Universidad of Puerto Rico in Bayamon

Department of Computer Science

QUANTUM COMPUTING AND ITS APPLICATIONS

Written by:
Juan A. Figueroa Rosado, 841-14-2655
Course: SICI 4019 KJ1
Prof. Filiberto Arniellas
May 23, 2016

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to explain quantum computing and its applications in 2 different
fields, machine learning and radiotherapy. The article also explains how quantum computing is
implemented in such fields and the results expected from these implementations.

Table of contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-11
The Qubit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4
Types of Qubits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Entanglement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Quantum Gate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Processing and Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7
The Difference Between Classic and Quantum Computing . . . .7-8
Quantum Computing in External Beam Radiotherapy . . . . . . .9-10
Quantum Computing in Machine Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-13

Introduction
The purpose of this article is to provide a detailed description of quantum
computation and the application of such in different areas. This description first includes the
explanation of the basic measuring unit in quantum computing and the quantum mechanics
present in quantum computing. After, the article will include a comparison and example of a
classic computer and a quantum computer in a situation where the application of quantum
computing results more efficient than the classic computer. The other half of the article consists
in explaining the application of quantum computing in 2 different areas, radiotherapy and
machine learning. Also the article will provide the results of these applications. The article will
explain quantum computing in a simple and organized way.
The information presented in the article has been researched from different academic
lectures, books and articles and has been organized and explained hierarchically to provide
fluency and a better understanding of the complex concepts that constitute quantum computing.
The applications researched for this article include detailed information about the field that will
implement quantum computation, how quantum computing is implemented and the expectations
it has in the field.
The article is expected to explain quantum computing and prove how a quantum
computer could be more efficient in particular problems than a classic computer. Also, it should
explain how the application of quantum computing is providing efficiency in the fields of
Radiotherapy and Machine learning.

The Qubit

Illustration 1. Qubit and Bit representation

A quantum bit or qubit is the basic unit of measurement of quantum computing. The
notation of this unit is 0 or 1 , its called "bra-kets" or Dirac notation. This unit is a quantum
mechanical system of two states. A classic bit can only be found in one of these two states, the
qubit can be in both of these states at the same time. All of this thanks to a principle in quantum
mechanics called superposition. This principle describes a challenging concept of the nature and
behavior of matter at the sub-atomic level. This concept consists in that until we know the state
of an object, the object is in all possible states simultaneously, all while not observed. The
measurement itself is what limits it to be only in one possible state.

Illustration 2. Schrdingers cat

To explain this concept in a more effective way its vital to mention the paradox proposed
in 1953 by the Austrian physicist Nobel Prize winner in physics, Erwin Schrodinger. This
paradox was printed for the first time in (Naturwissenschaften, vol. 23, p. 812). Schrdinger
suggests that we imagine a box containing a radioactive source, a Geiger counter to record the
presence of radioactive particles, a bottle with some kind of poison, a hammer and a live cat. The
device is arranged in a predetermined way where there is an equally divided possibility that the
atoms in the radioactive material decay and the Geiger counter records it. If the detector collects
such recording, it will trigger the hammer that will destroy the bottle containing the poison and
the cat will die. There is no way to know the result of the experiment without opening the box
and observing it (except in the statistical sense), this happens because the radioactive material
has equally divided chances to decay due to the arrangement of the device in the box, in other
words, it occurs by chance. In conclusion, these probabilities of decay and not decay should
produce a superposition of states. The entire experiment is governed by the rule that
superposition is "real" until observed and only when observed, the experiment collapses to one
of the two states. While the experiment is not observed, there is a decayed and not decayed

radioactive sample, a bottle of poison intact and broken and finally, a cat that is nor dead or
alive. This is a way you can analyze the state of superposition and in this case a logical and
understandable state of the qubit, which can be on and off simultaneously until observed by the
state of superposition.
Types of Qubits
There are different types of qubits that can be used thanks to the fact that any two-tier
system can be used as a qubit, stating that multi-level systems can be used as long as they have
two states that can be separated from the rest. One of these implementations is a photon. A
photon can represent information because of their polarity codification, if the polarity is
horizontal it means its off and if vertical its on. Another type of representation would be the
electrons. The electrons in an atom can be measured by its spin. For example, phosphorus has a
single electron in its last layer, if the spin has an up direction this means its off and if the spin is
down its on. The spin of an electron can be manipulated via microwaves. Apart from electrons
another component of the atom that can be used as a qubit is its core, the nucleus. The nucleus of
an atom also has spin but is two thousand times weaker than the electron this meaning the
microwaves have to be longer and with a longer pulse. Thanks to this implementation this system
is often used in the field. There are several representations, but I decided to include those
mentioned above because they are the most frequented.
To finalize the explanation, a comparison of the classic bit and the qubit is necessary. The
classic bit has two states in which it can be, on and off. The qubit has these same states but its in
both states at once. A qubit can hold 2 bits of information as it can be in both states at once (a
superposition of both) thus creating an exponential increase in processing. Meaning that you can
process with n qubits what can be processed with 2n bits thanks to its quantum properties.

Entanglement

Illustration 3. Entanglement Representation

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon of quantum mechanics used in quantum

computing. Quantum entanglement stablishes that the states of two or more objects (in our case
qubits) have to be described with reference to each other ignoring the distance between each no
matter what. This phenomenon is key in quantum processing since it is possible to arrange. For
example, a pair of electrons arranged in a predetermined quantum state such that if an electron is
observed and its spin is up the other electron will always have its spin down and vice versa; It is
taking into account that it is impossible to predict which set of measurements will be observed.
The results in a measurement made in a system or a qubit instantaneously affect all the systems
intertwined. Quantum entanglement does not allow the transfer of classical information faster
than the speed of light, if that was to be true the theory of relativity would be denied. This
phenomenon is vital in quantum computing because it allows the manipulation of quantum bits,
thus maximizing the capabilities of such allowing all variables that may exist in any task to be

processed at the same time, stating that the algorithm is employed adequately for the task and
that the gate arrangement is correct.
Quantum Gate

Illustration 4. Quantum Gates

A quantum gate is a basic quantum logical circuit that operates a certain number of
qubits. Regularly such gate operates one or two qubits represented in unitary matrices. quantum
gates are reversible, for all classical logic gate is a quantum equivalent. Some classic logic gates,
like the Toffoli gate1, provide reversibility and can be traced to a quantum gate. The input of a
quantum gate is the basic states of the qubits to be used, the gate manipulates and rotates the
qubits to execute the designated logical operation which can be an NOT, AND, OR etc. and as a
result a unique measurable state is attained corresponding to the logical operation executed.
Processing and measurement
A quantum computer arranges a set of qubits. Then through the application of quantum
gates interweaves and manipulates qubits to obtain the desired results. At the end of this process,
the computer measures the results of a superposition collapsed to zeroes and ones like those

1
The Toffoli gate is a controlled gate with inputs 'a', 'b' and 'c', such that the entry 'c' changes value if the
first 2 entries are 1.

obtained in a classical computer. when these results are measured they must fall into one of these
states, therefore all information of the superposition before the measurement is lost. This
happens because you cannot measure a superposition state, which means that a designed
arrangement of logical operations is needed to obtain a final result that can be measured. In
conclusion, all possible calculations used in the configuration will be completed at once. To
understand this process better I made a comparison with its counterpart to contrast such
processing.
The Difference Between Classic and Quantum Computing
A classic computer uses bits as its basic unit. A bit can be turned on or off. Now a
quantum computer has a different basic unit, a quantum bit or Qubit" which as aforesaid can be
on and off simultaneously because of its superposition property. I paraphrased a simple example
to explain this comparison in a clearer way. This example by David Deutsch and Richard Jozsa 2
explains, in a friendly way, the comparison of one situation in which a quantum computer would
be more efficient than a classic one.
Suppose a line of people at the gates of heaven waiting to enter. Guarding the gate of
heaven is St. Peter. There is a row of 8 (23) people and each person has their own arrangement of
3 bits.
People
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Bit arrangement
000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111

Example and table extracted from the article written by Marianne Freiberger.

Illustration 5. Person identification table

St. Peter determines the entrance of each person by assigning the number 1 to the people
that are admitted to heaven and a 0 to the people that arent; as a simple Boolean function. You
dont know who St. Peter admits in heaven and who he doesnt let in, you only know that when
St. Peter feels generous he admits everyone and when doesnt feel as such he admits only half.
For a line consisting of 2n people, the values that have to be examined to determine how St. Peter
feels would be 2 (n-1) + 1 = 5. If you work using a classical computer, the computer would have to
check the function until the person number 5, this because if the computer checks only 4 people
there is still a chance that the person number 5 will not be admitted. If you use a quantum
computer to observe the function, youd only have to do it once and it would watch all the
arrangements of bits (people) at the same time thanks to the qubits and their superposition and
entanglement. the observation will be coded to a quantum state that cannot be measured, but the
quantum computer through the manipulation of the quantum state returns the answer in zeroes
and ones just like a classical computer. If the algorithm was built correctly you get the result of
your equation, but you cannot see all the information of the table. Despite this you will obtain
enough information to find a pattern in it.
Quantum computers are not universally faster than classic computers, quantum
computers are only faster for specific operations which can take advantage of these superposition
states to make a computational parallelism. not all operations will be faster in a quantum
computer, the speed of this comes from the number of operations required to reach the expected
result in particular algorithms. If used with an algorithm or task that is typically used in a classic
computer such as using "Word", the processing will not be faster, perhaps it could be slower. For
this reason, the quantum computer will not replace the classic computer.

Quantum Computing in External Beam Radiotherapy

Radiation therapy is a treatment used to cure, control or relieve symptoms of cancer and
to prevent the return of such. Such treatment uses x-rays with high doses of radiation or liquid
chemicals that can destroy or injure cancer cells to prevent their growth and spread. According to
the National Cancer Institute ("Radiation Therapy", 2016) Radiation therapy does not kill cancer
cells instantly, this process takes days or weeks before the cells start to die. When the cells start
dying they keep decaying for weeks or months after the end of treatment. Radiation therapy is
divided into two types therapy, internal radiation and external radiation therapy but in this case
well focus on the external radiotherapy. External radiotherapy or external beam radiation is
performed through a machine that points and directs radiation from outside the body to a tumor
through a linear accelerator. The machine moves to treat cancer from different angles. A module
of this treatment is the intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The treatment involves
administering precise and intensity modulated doses of radiation using a medical linear
accelerator X-ray (LINAC) controlled by a computer to a malignant tumor or specific parts of
such. Before starting treatment, the patient is evaluated to determine if treatment is appropriate
according to the cancer patient and then if appropriate different tests are done to obtain a threedimensional model of the tumor. One of these tests it is a CT scan or magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI). These tests with computerized calculations determine the intensity pattern to
administer a more efficient dose.
The application of quantum computing in IMRT will be put into operation in a
computational parallelism. This will make the calculations on the optimization problem on the
collateral damage that external beam radiation therapy can cause. For this optimization, a series

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of simulations are performed to obtain an optimal plan. These simulations are using a highperformance computer (HPC) which is responsible for running simulations. the quantum
computer will take care of the optimization problem that converges thousands of variables and
that with the properties that constitute this processing the process will be much more efficient
than when used with high-performance computer individually; which is the way it works today.
With this quantum computer and high-performance computer parallelism, we can develop more
optimal and efficient radiation plans thus lowering the radiation margin calculated for organs and
structures near the tumor being treated.
At the time quantum computing is already being used in external beam radiation therapy.
the process being utilized at the moment is quantum annealing (QA), this is being used in the
optimization problem in the process of the intensity of rays in intensive modular radiotherapy.
Quantum annealing is used in optimization problems; this employs an algorithm to obtain the
result of an energy minimization problem which is found on the intensity of the rays in context
with the 3D imagery of the tumor thats being treated. QA is in stages of experimentation and
was used even without the necessary hardware available and is giving good results, the
application of QA will improve IMRT optimization problem and help in the development of this
treatment.
Quantum Computing in Machine Learning
Facial recognition, object recognition and in general, the interpretation of objects through
a machine. another area in which quantum computing will serve great improvement and
enhancement. Machine learning consists of programmers writing algorithms in a machine that
allows it to analyze and detect the presence of a predetermined object. This recognition works by
recurring vast amounts of data, which is a very computationally expensive optimization problem,

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one very similar to the IMRT ray intensity optimization problem. The similarity is refrained to
the fact that the machine will have to analyze and compare various amounts of combinations
available to identify the object correctly. Google and D-wave Systems 3 developed a software for
the D-wave quantum computer that determines whether or not a car was present in a picture
using a binary classification algorithm run in hardware and it solved over 500,000 optimization
problems in a learning phase with the developers accessing the computer remotely. The native
capabilities of quantum computing will facilitate this data analysis and will inexpensively
execute this task effortlessly. Thus the application of quantum computing will revolutionize
machine learning and with it, object recognition, data analysis, pattern optimization and more.

Conclusion



In Conclusion, quantum computing is better than classic computers in particular cases,
but a quantum computer is relatively slower than a classic computer in day to day operations.
Quantum computers wont replace classic computers. Its evident how quantum computing is
going to be the key in solving complex optimization problems. In machine learning, quantum
computing is already solving complex optimization problems exponentially faster than classic
computing and only in the learning phase. In Radiotherapy QA is being utilized in simulations to
optimize the intensity of rays implemented din IMRT and even without the necessary hardware
is showing good results. Quantum computing is proving efficiency in these fields and its
expected to give great results in other areas like data analysis, pattern recognition and

3
Information Retrieved from ("D-Wave Systems", 2016)

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cryptography. Quantum Computing is opening a wave of new possibilities for Science and
humanity. Will this be the answer to a lot of our processing needs? I think so.

References

Burda, I. (2005). Introduction to Quantum Computation. Boca Raton, FL: Universal. Online

Applications | D-Wave Systems. (2016). Dwavesys.com. Retrieved 5 May 2016, from

http://www.dwavesys.com/quantum-computing/applications. Online

Freiberger, M. (2015). How Does Quantum Computing work? +Plus Magazine. Retrieved April
1, 2016, from https://plus.maths.org/content/how-does-quantum-commuting-work
Online.

Gribbin, J. (1984). In search of Schrdinger's cat: Quantum physics and reality. Toronto:
Bantam Books. Online.

Muthukrishnan A. (1999). Classical and Quantum Logic Gates: An Introduction to Quantum

Computing [pdf]. Retrieved on March 17, 2016, from
http://www.optics.rochester.edu/~stroud/presentations/muthukrishnan991/LogicGates.pdf
Online.

National Cancer Institute. (April 19, 2015). Radiation Therapy. Retrieved on March 29,

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2016, from http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/radiation-therapy.
Online.

Nielsen, M. A. & Chuang, I. L. (2000) Quantum Computation and Quantum Information.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Online.

Varizani U. V. (2012). Qubits and Quantum Measurement" and "Entanglement [pdf].

Retrieved on March 24 2016, de http://wwwinst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs191/sp12/notes/chap1&2.pdf . Online.

Varizani U. V. (2004). Intro,Qubits,Measurements,Entanglement [pdf]. Retrieved on March 23

, 2016, de https://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/f04quantum/notes/lecture1.pdf. Online