Quantum Computing

Dr Revathi V,
Dean – R & D
Introduction
• Study focused on developing computing methods based on the principle of quantum theory.
• The mechanics of light and matter at the atomic and subatomic scale are described by quantum theory
• The developments in the field of information technology has been brought in by quantum mechanics.
• Applications of quantum mechanics are not straight forward.
• This branch of physics opens up an entirely new world of possibilities in science, technology and information
processing.
• One of the most promising one is the quantum computer.
 Moore’s Law and its end

• Statement: “The number of transistors on a microchip doubles every year”

• Moore’s Law, predicting the development of more robust computer systems
(with more transistors), is coming to an end simply because engineers are
unable to develop chips with smaller (and more numerous) transistors.
• Computer chips need new developmental architectures implemented into
them in order to be as efficient if more transistors are to be utilized.
• While the creation of more powerful computers is regarded as the most
important aspect of a computer system, energy efficiency and device lifetime
are also as important.
• Reduce in the size of the transistor results in causing problems for current
microelectronics, which results in electron tunneling.
• ∴ Quantum Computation is the option for the further computational studies.
Quantum Computing / Computer
• Quantum computing is a growing field at the intersection of Physics and Computer Science.
• A quantum computer is a device performing quantum computations
• It manipulates the quantum states of qubits in a controlled way to perform algorithms.
• The development of a quantum computer is currently in its infancy;
• Main challenges in further development are to make the quantum computer scalable and to make it fault-
tolerant.
 Concept of bit and qubit
Bit:
• A digital computer stores and processes information using bits which can be either 0 or 1.
• Physically, a bit can be anything that has two distinct configurations: one represented by “0”, and the other represented
by “1”.
• In modern computing and communications, bits are represented by the absence or presence of an electrical signal,
encoding “0” and “1” respectively.
Qubit :
• It is the physical carrier of quantum information. It is the quantum version of a bit, and its quantum state can be written
in terms of two levels, labelled |0⟩ and |1⟩.
• | ⟩ this notation is known as ‘ket’ notation and ˂| is known as ‘brac’ notation.
• They are also called basis vectors and represented by two-dimensional column vectors as follows

A qubit can be in state ∣0⟩ , ∣1⟩ or (unlike a classical bit) in a linear combination of both states. This phenomenon
is called superposition.
Superposition of two states
• Qubit can be in a linear combination (superposition) of the two states |0 ⟩ and |1 ⟩.
Properties of qubits
1. Qubits make use of discrete energy state particles such as electrons and photons.
2. Qubits exists in two quantum state |0⟩ and |1⟩ or in a linear combination of both states. This is
known as superposition.
3. Unlike classical bits, qubit can work with the overlap of both 0 & 1 states.
For ex, a 4-bit register can store one number from 0 to 15 (2^n = 2^4 =16), but 4-qubit register can store all 16 numbers.
4. When the qubit is measured, it collapses to one of the two basis states |0⟩ or |1 ⟩
5. Quantum entanglement and quantum tunneling are two exclusive properties of qubit.
6. State of the qubits is represented using Bloch sphere.
Representation of Qubits by Bloch Sphere:
(single qubit state)
• Bloch sphere is an imaginary sphere which is used to represent pure
single-qubit states as a point on its surface.
• It has unit radius.
• Its North Pole and South Pole are selected to represent the basis states
namely |0⟩ and |1⟩.
• North Pole represents |0⟩ (say spin up ↑) and South Pole represents |1 ⟩
(say spin down ↓). All other points on the sphere represent superposed
states (ie, state space). Bloch sphere allows the state of a qubit to be
represented in spherical coordinates (ie, r, θ and ϕ).
• The state qubit |ψ⟩ on the Bloch sphere makes an angle θ with z-axis and
its projection (azimuth) makes angle ϕ with x-axis as shown. It is clear
from the fig that 0 < θ < and 0 < ϕ < 2.
• |ψ⟩ = α |0⟩ + β|1⟩
• It can be proved that |Ψ⟩ = (cos θ/2) |0⟩ + e^i ϕ sin (ϕ/2) |1⟩
Quantum Superposition
• One of the properties that sets a qubit apart from a classical bit is that it can be in superposition.
• Superposition is one of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics.
• In classical physics, a wave describing a musical tone can be seen as several waves with different frequencies that
are added together, superposed.
• Similarly, a quantum state in superposition can be seen as a linear combination of other distinct quantum states.
• This quantum state in superposition forms a new valid quantum state.
• Qubits can be in a superposition of both the basis states ∣0⟩, ∣1⟩.
• When a qubit is measured it will collapse to one of its eigen states and the measured value will reflect that state.
• For example, when a qubit is in a superposition state of equal weights, a measurement will make it collapse to
one of its two basis states ∣0⟩ and ∣1⟩ with an equal probability of 50%.
• ∣0⟩ is the state that when measured, and therefore collapsed, will always give the result 0.
• Similarly, ∣1⟩ will always convert to 1.
Quantum Entanglement
• Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles share spatial
proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described
independently of the state of the others, including when the particles are separated by a large distance.
• The topic of quantum entanglement is at the heart of the disparity between classical and quantum physics
• entanglement is a primary feature of quantum mechanics lacking in classical mechanics.
• In quantum information theory, entangled states are considered a 'resource', i.e., something costly to produce
and that allows to implement valuable transformations.
• Quantum entanglement is the state where two systems are so strongly correlated that gaining information
about one system will give immediate information about the other no matter how far apart these systems are.
• In quantum computers, changing the state of an entangled qubit will change the state of the paired qubit
immediately.
• Entanglement improves the processing speed of quantum computers exponentially over classical computers.
Applications of Entanglement
• Superdense coding: In simple words, superdense coding is the process of transporting 2 classical bits of
information using 1 entangled qubit.
• Quantum cryptography: Cryptography is the process of exchanging information between two parties using
an encrypted code and a deciphering key to decrypt the message. The key to cryptography is to provide a
secure channel between 2 parties. Entanglement enables that.
• If two systems are purely entangled that means they are correlated with each other (i.e. when one changes,
the other also changes) and no third party shares this correlation.
• Additionally, quantum cryptography benefits from the no-cloning theorem which states that: “it is impossible
to create an independent and identical copy of an arbitrary unknown quantum state”. Therefore, it is
theoretically impossible to copy data encoded in a quantum state.
• Quantum teleportation: Quantum teleportation is also the process of exchanging quantum information such
as photons, atoms, electrons, and superconducting circuits between two parties.
Matrix operations
Matrix representation of 0 and 1 states

Operators and matrices

Quantum Gates
• A quantum gate is a very simple computing device that performs quantum operation on qubits.
• Quantum gates are one of the essential parts of a quantum computer and are the building blocks of all
quantum algorithms.
• Quantum gates are mathematically represented as transformation matrices which operate on inputs to give
outputs.
• There are different types of quantum gates.
• Single-qubit gates and multiple qubit gates.
• These gates can flip a qubit from 0 to 1 as well as allowing superposition states to be created.
Multiple Qubit gates
• Quantum gates operating on multiple qubits are called as multiple qubit gates.
• Multiple Qubit Gates operate on Two or More input Qubits.
• Multiple qubit consists of control gate and target gate.
• The Target qubit is altered only when the control qubit is |1⟩, and
• The control qubit remains unaltered during the transformations.
• For two qubits, inputs qubits are |00⟩,|01⟩,|10⟩ and |11⟩
• For three qubits, inputs qubits are |000⟩, |001⟩, |010⟩, |011⟩, |100⟩, |101 ⟩, |110 ⟩ and |111 ⟩
• In multiple qubit gate, the input qubit applied in the form like | ⟩, first term | ⟩ goes to control qubit and the
second term | ⟩ goes to target qubit.
• Some of the multiple qubit gate are as follows;
• Controlled gate (CNOT gate),
• Controlled Z gate and
• Toffoli gate (CCNOT gate)
 Controlled Gate (CNOT)
• The CNOT gate is a two-qubit operation, where the first qubit is referred as the control qubit | ⟩ and the
second qubit as the target qubit | ⟩.
• If the control qubit is |1⟩ then it will flip the target qubit state from|0⟩ to |1⟩ or from |1 ⟩ to |0 ⟩.
• When the control qubit is in state |0⟩ then the target qubit remains unchanged.
• The symbolic representation is as follows. The upper line represents control qubit and bottom line
represents target qubit.

In the combined qubit, first term is control qubit and the second term is target qubit. For ex, in | ⟩, A is control
qubit and B is target qubit Matrix form of CNOT Gate is given by
Action of the gate: Consider the operations of CNOT gate on the four inputs |00⟩,|01⟩,|10⟩ and |11⟩.

i) Operation of CNOT Gate for input |00⟩: |00⟩ → |00⟩

Here, control qubit is |0⟩. Hence no change in the state of Target qubit |0 ⟩
ii) Operation of CNOT Gate for input |01⟩: |01⟩ → |01⟩
Here, control qubit is |0⟩. Hence no change in the state of Target qubit |1 ⟩
iii) Operation of CNOT Gate for input |10⟩: |10⟩ → |11⟩
Here, control qubit is |1⟩. Hence the state of Target qubit flips from |0⟩ to |1⟩.
iv) Operation of CNOT Gate for input |11⟩: |11⟩ → |10⟩
Here control qubit is |1⟩. Hence the state of Target qubit flips from |1⟩ to |0⟩.
Controlled Z Gate:
• In Controlled Z Gate, The operation of Z Gate is controlled by a Control Qubit.
• If the control Qubit is | ⟩ = |1⟩ then only, the Z gate transforms the Target Qubit | ⟩ as per the Pauli-Z operation.
• The action of Controlled Z-Gate could be specified by a matrix as follows.

Action of controlled Z gate

i)Operation of the Gate for input |00⟩: |00⟩ → |00⟩
Here Control qubit is |0⟩, Z gate remains unchanged.
ii) Operation of the Gate for input |01⟩: |01⟩ → |01⟩
Here, Control qubit is |0⟩, Z gate remains unchanged.
iii) Operation of the Gate for input |10⟩: |10⟩ → |10⟩
Here, Control qubit is |1⟩, Z gate remains unchanged.
iv) Operation of the Gate for input |11⟩: |11⟩ → -|11⟩
Here, Control qubit is |1⟩, Z gate flips the state from |1⟩ to -|1⟩
Toffoli Gate:
• The Toffoli Gate is also known as CCNOT Gate (Controlled-Controlled-Not).
• It has three inputs out of which two are Control Qubits and one is the Target Qubit.
• The Target Qubit flips only when both the Control Qubits are |1⟩.
• The two Control Qubits are not altered during the operation.