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4 views21 pages

Lecture 01

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dheeraj.gpt.assistant
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Quantum Computation

An introduction

Zilin Jiang, Fall 2024


Administrative stuff
What you need to know

• Email: [email protected]
• mention something quantum in your
email

• use for individual administrative


questions

• O ce hours: Tuesday and Thursday,


1:30pm-2:30pm, WXLR A839

• Homework 60% (6 assignments) +


Midterms (9/24 & 10/31, in class) 20%
+
Final (12/10 2:30pm-4:20pm) 20%
ffi
What is quantum computation?
Are quantum computers more
“powerful” than classical ones?
For which computational tasks?
“Quantum computing is … nothing less
than a distinctively new way of
harnessing nature…”

The Fabric of Reality, by David Deutsch


“… it will be the first technology that
allows useful tasks to be performed in
collaboration between parallel universe”

The Fabric of Reality, by David Deutsch


Philosophy
CS
Physics

Maths
“I think I can safely say that nobody
understands quantum mechanics”

Richard Feynman, 1965


Feynman was referring to the “meaning”
of quantum mechanics for “reality”. By
way of contrast, the math of how to do
quantum mechanics is perfectly clear,
fine, and uncontroversial.
Philosophy
CS
Physics

Maths
Neumann, to a physicist seeking help with a difficult problem: Simple.
This can be solved by using the method of characteristics.
Physicist: I’m afraid I don’t understand the method of characteristics.
Neumann: In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get
used to them.

John von Neumann


Computational challenge 1
Multiplication of 2 given n-digit numbers

Complexity / Efficiency = # of steps algorithm takes and how that


scales as a function of input length.
What’s the number of steps to multiply two n-digit numbers?
2
Naive algorithm: O(n )
Faster algorithm: O(n log n), use fast Fourier transform
Computational challenge 2
Factoring a given n-digit number

Example: input 35, output 5 x 7


2
Naive algorithm: O(n )
Faster algorithm: [Pollard 1996]
n
3

O(1000000 )
RSA-230: cracked in 2018
RSA-1024: worth $100,000; RSA-2048: worth $200,000
No one knows if there’s polynomial time algorithm for factoring
Cryptography
Multiplication

Easy, encryption

Factoring

Hard, decryption

2
Peter Shor, 1994. A quantum computer could factor n-bit number in O(n ) steps.
Polynomial time!
Uses basic fact of quantum mechanics: given
say 1000 photons / electrons, their “joint state” is
defined by 2^1000 numbers, stored by Nature.
We would like to hack into Nature’s computer.
Shor’s algorithm from 1994 was based on an
earlier quantum algorithm of Daniel Simon.
Who’s Everett, and what’s his interpretation? I was approaching
the problem purely from a computer scientist's perspective. I
learned the absolute bare minimum of physics I needed to be
able to understand the computer science question, which (as I
saw it) was, “these crazy people are claiming that if you add
these very-weird-yet-theoretically-physically-implementable
functions to a computer, then you should be able to do amazing
things with them. Prove them right or wrong.” I actually started
out trying to prove that quantum computing was useless, and
eventually narrowed down the difficult, unsimulateable part [of
QC's power] to, “Rotate, compute, rotate”. That helped guide
my search for a computationally interesting quantum algorithm.
Daniel Simon
Disclaimer
Large quantum computer has not been built
Largest number factored using Shor’s algorithm is
twenty-one
Quantum computation
≈ Classical computation + 1 extra power
Probabilistic Computing
What if classical computing was augmented with randomness?

Deterministic code / circuit + coin flips (outputs 0 or 1 equally likely)


Question: Is probabilistic computing more powerful than classical
deterministic computing?
Answer: Yes, by definition, at least as powerful as classical.
Maybe not, when just computing deterministic functions.
Question: Why would you want probabilistic computing for such tasks?
Answer: trading error probability for efficiency.
Some computational tasks can be solved more efficiently if we allow
1/10^100 (un-physically small) probability of error
Example 1
Matrix multiplication

Given two n by n matrices, how many arithmetic operations are needed


to compute their product?
3
Naive algorithm: O(n )
2.807355
Strassen’s algorithm: O(n )
…
2.3728639
Le Gall (2014): O(n )
2
BIG question: O(n )?
Input: A and B Output: C

Question: Can we check efficiently the correctness of the “black box”?


It makes little sense to actually multiply A and B and compare with C
Answer: Yes, if we allow some slight probability of error
“Trade slight probability of error for efficiency”
Freivald’s matrix multiplication checker
“Trade slight probability of error for e ciency”

Algorithm:
n
• Choose a random vector x ∈ {0,1}
• Calculate y = A(Bx) − Cx
• If y = 0, output CORRECT; otherwise, output INCORRECT.
Analysis:
2
• Performs n arithmetic operations
• IfAB = C, answers CORRECT with probability 100%
• If AB ≠ C, answers INCORRECT with probability ≥ 50%
ffi

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