• Researchers at delft University of technology have succeeded in carrying out
calculations with two qubits.
• December 19, 2001-IBM performs shor’s algorithm.
• IBM announces its 50 qbit quantum computer.

Applications:
• Quantum computer can be used in cryptography.
• Modelling and indexing of very large databases.
 • It can be used to solving complex mathematical problems.
• Military searches of quantum computer.
• Google image search.
• Improved error correction and error detection.

Cryptography:
• Quantum cryptography describes the use of quantum mechanical effects to
perform cryptographic tasks or to break cryptographic systems.
• Well-known examples of quantum cryptography are the use of quantum
communication to exchange a key securely and the hypothetical use of quantum
computers that would allow the breaking of various popular public-key
encryption and signature schemes.
• The advantage of quantum cryptography lies in the fact that it allows the
completion of various cryptographic tasks that are proven or conjectured to be
impossible using only classical.
• The most well known and developed application of quantum cryptography
is quantum key distribution (QKD).

CONCLUSIONS:
Quantum information is the physics of knowledge. To be more specific, the field of quantum
information studies the implications that quantum mechanics has on the fundamental nature
of information. By studying this relationship between quantum theory and information, it is
possible to design a new type of computer—a quantum computer. A largescale, working
quantum computer—the kind of quantum computer some scientists think we might see in 50
years—would be capable of performing some tasks impossibly quickly.

To date, the two most promising uses for such a device are quantum search and quantum
factoring. To understand the power of a quantum search, consider classically searching a
phonebook for the name which matches a particular phone number. If the phonebook has
10,000 entries, on average you'll need to look through about half of them—5,000 entries—
before you get lucky. A quantum search algorithm only needs to guess 100 times. With
5,000 guesses a quantum computer could search through a phonebook with 25 million
names.

Although quantum search is impressive, quantum factoring algorithms pose a legitimate,

considerable threat to security. This is because the most common form of Internet
security,public key cryptography, relies on certain math problems (like factoring numbers
that are hundreds of digits long) being effectively impossible to solve. Quantum algorithms
can perform this task exponentially faster than the best known classical strategies, rendering
some forms of modern cryptography powerless to stop a quantum codebreaker.

Quantum computers are fundamentally different from classical computers because the
physics of quantum information is also the physics of possibility. Classical computer
memories are constrained to exist at any given time as a simple list of zeros and ones. In
contrast, in a single quantum memory many such combinations—even all possible lists of
zeros and ones—can all exist simultaneously. During a quantum algorithm, this symphony
of possibilities split and merge, eventually coalescing around a single solution. The
complexity of these large quantum states made of multiple possibilities make a complete
description of quantum search or factoring a daunting task.