Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Volume 29 Issue 2 Article 3

2020

Quantum Computing: Principles and Applications

Yoshito Kanamori
University of Alaska Anchorage, [email protected]

Seong-Moo Yoo
University of Alabama in Huntsville, [email protected]

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Journal of International Technology and Information Management Volume 29, Number 2 2020

Quantum Computing: Principles and Applications

Yoshito Kanamori
(University of Alaska Anchorage)
Seong-Moo Yoo
(University of Alabama in Huntsville)

ABSTRACT

The development of quantum computers over the past few years is one of the most
significant advancements in the history of quantum computing. D-Wave quantum
computer has been available for more than eight years. IBM has made its quantum
computer accessible via its cloud service. Also, Microsoft, Google, Intel, and NASA
have been heavily investing in the development of quantum computers and their
applications. The quantum computer seems to be no longer just for physicists and
computer scientists, but also for information system researchers. This paper
introduces the basic concepts of quantum computing and describes well-known
quantum applications for non-physicists. The current status of the developments in
quantum computing is also presented.

Keywords: Quantum computer, Quantum gate, QKD, Shor, Grover

INTRODUCTION

Quantum computers seem to have a significant impact on business. Various

quantum algorithms were developed since quantum computing was proposed in the
1980s (Benioff, 1980; Coles et al., 2018; Feynman, 1982; Montanaro, 2016). The
most well-known quantum algorithms are Glover’s database search algorithm and
Shor’s integer factoring algorithm. Both quantum algorithms are known to
outperform the algorithms for classical computers significantly and also be used for
cracking the encryption systems (e.g., AES, RSA, ECC), which have globally used
on the Internet (e.g., online shopping sites.) Governments have been increasing the
funding for quantum computing research and development not only for the
advancement of computing technology but also for their national security. However,
after the Canadian company D-wave unveiled a commercial annealer-based

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Quantum Computing: Principles and Applications Kanamori & Yoo

quantum computer in 2012, quantum computing has attracted much more

increasing attention from enterprises (“D-Wave: Quantum Computing
Applications,” 2019; Robert Hackett, 2019).
JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sacks have been evaluating algorithms and
applications that may utilize the power of quantum computing. Their research teams
have found that quantum computing could significantly reduce the time of option-
pricing and risk-assessment calculations (Sara Castellanos, 2019). ExxonMobil has
explored practical applications in the area of energy and chemical manufacturing,
such as optimizing a country’s power grid, developing more predictable
environmental modeling, and discovering new materials. Daimler Mercedes-Benz
has been using a quantum computer to develop a new battery for electric vehicles.
Volkswagen has investigated the use of quantum computers to find a solution for
the optimization of traffic flows in Beijing, China.
IBM, which owns 53-qubit gate-based quantum computers, has been collaborating
with more than 100 organizations, including the companies mentioned above,
across industries and made their 5-qubit and 20-qubit quantum computers available
via their cloud service called “IBM Q Experience” (IBM, n.d.). More than 200 third
party research papers on practical applications have been published with IBM
quantum computers. This cloud service provides a graphical user interface in a
browser to build quantum circuits on IBM’s simulators or real quantum computers
by dragging and dropping the icons, which represent quantum logic gates (e.g.,
NOT gate), on the lines connected to inputs and outputs. Also, the quantum circuits
can be built and run remotely by using Python with the Qiskit library installed on
the user’s desktop computer. In January 2019, IBM unveiled the first commercial
general-purpose 20-qubit gate-based quantum computer called “IBM Q System
one” (“IBM Unveils World’s First Integrated Quantum Computing System for
Commercial Use - Jan. 8, 2019,” 2019). This system enables a company to operate
a gate-based quantum computer on its premises.
The commercial annealing-based quantum computer D-Wave 2000Q has about
2000 qubits (Gibney, 2017). The quantum-annealing-based quantum computer is
not a universal computer but designed to solve optimization problems. NASA uses
2000Q to explore the potential for quantum computers to solve their optimization
problems for applications such as air traffic control, mission planning and
scheduling, machine autonomy, fault diagnosis, and robust system design (National
Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2015).
D-Wave has announced its 5000-qubit system, which will be released in mid-2020,
has been sold to Los Alamos National Laboratory (Wheatley, n.d.).
In 2019, Google announced its quantum computer with 53 qubits needed only 200
seconds to perform a highly technical and specialized computation that would have
taken a state-of-art classical supercomputer approximately10,000 years (Arute et
al., 2019). Google claimed their quantum computer had demonstrated “quantum

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Quantum Computing: Principles and Applications Kanamori & Yoo

supremacy,” where we could perform tasks with controlled quantum systems going
beyond what could be achieved with ordinary digital computers (Preskill, 2012).
However, IBM claimed that Google’s quantum computer did not reach quantum
supremacy because the same task could be done with an ideal algorithm on a
classical computer in 2.5 days (Pednault, Gunnels, Maslov, & Gambetta, 2019).
Intel, Rigetti, and IonQ also have been developing a quantum computer in their
laboratories (Gomes, 2018). Microsoft has released the quantum development kit
(QDK) and the quantum programming toolkit Q# for Visual Studio (“Quantum
Development Kit | Microsoft,” 2019), which allows users to simulate quantum
circuits on a classical computer. Microsoft also started Azure Quantum, which
provides Internet cloud access to their quantum computer simulators and the real
quantum hardware supplied by Honeywell, IonQ, and QCI. Similarly, Amazon
started a quantum computing service via AWS, called Amazon Braket, where users
can remotely use the quantum computer hardware of the partners: D-wave, IonQ,
and Rigetti.
Although everyone in business may not need a quantum computer for their tasks,
many business applications can be improved by quantum computing, as mentioned
above ((Bo) Ewald, 2019; Chalmers Brown, 2018; Cusumano, 2018; “D-Wave:
Quantum Computing Applications,” 2019; Robert Hackett, 2019). It seems that the
time has come for researchers who are not necessarily physicists to design new
business applications for quantum computers and communications.
This paper introduces the basic concepts of quantum computing, particularly for a
general-purpose gate-based quantum computer, and describes the well-researched
applications of quantum computing for non-experts. The next section provides the
fundamentals of quantum computing. Section 3 describes three applications:
Glover’s quantum search algorithm, Shor’s quantum integer factoring algorithm,
and Quantum key distribution protocol. In section 4, a brief survey of the current
status and research challenges in quantum computing is presented.

PRINCIPLES OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

Qubit

Computation is a process of manipulating the states of a physical system to solve a

problem. Quantum computing uses a microscopic object (e.g., electron, photon,
ion) as the medium to store and transfer digital information. One-bit information
(i.e., zero or one) can be encoded using two orthogonal states of a microscopic
object. This quantum two-state system is called a quantum bit (or qubit). A
quantum computer solves a problem by setting qubits in initial states and then
manipulating the states so that an expected result appears on the qubits. In order to

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design such a quantum circuit, quantum mechanics is used to describe the states
since those microscopic objects do not follow the rules of classical physics. The
state of a qubit can be written as a vector |𝜓⟩.
|𝜓⟩ = 𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩, {𝛼, 𝛽 ∈ ℂ} (1)
where 𝛼 and 𝛽 are complex numbers ℂ , called probability amplitude, and
satisfy |𝛼|2 + |β|2 = 1. |𝛼|2 is the probability of getting the state |0⟩ as the result
of the measurement on the qubit |𝜓⟩ while |𝛽⟩2 is the probability of getting |1⟩.
“| ⟩” is a standard notation for specifying states in quantum mechanics, called
column vector or ket vector in the Dirac notation. The orthonormal basis |0⟩ and
|1⟩ can be written as
|0⟩ = [1,0]T , |1⟩ = [0,1]T (2 )

Quantum states combine through the tensor product. For instance, two qubits state
can be written as |𝜓1 ⟩ ⊗ |𝜓2 ⟩, where “⊗” indicates a tensor product, or more
compactly |𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ⟩ or |𝜓1 𝜓2 ⟩. For example,

𝑇 𝑇
|𝜓1 ⟩ ⊗ |𝜓2 ⟩ = [𝜓1,0 , 𝜓1,1 ] ⊗ [𝜓2,0 , 𝜓2,1 ]
= [𝜓1,0 𝜓2,0 , 𝜓1,0 𝜓2,1 , 𝜓1,1 𝜓2,0, 𝜓1,1 𝜓2,1]𝑇 (3)

where |𝜓𝑖 ⟩ = 𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩ = 𝛼[1,0]𝑇 + 𝛽[0, 1]𝑇 = [𝛼, 𝛽]𝑇 = [𝜓𝑖,0 , 𝜓𝑖,1 ]𝑇 .

Thus, an n-qubit state can be represented by a column vector with 2𝑛 elements.

Superposition State

Superposition State is an essential ingredient of quantum computing. In this section,

a photon is used as an example of a qubit for the sake of ease. The polarization (i.e.,
the geometric orientation of the photon) represents one-bit information.
A horizontally polarized photon represents classical bit 0, and a vertically polarized
photon represents bit 1. In Figure 1, photons are fired at the emitter and going
through the Filter-V, which allows only vertically polarized photons to go through.
We assume only a single photon goes into Polarization Beam Splitter (PBS) at a
time to make the example simpler. PBS transmits vertically polarized photons
(measured at the detector DV) while the PBS deflects horizontally polarized
photons (measured at the detector DH). Thus, all photons will be measured at DV
in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: All photons are detected at DV

If a filter that only transmits diagonally polarized photons called “Filter-45°”,

however, is placed between Filter-V and PBS (Figure 2), a vertically or horizontally
polarized photon is found at each detector with the probability of ½.

Figure 2: The half of photons are found at DV, and the rest are at DH

Since the probability of finding the horizontally polarized photon |𝜓⟩ = |𝐻⟩ or
vertically polarized photon |𝜓⟩ = |𝑉⟩ at the PBS is ½, the probability amplitudes
𝛼 and 𝛽 should be 1/√2. Thus, the state of a photon just before PBS can be written
as
1 1
|𝑉⟩ |𝜓⟩ = |𝐻⟩ +(4)
√2 √2
Since |H⟩ is used to represent a classical bit “0” and |V⟩ is used for “1”, the
expression (4) is written as
1 1
|1⟩ |𝜓⟩ = |0⟩ + (5 )
√2 √2
When a photon is prepared in this state, the digital information encoded in the
photon is “0” or “1”. We can interpret the equation (5) as meaning the states
“0” and “1” exist at the same time. This unique state is called a superposition state.
When two qubits are both in the superposition state (5), the state can be written as

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1 1 1 1
|𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ⟩ = { |0⟩ + |1⟩} { |1⟩} |0⟩ +
√2 √2 √2 √2
1 1
= {[1,1]𝑇 ⊗ [1,1]𝑇 } = [1,1,1,1]𝑇
2 2
1
= {[1,0,0,0]𝑇 + [0,1,0,0]𝑇 + [0,0,1,0]𝑇 + [0,0,0,1]𝑇 }
2
1 1 1 1
= |0⟩|0⟩ + |0⟩|1⟩ + |1⟩|0⟩ + |1⟩|1⟩ (6)
2 2 2 2

This two-qubit state represents four classical binary states (00, 01, 10, 11) at the
same time. When a quantum computer prepares n qubits in a superposition state as
its input for a quantum circuit (Figure 3), 2n possible inputs can be processed
simultaneously. This quantum parallelism is one of the significant advantages of
quantum computers.

Figure 3: n-qubit quantum circuit

Quantum Circuit and Measurement

As mentioned earlier, computation is a process of manipulating the states of a

physical system. A quantum computer takes a quantum state as the input and
controls the state to increase the probability of finding the answer in the output state
for the computation. For instance, Shor’s algorithm manipulates the quantum states
to find prime factors of a large number. A significant difference between a classical
(electronic) circuit and a quantum circuit is the intermediate states in the circuits.
In a classical electronic circuit, we can measure the intermediate state since zero
and one in binary is represented by the voltages (e.g., 0 volts and 5 volts) on a node
in the circuit. Thus, it is possible to find an error (e.g., 2.5 volts) by measuring the
voltage in the circuit. However, in a quantum circuit, the intermediate states are
likely to be in a superposition state. If the superposition state is measured, the
quantum state is corrupted and becomes one of the two orthogonal base states (i.e.,
|0⟩ or |1⟩) at the time of the measurement with the probabilities |𝛼|2 and |𝛽⟩2 .
For example, when the photons in the equation (6) are measured, one of the four
states (e.g., |𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ⟩ = |0⟩|1⟩) is observed with an equal probability (i.e., 1/4, )
but all other information about the original state (6) are lost by the measurement.
In other words, the measurement is a one-way operation that does not allow us to

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find the original state from the measured result similar to classical one-way function
(e.g., hash.)

Quantum Gate and Reversibility

The basic operations to manipulate an input state for a quantum circuit is called
quantum gates. Each gate operation can be mathematically represented with a
matrix. For instance, the Filter-45° in Figure 2 converts from one of the orthogonal
1 1
base states (i.e., |0⟩) to a superposition state (i.e., |0⟩ + |1⟩.) This operation
√2 √2
can be expressed with the following matrix 𝑈𝐻 , called Hadamard gate (Nielsen &
Chuang, 2010).
1 1 1 1 1 1
𝑈𝐻 |0⟩ = [ ][ ] = |0⟩ + |1⟩ (7)
√2 1 −1 0 √2 √2

Another example of the quantum gate is the controlled-NOT (cNOT) gate (Figure
4), which behaves like a classical XOR gate, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: A truth table for the quantum XOR gate with two inputs and two
outputs
𝜓𝑖𝑛1 𝜓𝑖𝑛2 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2
0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1
1 0 1 1
1 1 1 0

Figure 4: Controlled-Not gate behaves like a classical XOR

This quantum gate negates the state of the second qubit |𝜓𝑖𝑛2 ⟩ only when the first
qubit |𝜓𝑖𝑛1 ⟩ is |1⟩ while |𝜓𝑖𝑛1 ⟩ itself is unchanged by the gate (i.e., |𝜓𝑖𝑛1 ⟩
=|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 ⟩). This operation can be written as:

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1 0 0 0 𝜓1,0 𝜓2,0 𝜓1,0 𝜓2,0

0 𝜓1,0 𝜓2,1 𝜓1,0 𝜓2,1
|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 ⟩|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 ⟩ = 𝑈𝑐𝑁𝑂𝑇 |𝜓𝑖𝑛1 ⟩|𝜓𝑖𝑛2 ⟩ = [0 1 0
] = (8)
0 0 0 1 𝜓1,1 𝜓2,0 𝜓1,1 𝜓2,1
0 0 1 0 [𝜓1,1 𝜓2,1 ] [𝜓1,1 𝜓2,0]
If we can construct a NAND gate with quantum gates, any logic gate (e.g., AND,
OR, NOT) can be built since the NAND gate is universal (Mano, 1995). The
classical NAND gate’s truth table is given in Table 2.

Table 2: A truth table for the classical NAND gate with two inputs
𝐼𝑁1 𝐼𝑁2 𝑂𝑢𝑡
0 0 1
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

If the NAND gate is built based on the truth table above and the inputs are two
qubits |0⟩|1⟩ = [1, 0]T ⊗ [0, 1]T = [0,1,0,0]T , the operation can be written as
following (Yanofsky & Mannucci, 2008),
0 0 0 1
𝑁𝐴𝑁𝐷: [ ] (9)
1 1 1 0
0 0 0 1
𝑈𝑁𝐴𝑁𝐷 |0⟩|1⟩ = [ ] [0,1,0,0]𝑇 = [0,1]𝑇 = |1⟩ (10)
1 1 1 0

However, this NAND gate cannot be realized with quantum gates because two-bit
information before the gate becomes one bit after the gate in (10). Quantum
mechanics does not allow the system (e.g., quantum circuit) to lose information
unless the quantum states in the system are measured. Therefore, quantum gates
must have the same number of inputs as the outputs and must be reversible with no
information loss by the gates. In contrast, classical gates except NOT gate are one-
way functions and lose some of the input information at the exit of the gate. This
requirement is another significant difference from classical computing.

Table 3: Truth table for Quantum NAND gate

𝜓𝑖𝑛1 𝜓𝑖𝑛2 𝜓𝑖𝑛3 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡3
0 0 1 0 0 1
0 1 1 0 1 1
1 0 1 1 0 1
1 1 1 1 1 0

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A quantum NAND gate can be made of a Toffoli gate, also known as the controlled-
controlled-NOT (ccNOT) gate (Figure 5, Table 4). The revised truth table for the
quantum NAND gate is given in Table 3.

Figure 5: Controlled-Controlled-NOT (Toffoli gate)

Table 4: Truth table for Controlled-Controlled-NOT

𝜓𝑖𝑛1 𝜓𝑖𝑛2 𝜓𝑖𝑛3 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡3
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 0 1
0 1 0 0 1 0
0 1 1 0 1 1
1 0 0 1 0 0
1 0 1 1 0 1
1 1 0 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 0

When the Toffoli gate with 𝜓𝑖𝑛3 = 1, the ccNOT gate works as a NAND gate.
𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡3 = ¬(𝜓𝑖𝑛1 ∧ 𝜓𝑖𝑛2 ) (11)
Thus, we can build any digital logic with the quantum gates theoretically.

No-Cloning Theorem and Entangled State

When 𝜓𝑖𝑛2 is zero in Table 1, the cNOT gate keeps the 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 to be zero for 𝜓𝑖𝑛1 =
0 and changes 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 to be one for 𝜓𝑖𝑛1 = 1. Thus, it seems that cNOT gate copies
the classical bit information in 𝜓𝑖𝑛1 to 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 when 𝜓𝑖𝑛2 = 0.
|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 ⟩|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 ⟩ = 𝑐𝑁𝑂𝑇|0⟩|0⟩ = |0⟩|0⟩
(12)
|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 ⟩|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 ⟩ = 𝑐𝑁𝑂𝑇|1⟩|0⟩ = |1⟩|1⟩
If cNOT gate can copy an arbitrary state in a qubit to the other qubit, it should be
valid for a superposition state. When the input 𝜓𝑖𝑛1 is 𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩, the output
𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 should be 𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩.

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|ψout1 ⟩|ψout2 ⟩ = cNOT(α|0⟩ + β|1⟩)|0⟩

⟶ (𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩)(𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩)

= 𝛼 2 |0⟩|0⟩ + 𝛼𝛽|1⟩|0⟩ + 𝛽𝛼|0⟩|1⟩ + 𝛽2 |1⟩|1⟩ (13)

However, from (12), the output from the cNOT gate for the superposition state turns
out to be 𝛼|0⟩|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩|1⟩.
|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 ⟩|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 ⟩ = 𝑐𝑁𝑂𝑇(𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩)|0⟩
= 𝑐𝑁𝑂𝑇(𝛼|0⟩|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩|0⟩)
= 𝛼|0⟩|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩|1⟩ (14)
Obviously, the equation (13) is not equal to (14). In quantum mechanics, the
replication of an arbitrary quantum state is not possible. This restriction is known
as the no-cloning theorem (Nielsen & Chuang, 2010; Wootters & Zurek, 1982).
Even if cNOT gate seems to copy the classical bit information in |𝜓𝑖𝑛1 ⟩ to |𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 ⟩,
this is not a classical meaning of “copy”. The results in (12) are the special cases
for 𝛼 = 1 or 𝛽 = 1 (|α|2 + |𝛽|2 = 1).

Also, the resulting states in (14) is quite impressive. The equation says, when we
observe zero in 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 by measurement, we know 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 is also zero with no
additional measurement. Similarly, when we find one in 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 , we know 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 is
also one without measuring 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 . In other words, the quantum state in 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2
depends on the value observed in |𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 ⟩. Thus, the outputs 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 and 𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2
cannot be described independently. This bizarre states, where the individual states
of qubits are intimately related to one another, is called the entangled state. There
is no way to express the entangled states as separable states like the expression
|𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡1 ⟩ = (𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩) and |𝜓𝑜𝑢𝑡2 ⟩ = (𝛼|0⟩ + 𝛽|1⟩) in (13). The use of
entangled states is another essential ingredient of quantum computing.

APPLICATIONS

Quantum Computations

As mentioned earlier, one of the significant advantages of quantum computation is

the ability of massively parallel computation. By using a quantum superposition
state, 2𝑛 inputs can be stored in n qubits simultaneously. Since universal quantum
gates allow us to design an arbitrary quantum circuit, the n qubits can be used as
the input for a quantum circuit, which performs an arbitrary computation.

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For example, four classical values {0, 1, 2, and 3} can be stored in two qubits
simultaneously, which can be written as the state (6). For example, a circuit can be
designed to compute 𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑥 + 5 . It seems that four computations can be
performed with only one step by placing the qubits in the superposition states in the
circuit. However, the output state is a superposition state of four possible output
values {5, 6, 7, and 8}. The result of the measurement on the output qubits is one
of the four possible outputs. In short, when a classical logic is implemented as a
quantum circuit, the output qubits are the superposition of 2𝑛 outputs for 2𝑛
inputs.
The measurement result is one of 2𝑛 possible output states with the probability
1/2𝑛 . Therefore, a quantum circuit needs to be designed to manipulate the
probability amplitudes of the qubits so that an expected result can be found by the
measurement with the probability higher than 1/2𝑛 . In this section, two well-
known quantum algorithms that significantly outperform classical algorithms are
introduced.

Grover’s algorithm

This database search algorithm is designed to find an item in an unordered list. For
example, it can be used for speeding up brute force key search on symmetric key
encryption such as AES (Bernstein, 2010). It is known that this algorithm requires
𝑂(√𝑁) operations to search an unsorted array of size N, which requires 𝑂(𝑁)
operations for classical algorithms (Grover, 1996).
The idea of Grover’s algorithm is the following. When the number 𝑥𝑎 that satisfies
𝑓(𝑥𝑎 ) = 1 needs to be found in a large unsorted database, the qubits are set to be
in a superposition state of all possible ID numbers {𝑥 = 0,1,2, … , 𝑁 − 1} as the
initial state. To simplify the expression, the decimal notation is used for n-qubit.
For example,|1⟩|0⟩|0⟩ is written as |4⟩. The initial state (Figure 6) can be written
as
𝑁−1

|𝜓⟩ = ∑ 𝜌𝑥 |𝑥⟩ = 𝜌0 |0⟩ + 𝜌1 |1⟩ + 𝜌2 |2⟩ + ⋯ 𝜌𝑁−1 |𝑁 − 1⟩ (15)

𝑥=0

where the initial values of 𝜌𝑥 are 1/√2𝑛 when 𝑁 = 2𝑛 . Thus, ∑𝑁−1 2

𝑥=0 𝜌𝑥 = 1.

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Figure 6: Initial States for N = 8 (n = 3)

Next, a quantum circuit is used to flip the phase of the state where x is equal to 𝑥𝑎
(Figure 7).
N−1

|ψ′ ⟩ = (−1)f(x) ∑ ρx |x⟩

x=0
= ρ0 |0⟩ + ρ1 |1⟩ + ⋯ + (−1)ρxa |xa ⟩ + ⋯ + ρN−1 |N − 1⟩ (16)

0 𝑥 ≠ 𝑥𝑎
where 𝑓(𝑥) = [ .
1 𝑥 = 𝑥𝑎

Figure 7: Flip the phase of the state xa for N = 8 (n = 3), assuming

𝒇(𝒙𝒂 = 𝟑) = 𝟏 in this example
Then, the difference between the average of the probability amplitudes 𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 and the
amplitude 𝜌𝑥 is subtracted from the amplitude 𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 (Figure 8)

𝑁−1 𝑁−1
|𝜓 ′′ ⟩ = ∑ {𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 − (𝜌𝑥 − 𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 )}|𝑥⟩ = ∑ (2𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 − 𝜌𝑥 )|𝑥⟩ (17)
𝑥=0 𝑥=0
1
where 𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 = ∑𝑁−1
𝑥=0 𝜌𝑥 . 𝑁

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Figure 8: Difference between 𝝆𝒂𝒗𝒆 and 𝝆𝒙 is subtracted from 𝝆𝒂𝒗𝒆 for N = 8

(n = 3)

This operation is called inversion about the average. As shown in the example with
N = 8 (n = 3), the probability amplitude of the target state |3⟩ goes up to 5/2√8
from 1/√8 after the operation, while the amplitudes for the rest of the states is
2
reduced to 1/2√8 . This result still satisfies ∑𝑁−1 2
𝑥=0 𝜌𝑥 = (5/2√8) + 7 × ( 1/
2
2√8) = 1. Thus, the probability of finding the target state |3⟩ by measurement is
increased from 12.5% to 78.1%. If the operation is repeated one more time, 𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 =
2
1/8√8 and 2𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 − 𝜌𝑥3 = 11/4√8 . Thus, the probability (2𝜌𝑎𝑣𝑒 − 𝜌𝑥3 ) is
increased to 94.5%.
By performing inversion about the average multiple times, the probability of
yielding the targeted ID 𝑥𝑎 by measurement can be boosted from the initial
probability of 1/𝑁. Since finding an item from 𝑁 items takes 𝑁/2 operations on
average, when 𝑁 is small, the quantum algorithm does not substantially exceed the
performance of classical algorithms.
𝑂(√𝑁) < 𝑂(𝑁/2) (18)
However, when 𝑁 is large, the advantage is quite distinct. For example, when a
database has 106 items (e.g., for biometric authentications), Grover’s algorithm
only needs 1000 steps to search an item while a classical algorithm needs 50,000
steps (Morsch, 2008).

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Shor’s Algorithm

In 1994, Peter Shor showed that a quantum computer could be used to factor a large
integer in polynomial time (Shor, 1994). His algorithm attracted a great deal of
attention from security agencies since, if a quantum computer is developed, it can
break the RSA encryption algorithms (Van Meter & Horsman, 2013), which is the
most widely used public-key encryption algorithm.
Shor’s algorithm consists of classical parts and quantum parts. This section explains
how quantum computation is utilized with the classical computation in Shor’s
algorithm after the RSA algorithm is briefly introduced.

Summary of the RSA encryption algorithm

A receiver of a secret message, Alice, chooses two large prime numbers (𝑝, 𝑞) and
computes 𝑁 = 𝑝𝑞. Also, she randomly chooses a number 𝑒, which is coprime to
(𝑝 − 1)(𝑞 − 1) . (i.e., gcd{𝑒, (𝑝 − 1)(𝑞 − 1)} ≡ 1 ) and finds the number 𝑑 ,
which satisfies
𝑒𝑑 ≡ 1 𝑚𝑜𝑑{(𝑝 − 1)(𝑞 − 1)} (19)
She makes those two numbers (𝑁, 𝑒) available as her public key and keeps the
number 𝑑 as her private key. To encrypt a message 𝑀, a sender, Bob, computes
𝐶 = 𝑀𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁. For decryption, Alice computes 𝑀 = 𝐶 𝑑 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁.
In order to break the security of the RSA, the eavesdropper, Eve, needs to find the
private key 𝑑. Since 𝑁 and 𝑒 are in public, all she has to do is to find 𝑝 and 𝑞 from
𝑁 to compute (19). However, there is no classical algorithm that can factor a large
integer in polynomial time. The security of the RSA encryption relies on the
difficulty of factoring a large integer (e.g., 200 digits)(Schneier, 1996).

Classical computations in Shor’s algorithm

According to the number theory (Stallings, 1999), if a randomly chosen integer 𝑎

that satisfies 0 < 𝑎 < 𝑁, is coprime to 𝑁, the function
𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) = 𝑎𝑚 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁 (20)
is periodic and there is at least one integer 𝑚 that satisfies the condition
𝑎𝑚 ≡ 1 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁 (21)
For example, when 𝑎 = 7 and 𝑁 = 15,

𝑓7,15 (1) = 71 𝑚𝑜𝑑 15 = 7

𝑓7,15 (2) = 72 𝑚𝑜𝑑 15 = 4

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𝑓7,15 (3) = 73 𝑚𝑜𝑑 15 = 13

𝑓7,15 (4) = 74 𝑚𝑜𝑑 15 = 1 (22)
𝑓7,15 (5) = 75 𝑚𝑜𝑑 15 = 7
𝑓7,15 (6) = 76 𝑚𝑜𝑑 15 = 4
𝑓7,15 (7) = 77 𝑚𝑜𝑑 15 = 13

Therefore, when 𝑚 = 4,8,12, …, the function 𝑓7,15 (𝑚) is equal to 1. The least
positive exponent is the length of the period generated by 𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚). In this example,
the period r is 4.
The condition (21) can be revised by subtracting one from both sides of the
equivalence.
𝑎𝑟 − 1 ≡ 0 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁 (23)
When the period r is an even number,
(𝑎𝑟/2 − 1)(𝑎𝑟/2 + 1) ≡ 0 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁 (24)
Thus, when the integer N is a divisor of (𝑎𝑟/2 − 1)(𝑎𝑟/2 + 1), the remainder is
zero. There is a good chance that one of two factors (𝑎𝑟/2 − 1) or (𝑎𝑟/2 + 1) is a
factor for 𝑁. By using the classical Euclidean algorithm, a factor for 𝑁 can be found
with 𝑔𝑐𝑑 {𝑎𝑟/2 − 1, 𝑁} and 𝑔𝑐𝑑 {𝑎𝑟/2 + 1, 𝑁} except for the case where 𝑎𝑟/2 =
±1 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁. In the example, when 𝑚 = 4, the factors 3 and 5 for 𝑁 = 15 can be
found calculating 𝑔𝑐𝑑{72 − 1, 15} = 𝑔𝑐𝑑{48, 15} = 3 and 𝑔𝑐𝑑{72 + 1, 15} =
𝑔𝑐𝑑{50, 15} = 5.

Quantum computations in Shor’s algorithm

When the integer N is large (e.g., 200 digits), finding the period of 𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) is very
time-consuming with a classical computer (if possible.) Thus, a quantum
superposition state is used to find the period by computing 𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) for 𝑚 = 0 to,
at least, 𝑚 = 𝑁 2 .
In Grover’s algorithm, only one set of qubits in the superposition state is
manipulated to increase the probability of finding the targeted index by
measurement on the qubits. In Shor’s algorithm, two sets of qubits are used: |𝜓1 ⟩
for the input m and |𝜓2 ⟩ for the output of 𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) in (20). The number of qubits
for |𝜓2 ⟩ is 𝑘 = log 𝑁 since 𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) is always less than 𝑁 while the number of
qubits for |𝜓1 ⟩ is, at least, log 𝑁 2 = 2𝑘 (Yanofsky & Mannucci, 2008). Similar to
(15), the initial state of the qubits for m is
𝑁 2 −1
|𝜓1 ⟩ = ∑ 𝜌𝑚 |𝑚⟩ = 𝜌0 |0⟩ + 𝜌1 |1⟩ + 𝜌2 |2⟩ + ⋯ + 𝜌𝑁2−1 |𝑁 2 − 1⟩ (25)
𝑚=0

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where the initial values of 𝜌𝑚 are 1/√22k . The initial state of the qubits for
𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) is
|𝜓2 ⟩ = |000 … 0⟩ = |0⟩ (26)
|𝜓1 ⟩ and |𝜓2 ⟩ are placed into a quantum circuit which computes 𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) as shown
in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Quantum Computation in Shor’s algorithm

The output states from the quantum circuit can be written as

𝑈|𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ⟩ = 𝑈|𝑚⟩|0⟩ = |𝑚⟩|𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚)⟩ = |𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ′⟩ (27)
|𝜓1 ⟩ and |𝜓2 ′⟩ are entangled. For example, in the case with 𝑎 = 7 and 𝑁 =
15 (𝑘 = 4), by using the result of (22), |𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ′⟩ is written as
1
|𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ′⟩ = (|0⟩|1⟩ + |1⟩|7⟩ + |2⟩|4⟩ + |3⟩|13⟩ + |4⟩|1⟩ + |5⟩|7⟩ + ⋯
√256
+|254⟩|1⟩ + |255⟩|7⟩) (28)

Obviously, |𝜓1 ⟩ and |𝜓2 ′⟩ cannot be expressed as a separable state like their initial
states.
When the second set of qubits |𝜓2 ′⟩ is measured, the superposition state of |𝜓2 ′⟩ is
corrupted and one of four states (i.e., 𝜓2 = 1,7,4,13) is observed on |𝜓2 ′⟩. But, the
first set of qubits |𝜓1 ⟩ is still in a superposition state. When 4 is yielded by the
measurement on |𝜓2 ⟩, the state (28) will be
1
|𝜓1 ⟩|𝜓2 ′⟩ = (|2⟩|4⟩ + |6⟩|4⟩ + |10⟩|4⟩ + ⋯ + |254⟩|4⟩)
√64
1
= (|2⟩ + |6⟩ + |10⟩ + ⋯ + |254⟩)|4⟩ (29)
√64
Thus, the period 𝑟 of 𝑓𝑎,𝑁 (𝑚) can be observed as the distance Δ𝑡 between
successive possible states of |𝜓1 ⟩ in Figure 10.

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Figure 10: Discrete Fourier Transform

A simple measurement on |𝜓1 ⟩ is not useful to find 𝑟 since the measurement result
is 𝑚 = 𝑙𝛥𝑡 + 𝑡0 (where 𝑡0 is unknown and 𝑙 = 0,1,2,3, …). The offset 𝑡0 needs to
be eliminated before the measurement. A quantum circuit for Discrete Fourier
Transform for qubits, called quantum Fourier Transform (QFT), is designed to
eliminate the offset in |𝜓1 ⟩ and to convert 𝛥𝑡 to 22𝑘 /𝑟 . After the QFT operation,
the measurement on the state |𝜓1 ′⟩ yields a number 𝑐 = 𝑗[22𝑘 /𝑟] (𝑗 = 1,2,3, …).
Since 22𝑘 is known, the result value 𝑐 can be divided by 22𝑘 .
𝑐 𝑗
2𝑘
= (30)
2 𝑟
By using the continued fraction expansion, the closest rational to 𝑗/𝑟 can be found
(Rieffel & Polak, 2000; Williams & Clearwater, 1998). By repeating this quantum
operation several times, the period 𝑟 can be found.

Summary of Shor’s algorithm

To factor a large integer 𝑁,

1. Randomly choose integer 𝑎 that satisfies both 0 < 𝑎 < 𝑁 and gcd{𝑎, 𝑁} = 1.
2. Find the period 𝑟 for 𝑎𝑚 𝑚𝑜𝑑 𝑁 ( 0 < 𝑚 < 𝑁 2 ) by using the quantum
computation with the classical continued fraction expansion.
3. When 𝑟 is an even number, compute 𝑔𝑐𝑑 {𝑎𝑟/2 − 1, 𝑁} and 𝑔𝑐𝑑 {𝑎𝑟/2 + 1, 𝑁}.
a. If 𝑟 is an odd number, repeat steps 1 and 2.
4. Check if one of the results from step 3 is the factor of N. If not, repeat all steps.

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Quantum Key Distribution

Quantum cryptography (Gisin, Ribordy, Tittel, & Zbinden, 2002) is currently one
of the most practical applications of quantum information science. The most well-
known quantum cryptography is the quantum key distribution (QKD) protocol
(Bennett & Brassard, 1984), which has been implemented and commercially
available for more than a decade. The OKD with the one-time pad can provide
theoretically unbreakable end-to-end security by utilizing quantum mechanical
properties in a classical cryptographic protocol. Here “unbreakable” means that the
security of the cryptography does not rely on the complexity of the algorithm but a
physical property that prevents decryptions without the key. The one-time pad is
classical cryptography known to be a perfect encryption scheme (Schneier, 1996).
The protocol is simple as follows. A sender, called Alice, generates n-bit random
number K as a one-time shared key and delivers it to a receiver, called Bob, before
the communication.
𝐾 = {𝑘𝑖 = 0,1 | 𝑖 = 1,2,3, … 𝑛}
When Alice wants to deliver an n-bit secret message M to Bob, Alice performs
exclusive OR operations for each bit in M and K, respectively. Then, she sends the
resulting bit sequence C to Bob and discards the K.
𝑀 = {𝑚𝑖 = 0,1 | 𝑖 = 1,2,3, … , 𝑛}
𝐶 = {𝑐𝑖 = 𝑚𝑖 ⨁𝑘𝑖 | 𝑖 = 1,2,3, … , 𝑛}
Bob decrypts the ciphertext C by performing exclusive OR operations with the
shared key K and discards the K.

This is an entirely secure protocol. The random bit sequence added to the message
produces an utterly random bit sequence. Since the key is used only once, there is
no possible attack except making a guess of n-bit random bit sequence for an n-bit
message. The problem with this method is that there is no perfectly secure way to
deliver the key (i.e., K) to Bob prior to the communication. If classical cryptography
such as RSA or AES was used, the strength of the one-time pad protocol relies on
the strength of the classical cryptography, which is not a perfect encryption scheme.
QKD plays a significant role in delivering the keys for the one-time pad. The first
QKD was proposed by C.H. Bennett and G. Brassard in 1984, called BB84
protocol. BB84 uses photons to deliver a random sequence of bits, which will be
used as a shared key between Alice and Bob after the completion of the protocol.
We introduce the implementation of BB84 with the photon polarization in the
following discussion to be consistent with the experiments introduced in section 2.

Figure 11 shows a simple BB84 example, which is very similar to Figure 1.

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The difference is that the polarization angles of Filters are variable.

Figure 11: A simple BB84 example

Alice’s filter can be set to four different angles: 0°, 45°, 90°, and 135° while Bob
can change the orientation of the base angle (PBS) to 0° or 45° degrees (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Alice’s filter and Bob’s filter angles

In the BB84 protocol,

1. Alice generates a t-bit random bit sequence, R.
𝑅 = {𝑟𝑖 = 0,1 | 𝑖 = 1,2,3, … 𝑡}
2. Alice randomly chooses a horizontal-vertical base (H-V) or diagonal base
(D) before she sends each photon. When Alice chooses a horizontal-vertical
base and 𝑟𝑖 = 0 , Alice adjusts her filter to be 0° position so that a
horizontally polarized photon is sent to Bob. When Alice chooses a
horizontal-vertical base and 𝑟𝑖 = 1, Alice adjusts her filter to be 90° position
so that a vertically polarized photon is sent to Bob. Similarly, when Alice
chooses the diagonal base and 𝑟𝑖 = 0, Alice adjusts her filter to be 45°
position so that a photon polarized by 45° is sent to Bob. When Alice
chooses the diagonal base and 𝑟𝑖 = 1, Alice adjusts her filter to be 135°

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position so that a photon polarized by 135° is sent to Bob.

3. Bob also independently chooses a horizontal-vertical base or diagonal base
before he receives each photon at his PBS.
4. Once Alice has sent all t photons for R to Bob, Alice and Bob exchange the
information about which base they chose for each transmission and
reception over a public channel (e.g., telephone). Only those bits for their
bases matched are kept as a shared bit sequence K. The result for each
transition is shown in Table 5.

Table 5: Bob’s measurement result for each of Alice’s transmission

Alice Bob
Chosen Random Rotation Photon Chosen Photon Measured
Base Bit Angle State Base State Result
ri after PBS
H-V ↔ 0
Horizontal 0 0° ↔
D ⤢ or ⤡ ?
-Vertical
H-V ↕ 1
(H-V) 1 90° ↕
D ⤢ or ⤡ ?
H-V ↔ or ↕ ?
0 45° ⤢
Diagonal D ⤢ 0
(D) H-V ↔ or ↕ ?
1 135° ⤡
D ⤡ 1

In the cases that Alice and Bob chose the same base by chance, Alice and Bob can
share the same classical bit information. However, when Alice and Bob used
different bases, the bit information is discarded because Bob’s measurement result
is not reliable.
For example, when Alice chooses D base and 𝑟𝑖 = 0, the polarization is rotated by
45 degrees. Thus, by using a rotation operator, Jones matrix for a rotator (Saleh &
Teich, 1991),
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 −𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
𝑈𝑅(𝜃) = [ ] (31)
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃
the state of the photon can be written as
1 1
|𝜓𝑖 ⟩ = 𝑈𝑅(45°) |0⟩ =
|1⟩. |0⟩ +
(32)
√2 √2
Similar to the example in Figure 2, if Bob chooses the H-V base, Bob obtains |0⟩
1
or |1⟩ with the probability 2 . When there is a 45-degree difference between the

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rotation angle of Alice’s photon and the orientation of Bob’s base, Bob’s
1
measurement result is 0 or 1 with the probability of 2.
The same rule is applied to the measurements by an eavesdropper, Eve. If Eve has
the same equipment as Alice and Bob, she can intercept the photons from Alice and
retransmit the same state of a photon to Bob. However, since Eve does not know
which base she should use for the measurement, 25% of the measurement results
are wrong. If Eve encodes new photons based on her measurement results and
transmits them to Bob, the 25 % of Bob’s measurement results are also incorrect.
Thus, the existence of an eavesdropper significantly increases the error rate. Alice
and Bob can detect Eve’s attack by checking some bits in K to calculate the error
rate. Although Eve may try to make copies of Alice’s photon to avoid increasing
errors, the no-cloning theorem forbids the replication of an arbitrary unknown
quantum state.

CHALLENGES

Quantum Computer

As listed in “The European Quantum Technologies Roadmap” (Acín et al., 2018),

many approaches to realize quantum commuters have been explored for decades,
and some approaches have successfully demonstrated quantum operations. In 2001,
the first implementation of Shor’s algorithm (factorization of 15 = 3 × 5) was
realized using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) (Vandersypen et al., 2001). The
controlled-Not gate operations have been realized with trapped ions (Schmidt-Kaler
et al., 2003), superconductors (Plantenberg, de Groot, Harmans, & Mooij, 2007),
and optical systems (O’Brien, Pryde, White, Ralph, & Branning, 2003). As of 2019,
the largest number of qubits tested in laboratories is 53-qubit on a superconducting
based quantum computer. IBM has 20-qubit superconducting based commercial
quantum computers. Google, IonQ, and Rigetti also have quantum computers in
their laboratories.
Theoretically, if universal quantum gates are developed as hardware, any arbitrary
quantum circuit can be designed. However, there are many technical challenges in
building the hardware for gate-based quantum computation with a large number of
qubits (DiVincenzo, 2000; Nielsen & Chuang, 2010). For example, whatever
material chosen as a qubit must be robustly represented as a stable two-level system
and must have a longer decoherence time than the gate operations. (Decoherence is
the coupling between the qubit and its environment.) If the decoherence time is not
enough for a gate operation, the output state from the gate is likely to have errors.
Thus, each qubit (e.g., ion, electron) needs to be well isolated from its environment,
including neighbor qubits. Quantum error correction (Calderbank & Shor, 1996)

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can correct some errors, but the error correction mechanism requires a lot of extra
qubits to be managed. Also, the operations with the qubits need to be performed at
cryogenic temperatures. This requires refrigeration technologies, which are scalable
to quantum circuits with a few hundred qubits.
D-Wave’s quantum computer uses superconducting flux qubit generated inside the
circulating current in a loop acting as a quantum mechanical spin (Lupaşcu et al.,
2007) and currently has about 2000 qubits (Gibney, 2017), but is not a general-
purpose computer like the gate-based quantum computer. It uses quantum
annealing (Kadowaki & Nishimori, 1998) to solve only specific types of problems,
such as optimization problems. It has not been reported that D-wave’s quantum
computer can perform Shor’s algorithm or Grover’s algorithm with large numbers.

Quantum Key Distribution

QKD schemes have been implemented in free space (Hughes, Nordholt, Derkacs,
& Peterson, 2002) and optical fiber (Gordon, Fernandez, Townsend, & Buller,
2004).
A QKD system with a phase encoding in a standard telecommunication optical fiber
network was implemented (Gobby, Yuan, & Shields, 2004). In 2004, the first real
bank transfer utilizing a QKD system took place (Poppe et al., 2004). In 2012, the
QKD system over 260 km in standard telecom fiber was experimentally realized
(Wang et al., 2012). In 2017, the free-space QKD system over 53 km in daylight
was demonstrated (Liao et al., 2017). Also, several companies have been offering
QKD commercial products for more than a decade (“ID Quantique,” n.d.; “MagiQ
Technologies.,” n.d.). However, they have not been disseminated widely through
the community of information security practitioners.
One of the significant issues with a QKD for the practitioners is that there is no
commercially available quantum repeater to extend the distance and to fan out
across a network. A photon is, by its nature, prone to interfere with its environment.
It is not a critical problem for a short distance QKD scheme because the data
transmitted over a quantum channel are random bits that can be discarded when
they have errors. For long-distance, the amplification of the signal (i.e., a photon)
is necessary due to the high SNR (signal to noise ratio). However, it is very
challenging (if possible) to develop a quantum repeater (Meter & Touch, 2013)
since replication of a transmitted unknown photon is not possible due to the no-
cloning theorem. Although quantum repeaters have been proposed (Briegel, Dür,
Cirac, & Zoller, 1998; Jiang et al., 2009; Meter & Touch, 2013; Zwerger, Dür, &
Briegel, 2012; Zwerger, Pirker, Dunjko, Briegel, & Dür, 2017), current
commercially available QKD systems are generally designed to be used with point-
to-point dedicated connections between networks (Aleksic et al., 2015). Thus, the

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Quantum Computing: Principles and Applications Kanamori & Yoo

application of the QKD is still limited to metropolitan area networks (W. Chen et
al., 2009; Elliott et al., 2005; Sasaki et al., 2011; Stucki et al., 2011).
In 2018, the distribution of entangled photon pairs via a satellite was demonstrated.
It enabled sharing the entangled photon pairs between two locations separated by
more than 1200 km (Yin et al., 2017). The satellite system may be used for
entanglement-based QKD (Ekert, 1991) and as a repeater station for QKD
networks.
Another issue about QKD schemes is their security. The QKD schemes do not
generally guarantee that the origin of the message is genuine. If an eavesdropper is
capable of compromising both quantum and classical channels, the man-in-the-
middle attack against QKD schemes is possible (Pacher et al., 2016; Svozil, 2005).
Therefore, authentication functionalities need to be incorporated into QKD
schemes, especially for multipoint connections.

CONCLUSION

In this paper, the fundamental principles used in the quantum computations and
three well-known quantum applications were introduced. Quantum computing is a
promising technology, which changes our lives in many ways. Quantum computer
improves database search significantly and solves many optimization problems
used in business such as data analytics (e.g., big data (Philip Chen & Zhang, 2014)),
logistics (e.g., optimizing routes of 10,000 taxies (Cusumano, 2018)), and medical
research (Parsons, 2011) while quantum computing can be a cybersecurity threat
until we have post-quantum cryptography (cryptographic algorithms that are secure
against the attacks by quantum computers (L. Chen et al., 2016; Mailloux, Lewis,
Riggs, & Grimaila, 2016).)
After Shor’s and Grover’s algorithms were found, researchers have not found many
useful quantum algorithms that substantially outperform classical algorithms. Shor
states in his paper, “Any quantum algorithm offering a speed-up over classical
computation must use interference; this phenomenon is unknown in classical
computer science, and most theoretical computer scientists are not used to
reasoning about it” (Shor & W., 2003). As researches in quantum computing get
more attention from government, industry, and academia, more useful quantum
algorithms are expected to be found.
Although it may take ten years to build a quantum computer that significantly
outperforms classical computers, every business needs to think of new quantum
applications to prepare for the day. As fortune 500 companies have kept investing
in quantum computing, there must be chances to find a high grade of gold ore in
this research and business fields.

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