Quantum Computing

S Azhar Madar
EE IDD IIIrd Year
Electrical Engineering Department

Necessity of Quantum Computing

Quantum mechanics brought an unexpected fuzziness into

physics because of quantum uncertainty, the Heisenberg uncertainty
principle. Whenever we measure a particle's parameter at quantum
level, we are changing it. Then why should we at all think of doing
computation using Quantum mechanics?

1.1

Moore's Law

Ever since Shockleys transistor, hardware development has

happened at a phenomenal pace. This development has been codified
as Moore's Law, which states that computer power roughly doubles
for constant cost every two years. Amazingly, Moores law has
approximately held true till now. However, this dream run may soon
end because conventional methods of fabrication of computer
technology are running in to problems of size, and quantum effects
are beginning to interfere in the functioning of electronic devices as
they are made smaller. An obvious solution is to switch over to
computing using quantum mechanical principles.

1.2

Factorization

In 1994 Peter Shor showed that factoring (finding the prime

factors of an integer) can be done efficiently on a quantum computer.
Shors solution is based on quantum Fourier transform and follows
an earlier work by Simon. The best known classical algorithm (the
number field sieve) will take a humongous time to find the prime
factors of a RSA-2048 number while the Peter Shor's algorithm
takes a few seconds.

1.3 Security
The RSA system, ubiquitously used on the Internet and in the
financial world crypto-systems can be broken if one can factor
large numbers fast using the Quantum Computer. What QComputing takes away with one hand (classic public-key
crypto), gives back in another form (quantum secret-key crypto
Quantum Entanglement) which can detect any form of spying.

1.4

Optimization

Optimization problems are some of the most complex problems

to solve. Imagine you are building a house, and have a list of things
you want to have in your house, but you cant afford everything on
your list because you are constrained by a budget. What you really
want to work out is the combination of items which gives you the
best value for your money. This is an example of an optimization
problem, where you are trying to find the best combination of things
given some constraints. Typically, these are very hard problems to
solve because of the huge number of possible combinations. With
just 270 on/off switches, there are more possible combinations than
atoms in the universe!
These types of optimization problems exist in many different
domains systems design, mission planning, airline scheduling,
financial analysis, web search, cancer radiotherapy and many more.
They are some of the most complex problems in the world, with
potentially enormous benefits to businesses, people and science if
optimal solutions can be readily computed.

1.5

Machine Learning

When you look at a photograph it is very easy for you to pick

out the different objects in the image: Trees, Mountains,
Velociraptors etc. This task is almost effortless for humans, but is in
fact a hugely difficult task for computers to achieve. This is because

programmers dont know how to define the essence of a Tree in

computer code.
Machine learning is the most successful approach to solving
this problem, by which programmers write algorithms that
automatically learn to recognize the essences of objects by
detecting recurring patterns in huge amounts of data. Because of the
amount of data involved in this process, and the immense number of
potential combinations of data elements, this is a very
computationally expensive optimization problem. As with other
optimization problems, these can be mapped to the native ability of
the Q-Computing.

Harnessing Quantum Phenomenon

Quantum mechanics is generally about the novel behavior of

very small things.
The following are main parts of quantum mechanics that are
important for quantum computing:
Quantization of Energy
Superposition
Quantum Tunneling
Entanglement
Uncertainty

2.1

Quantization of Energy

At very small scale (nano-scale) matter becomes quantized, this

means that it can be subdivided no more. The states in which
electrons exist in an atom is also quantized resulting in the nonexistence of electrons in the space between the orbits. The electron
has to move from one orbit to the other without traversing the space
between them. For example the electron slowly dims or fades off
from ground state to appearing in the excited state. In the
intermediate time, the electron exists in both the ground and the

excited state at once resulting in superposition of both the states.

2.2

Superposition

Superposition means a system can be in two or more of its

states simultaneously. For example a single particle can be traveling
along two different paths at once. This implies that the particle has
wave-like properties, which can mean that the waves from the
different paths can interfere with each other.
The ability for the particle to be in a superposition is where we
get the parallel nature of quantum computing: If each of the states
corresponds to a different value then, if we have a superposition of
such states and act on the system, we effectively act on all the states
simultaneously. With just 300 states, we can get 2300 simultaneous
simulations in one system.

2.3

Quantum Tunneling

Quantum tunneling refers to the quantum mechanical

phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a barrier that it
classically could not surmount. This allows a Q-Computer to explore
vast expanses within seconds to find the least energy state for better
optimized solutions.

2.4

Entanglement

In 1935 Einstein (along with colleagues Podolski and Rosen)

demonstrated a paradox (named EPR after them) in an attempt to
refute the undefined nature of quantum systems. This was proven
wrong, but ultimately paved way for Quantum Information as a
subject to be explored.
Entanglement is the ability for pairs of particles to interact over
any distance instantaneously. Particles dont exactly communicate,
but there is a statistical correlation between results of measurements
on each particle that is hard to understand using classical physics. To

become entangled, two particles are allowed to interact; they then

separate and, on measuring say, the velocity of one of them
(regardless of the distance between them), we can be sure of the
value of velocity of the other one (before it is measured). The reason
we say that they communicate instantaneously is because they store
no local state and only have well defined state once they are
measured. Because of this limitation particles cant be used to
transmit classical messages faster than the speed of light as we only
know the states upon measurement. Entanglement has applications
in a wide variety of quantum algorithms and machinery.

2.5

Uncertainty

The quantum world is irreducibly small so its impossible to

measure a quantum system without having an effect on that system
as our measurement device is also quantum mechanical. As a result
there is no way of accurately predicting all of the properties of a
particle. There is a trade off the properties occur in complementary
pairs (like position and momentum, or vertical spin and horizontal
spin) and if we know one property with a high degree of certainty
then we must know almost nothing about the other property.
That unknown propertys behavior is essentially random. An
example of this is a particles position and velocity: if we know
exactly where it is then we know nothing about how fast it is going.
This indeterminacy is exploited in quantum cryptography. It has
been postulated (and currently accepted) that particles in fact DO
NOT have defined values for unknown properties until they are
measured. This is like saying that something does not exist until it is
looked at.

Qubit
3.1
Bit vs Qubit

Unlike a bit, Qubit can be both 0 and 1 at the same time

Qubit changes whenever you measure it to either 0 or 1

in an undefined nature.
Energy program instead of Logic program is used in QComputer.
Qubit has all the quantum properties discussed above.

3.2

Mathematical Representation

A pure qubit state is a linear superposition of the basis states.

This means that the qubit can be represented as a linear combination
of 0 and 1 states as:
They are normalized to get a total probability of 1 as:

3.3

Implementation
Quantum Optics: Cavity QED, Circuit QED,
Linear Optical Quantum Computing
Ultra cold atoms: Optical Lattice, Trapped Ion
Quantum Computer
Spin based: Nuclear magnetic resonance QC,
Kane QC, LossDiVincenzo QC, Nitrogenvacancy center
Superconducting Quantum Computing
(SquID): Charge, Flux and Phase Qubit.

Quantum Decoherence

One of the greatest challenges is controlling or removing

quantum decoherence. This usually means isolating the system from
its environment as interactions with the external world cause the

system to decohere. However, other sources of decoherence also

exist. Examples include the quantum gates, and the lattice vibrations
and background nuclear spin of the physical system used to
implement the qubits. Decoherence is irreversible, as it is nonunitary, and is usually something that should be highly controlled, if
not avoided. Decoherence times for candidate systems, in particular
the transverse relaxation time T2 (for NMR and MRI technology,
also called the dephasing time), typically range between
nanoseconds and seconds at low temperature.
We need the Schrodinger's Cat to be Dead and Alive for QComputer.

Conclusion and Future Prospect

From factorization of 15 = 5*3 to data transfer by
quantum teleportation over 10 feet distance, achievements
have been small. But in future the limitation of Qcomputation will be pushed furthermore and revolutionize the
Computer Science.
The Quantum Computers don't change the normal usage
of the Computers in our daily life. But, they help us take a
Quantum leap through time and space increasing the standard
of our life in engineering, medical, financial, security and
many other fields.
6

References
http://www.cse.iitd.ernet.in/~suban/quantum/lectures/lectur
e1.pdf

http://www.dwavesys.com/

http://vanilla47.com/PDFs/Quantum/1/Seminar%20Report

%20-%20Quantum%20Computing.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing
http://ls.poly.edu/~jbain/physinfocomp/lectures/08.QITPartI
.pdf