Quantum Computers

Aditya Kumakale Akshay Diwakar TYEJ II, SVCP, Pune.

Abstract
The subject of quantum computing brings together ideas from classical information theory, computer science, and quantum physics. This review aims to summarize not just quantum computing, but the whole subject of quantum information theory. Information can be identified as the most general thing which must propagate from a cause to an effect. It therefore has a fundamentally important role in the science of physics. However, the mathematical treatment of information, especially information processing, is quite recent, dating from the mid20th century. This has meant that the full significance of information as a basic concept in physics is only now being discovered. This is especially true in quantum mechanics. The theory of quantum information and computing puts this significance on a firm footing, and has led to some profound and exciting new insights into the natural world. Among these are the use of quantum states to permit the secure transmission of classical information (quantum cryptography), the use of quantum entanglement to permit reliable transmission of quantum states (teleportation), the possibility of preserving quantum coherence in the presence of irreversible noise processes (quantum error correction), and the use of controlled quantum evolution for efficient computation (quantum computation). The common theme of all these insights is the use of quantum entanglement as a computational resource. It turns out that information theory and quantum mechanics fit together very well. In order to explain their relationship, this review begins with

an introduction to classical information theory and computer science. Basic quantum information ideas are next outlined, including qubits, the `no cloning' property and teleportation. The review concludes with an outline of the main features of quantum information physics and avenues for future research.

I.

Introduction

The acceleration of computing power never seems slow. With each blink of an eye, theres a new, faster processor or a better data-storage-intensive hard drive. But for all their computational might, computers as we know them will eventually bump up against the laws of physics. Technology marches on resolutely, shrinking electronic components and cramming more circuitry onto smaller and smaller wafers of silicon. If the current rate of miniaturization continues, computer experts predict that within a decade or two, transistors will dwindle to the size of an atom. But at those dimensions, well-behaved, predictable classical behavior goes out the window, and the slippery, untenable nature of quantum mechanics takes over. In the quantum world, rather than being entities with sharply defined positions and motions, particles are described by spread-out wave functions, seemingly existing in many places at once. So it might seem that the power of computers is destined to reach a limit. But scientists usually don't take such pronouncements at face value--in this case, they have long been aware of

a way around this apparent constraint. For within the shadowy quantum world there is more potential computing power than the speediest processor could ever dream of. That power stems from quantum particles' capability for existing in more than one state, as well as their ability to become inextricably linked to each other by a phenomenon known as entanglement. Traditional computers perform calculations, however quickly, in a basically sequential manner. Their limitations surface in the simple, yet striking, example of factoring a large number. The time a computer spends searching for an umber's factors increases astronomically with the size of the number. To factor a 400-digit number, for example, would take a modern computer billions of years. On the other hand, a computer made of quantum particles has a built-in parallelism because quantum calculations can be performed on the particles' coexisting states simultaneously. A quantum computer, then, might factor that 400-digit number in minutes. Such a completely different approach to computing, it seems, truly earns the designation "paradigm shift.

H owever, rather than be a hindrance, it is possible to exploit the quantum physicsas a new way to do computation. And this new way opens up fantastic new computational power based on the wave nature of quantum particles.

B. Particle-Wave Duality.
We normally think of electrons, atoms and molecules as particles. But each of these objects can also behave as waves. This dual particle-wave behavior was first suggested in the 1920's by Louis de Broglie. This concept emerged as follows. Thomas Young's experiment with double slits in the early 1800s show that light behaves as if it is a wave. But, strikingly, Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 shows that light consists of particles. In 1923 de Broglie suggested this dual particle-wave property might apply to all particles including electrons. Then in 1926 Davisson and Germer found that electrons scattered off a crystal of nickel behaved as if they were waves. Since then neutrons, atoms and even molecules have been shown to behave as waves. The waves tell us where the particle is likely to be found. This dual particle-wave property is exploited in quantum computing in the following way. A wave is spread out in space. In particular, a wave can spread out over two different places at once. This means that a particle can also exist at two places at once. This concept is called the superposition principle - the particle can be in a superposition of two places.

II.

Concepts

A. Moores Law And The Future Of Computers.

In 1965 Intel co-founder Gordan Moore noted that processing power (number of transistors and speed) of computer chips was doubling each 18 months or so. This trend has continued for nearly 4 decades. The basic processing unit in a computer chip is the transistor which acts like a small switch. The binary digits 0 and 1 are represented by the transistor being turned off or on. Currently thousands of electrons are used to drive each transistor. As the processing power increases, the size of each transistor reduces. If Moore's law continues unabated, then each transistor is predicted to be as small as a hydrogen atom by about 2030. At the size the quantum nature of electrons in the atoms becomes significant. It generates errors in the computation.

C. Superpositioning
Superpositioning is a big word for an old concept: that two things can overlap each other without interfering with each other. In classical computers, electrons cannot occupy the same space at the same time, but as waves, they can.

1. Superposition in waves

Figure 1. is an illustration of two super-imposed waves A and B To add these waves together numerically, S = A + B, the result would be a wave that looks like neither of its components. However, one could retrieve either wave be subtracting out the other, as shown. (The wave form S, is shown as dotted to indicate that it is only the apparent wave form; the actual wave form is the combination of two different waves. In the quantum world, the combined wave form is a set of amplitude probabilities.)

The position of the electron gives number.

Figure 2. Binary Numbers. The Figure 2 shows two atoms representing the binary number 10. The inner orbits represent the number 0 and the outer orbits represent the binary number 1. The position of the electron gives the number stored by the atom. However; a completely new possibility opens up for atoms. Electrons have a wave property which allows a single electron to be in two orbits simultaneously. In other words, the electron can be in a superposition of both orbits. The figure on the left shows two atoms each with a single electron in a superposition of two orbits. Each atom represents the binary numbers 0 and 1 simultaneously. The two atoms together represent the 4 binary numbers 00, 01, 10 and 11 simultaneously n orbits To distinguish this new kind data storage from a conventional bit, it is called a quantum bit which is shortened to qubit. Each atom in the figure above is a qubit. The key point is that a qubit can be in a superposition of the two numbers 0 and 1. Superposition states allow many computations to be performed simultaneously, and give rise to what is known as quantum parallelism.

Figure 1. Superpositioning of waves.

D. Bits And Qubits

The basic data unit in a conventional (or classical) computer is the bit, or binary digit. A bit stores a numerical value of either 0 or 1. An example of how bits are stored is given by a CD ROM: ``pits'' and ``lands'' (absence of a pit) are used to store the binary data. In the solid-state world of classical computers, the bit's value corresponds to the presence or absence of current. Bits can be manipulated by what are known as logic gates, which transform bit values in designed ways. For example, a NOT gate changes a bit from 0 to 1, or vice versa. In fact, everything a computer does, from word processing to modeling the structure of the universe, can be boiled down to various combinations of these simple logic gates operating on bits. We could also represent a bit using two different electron orbits in a single atom. In most atoms there are many electrons in many orbits. But we need only consider the orbits available to a single outermost electron in each atom .The figure on the right shows two atoms representing the binary number 10.The inner orbits represent the number 0 and the outer orbits represent the binary number 1.

Figure 3. Quantum Numbers.

1. Quantum dots
Using advanced lithographic techniques it is possible to etch small structures called quantum dots in semiconductor materials. Each such dot, which can

be as small as 30nm across (about 30 times the size of an atom) can confine a single electron in discrete energy levels.Thus the quantum dot behaves like a large artificial atom and can be used as a qubit. A user can access individual quantum dots using focused laser beams which can flip the electron between two discrete energy levels or place it into a superposition of the two levels. The required interaction between qubits occurs through externally applied electric and optical fields.

E. Quantum Parallelism
Quantum Computation is a new field which promises exponential parallelism. A one bit memory can store one of the numbers 0 and 1. Likewise a two bit memory can store one of the binary numbers 00, 01, 10 and 11 (i.e. 0, 1, 2 and 3 in base ten) But these memories can only store a single number (e.g. the binary number 10) at a time. As described above, a quantum superposition state allows a qubit to store 0 and 1 simultaneously Two qubits can store all the 4 binary numbers 00, 01, 10 and 11 simultaneously. Three qubits stores the 8 binary numbers 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110 and 111 simultaneously. 300 qubits can store more than 1090 numbers simultaneously. That's more than the number of atoms in the visible universe! This shows the power of quantum computers: just 300 photons (or 300 ions etc.) can store more numbers than there are atoms in the universe, and calculations can be performed simultaneously on each of these numbers! A system of 500 qubits, which is impossible to simulate classically, represents a quantum superposition of as many as 2500 states. Each state would be classically equivalent to a single list of 500 1's and 0's. Any quantum operation on that system --a particular pulse of radio waves, for instance, whose action might be to execute a controlled-NOT operation on the 100th and 101st qubits-- would simultaneously operate on all 2500 states. Hence with one fell swoop, one tick of the computer clock, a quantum operation could compute not just on one machine state, as serial computers do, but on 2500 machine states at once! Eventually, however, observing the system would cause it to collapse into a single quantum state corresponding to a single answer, a single list of 500 1's and 0's, as dictated by the measurement axiom of quantum mechanics.

such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from traditional computers based on transistors. The basic principle behind quantum computation is that quantum properties can be used to represent data and perform operations on these data. A classical computer has a memory made up of bits, where each bit represents either a one or a zero. A quantum computer maintains a sequence of qubits. A single qubit can represent a one, a zero, or, crucially, any quantum superposition of these; moreover, a pair of qubits can be in any quantum superposition of 4 states, and three qubits in any superposition of 8. In general a quantum computer with n qubits can be in an arbitrary superposition of up to 2n different states simultaneously (this compares to a normal computer that can only be in one of these 2n states at any one time). A quantum computer operates by manipulating those qubits with a fixed sequence of quantum logic gates. The sequence of gates to be applied is called a quantum algorithm. As our technology rushes forward, several factors work together to push us toward the quantum computing world These factors are: scaling in size, energy consumption, economics of building leading edge computers, and new applications that are available with quantum computers that cannot be executed with classical computers. At the current rate of chip miniaturization, energy efficiency, and economics, the classical computer of the year 2020 , would contain a CPU running at 40 GHz with 160 Gb RAM, and run on 40 watts of power.

A. Energy
The speed of chips is also rising exponentially. Faster, more densely-packed, and closer transistors cause thermodynamic problems. Advances in energy efficiency are required to keep the chips from melting during use. Fortunately, energy efficiencies are increasing, and the thermodynamic problems are being resolved. These energy advances are also pushing the physics of chips into the quantum realm. Quantum computers are reversible, therefore there is theoretically no net energy consumption. Quantum reversibility means that quantum computers drive themselves forward in infinitesimal (reversible) steps, much the same way that molecules of perfume would diffuse from a perfume bottle. Quantum computer programs are not "run", but are said to "evolve," as they process the programs inputs to outputs. Incidentally, reversibility also means that the inputs of a quantum computer can be implied from the outputs; the program can be run backwards .The argument for

III. Quantum Computers

A quantum computer is a device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena,

energy inevitability is a "carrot-and-stick" argument: the energy inefficiencies drive us away from classical computers, and the appeal for energy-free (or at least, much reduced energy consumption) computing drives us toward quantum computers.

B. Economics
Besides the energy factors at the micro level of computing, there are large-scale economic factors pushing us to a more energy-efficient means of computing: 5% of the entire national power production is consumed by computing machinery. With "fossil fuels continuing to dwindle, fission power in disfavor with the public, and fusion power still many decades away, the drain computers impose on our power supply could become significant." The cost to build a semiconductor plant doubles every three years. By extrapolating that trend to the year 2020, a semiconductor plant will cost $1 trillion to build, which is 5% of the U.S. GNP. Based on Motorolas sales figures, a similar company would need $10 trillion in annual sales to support that kind of construction. Japan, in its bid for software and hardware global dominance, has allocated huge funds for quantum computer research., VP of Hewlett-Packard, reported that 70% of all quantum computer research is being done by the Japanese. They have included quantum computers as an integrated step of their global acquisition strategy.

the corresponding state vector of the other system is also changed, instantaneously, and independently of the medium through which some communicating signal must travel. Throughout all of history previously, all physical phenomenon was dependent on some force, and some particle to carry that force, and therefore the speed of light restriction applied. For example, electrostatic forces are carried by the electron, gravitational forces are carried by the graviton, etc. However, with entanglement, quantum systems are correlated in some way that does not involve a force, and the speed of light restriction does not apply. The actual mechanism of how one system affects the other is still unknown.

1. Collapse Of State Vector When two quantum systems are created while
conserving some property, their state vectors are correlated, or entangled. For example, when two photons are created, and their spin conserved, as it must, one photon has a spin of 1 and a spin of -1. By measuring one of the state vectors of the photon, the state vector collapses into a knowable state. Instantaneously and automatically, the state vector of the other photon collapses into the other knowable state. When one photons spin is measured and found to be 1, the other photons spin of -1 immediately becomes known too. There are no forces involved and no explanation of the mechanism.

IV.

Applications
B. Quantum Teleportation
The principle of entanglement enables a phenomenon called quantum teleportation. This kind of teleportation does not involve moving an entity from one physical location to another, as may be found in many popular science fiction stories, but a destruction of the original and recreation of an identical duplicate at another location.

A. Quantum Entanglement
Quantum computers also utilize another aspect of quantum mechanics known as entanglement. One problem with the idea of quantum computers is that if you try to look at the subatomic particles, you could bump them, and thereby change their value. But in quantum physics, if you apply an outside force to two atoms, it can cause them to become entangled, and the second atom can take on the properties of the first atom. So if left alone, an atom will spin in all directions; but the instant it is disturbed it chooses one spin, or one value; and at the same time, the second entangled atom will choose an opposite spin, or value. This allows scientists to know the value of the qubits without actually looking at them, which would collapse them back into 1's or 0's. Albert Einstein, Boris Podolski, and Nathan Rosen knew that the state vectors of certain quantum systems were correlated, or "entangled" with each other. If one changes the state vector of one system,

C. Encryption Technology
The speed of quantum computers also jeopardizes the encryption schemes that rely on impracticably-long times to decrypt by brute force methods. Encryption schemes that may take millions of years to guess and check are now vulnerable to quantum computers that may reach a solution within one year. Many governments, included ours, use such encryption schemes for national security. They are very interested in any technology that

puts that at risk. As a result, the Office of Naval Research, the CIA, and DARPA, are sinking huge funds into quantum computer research. DARPA is funding $5 million for a Quantum Information and Computing Institute, and the CIA is funding an unknown amount for factoring of large integers, a fundamental part of encryption technology.

V.

Conclusion

D. Ultra-secure and Super-dense Communications

It is possible to transmit information without a signal path by using newly-discovered quantum principles, quantum teleportation. There is no way to intercept the path and extract information. Ultra-secure communication is also possible by super-dense information coding, which is a new technology in its own right. Quantum bits can be used to allow more information to be communicated per bit than the same number of classical bits.

E. Improved Error Correction and Error Detection

Through similar processes that support ultra-secure and super-dense communications, the existing bit streams can be made more robust and secure by improvements in error correction and detection. Recovering informational from a noisy transmission path will also be a lucrative and useful practice.

F. True Randomness
Classical computers do not have the ability to generate true random numbers. The random number generators on todays computers are pseudo-random generatorsthere is always a cycle or a trend, however subtle. Quantum computers can generate true randomness, thus give more veracity to programs that need true randomness in their processing. Randomness plays a significant part of applications with a heavy reliance on statistical approaches, for simulations, for code making, randomized algorithms for problems solving, and for stock market predictions, to name a few. With the global forces of computer competition, encryption technology for national security, new applications, and the thermodynamics of computer systems changing as they are, there is a rush toward the new quantum technology to produce the first viable quantum computer.

With classical computers gradually approaching their limit, the quantum computer promises to deliver a new level of computational power. With them comes a whole new theory of computation that incorporates the strange effects of quantum mechanics and considers every physical object to be some kind of quantum computer. A quantum computer thus has the theoretical capability of simulating any finite physical system and may even hold the key to creating an artificially intelligent computer. The quantum computers power to perform calculations across a multitude of parallel universes gives it the ability to quickly perform tasks that classical computers will never be able to practically achieve. This power can only be unleashed with the correct type of algorithm, a type of algorithm that is extremely difficult to formulate. Some algorithms have already been invented; they are proving to have huge implications on the world of cryptography. This is because they enable the most commonly used cryptography techniques to be broken in a matter of seconds. Ironically, a spin off of quantum computing, quantum communication allows information to be sent without eavesdroppers listening undetected. For now at least, the world of cryptography is safe because the quantum computer is very difficult to implement. The most successful experiments only being able to add one and one together.Nobody can tell if the problems being experienced by researchers can be overcome.The very thing that makes them powerful, their reliance on quantum mechanics, also makes them extremely fragile.

VI. References

"Quantum Computing with Molecules" article in Scientific American by Neil Gershenfeld and Isaac L. Chuang. Gregg Jaeger (2006). Quantum Information: An Overview. David P. DiVincenzo (2000). "The Physical Implementation of Quantum Computation". Experimental Proposals for Quantum Computation.