Introduction to Quantum Computing

A quantum computer is a machine that performs calculations based on the laws

of quantum mechanics, which is the behavior of particles at the sub-atomic level.
Quantum Computation represents an important change of paradigm, where the
concept of bit gets transformed into a quantum bit, or qubit, which affords for an
enormous information storage and processing capacity. In this course, the basic
concepts of Quantum Computation will be introduced at a conceptual level. An
abundant set of exercises will allow to acquire sufficient skill to develop your own
quantum algorithms and circuits.
For decades’ computer hardware has grown in power approximately according to
Moore’s law, which states that the computer power doubles for constant cost
roughly once every two years. However, because of the fundamental difficulties
of size in conventional computer technology, this dream run is ending. The
conventional approaches to the fabrication of computer technology are to make
electronic devices smaller and smaller in order to increase the computer power.
As
the sizes of the electronic devices get close to the atomic scale, quantum effects
are starting to interfere in their functioning, and thus the conventional
approaches run up against the size limit. One possible way to get around the
difficulties is to move to a new computing paradigm provided by quantum
information science. Quantum information science is based on the idea of using
quantum devices to perform computation and manipulate and transmit
information, instead of electronic devices following the laws of classical physics,
see Deutsch (1985), DiVincenzo (1995), Feynman (1981/82). Quantum mechanics
and information theory are two of the great scientific developments and
technological revolutions in the 20th century, and quantum information science is
to marry the two previously disparate fields and form a single unifying viewpoint.
Quantum information science studies the preparation and control of the quantum
states of physical systems for the purposes of information transmission and
manipulation. It includes quantum computation, quantum communication and
quantum cryptography.
Qubits and the Framework of Quantum Mechanics
Computers today work by converting information to a series of binary digits, or
bits, and operating on these bits using integrated circuits (ICs) containing billions
of transistors. Each bit has only two possible values, 0 or 1. Through
manipulations of these so-called binary representations, computers process text
documents and spreadsheets, create amazing visual worlds in games and movies,
and provide the Web-based services on which many have come to depend.
A quantum computer also represents information as a series of bits, called
quantum bits, or qubits. Like a normal bit, a qubit can be either 0 or 1, but unlike
a normal bit, which can only be 0 or 1, a qubit can also be in a state where it is
both at the same time. When extended to systems of many qubits, this ability to
be in all possible binary states at the same time gives rise to the potential
computational power of quantum computing. However, the rules that govern
quantum systems also make it difficult to take advantage of this power. How best
to make use of quantum properties—and the nature of the improvements these
properties make possible—is neither trivial nor obvious. The framework of
quantum mechanics as it pertains to the types of systems we will consider for
quantum computing. Here we also introduce the notion of a quantum bit or
‘qubit’, which is a fundamental concept for quantum computing. At the beginning
of the twentieth century, it was believed by most that the laws of Newton and
Maxwell were the correct laws of physics. By the 1930s, however, it had become
apparent that these classical theories faced serious problems in trying to account
for the observed results of certain experiments. As a result, a new mathematical
framework for physics called quantum mechanics was formulated, and new
theories of physics called quantum physics were developed in this framework.
Quantum physics includes the physical theories of quantum electrodynamics and
quantum field theory, but we do not need to know these physical theories in
order to learn about quantum information. Quantum information is the result of
reformulating information theory in this quantum framework. An example of a
two-state quantum system: a photon that is constrained to follow one of two
distinguishable paths. We identified the two distinguishable paths with the 2-
dimensional basis vectors and then noted that a general ‘path state’ of the
photon can be described by a complex vector with |α0|2 +|α1|2 = 1. This simple
example captures the essence of the first postulate, which tells us how physical
states are represented in quantum mechanics. Depending on the degree of
freedom (i.e. the type of state) of the system being considered, H may be infinite-
dimensional. For example, if the state refers to the position of a particle that is
free to occupy any point in some region of space, the associated Hilbert space is
usually taken to be a continuous (and thus infinite-dimensional) space. It is worth
noting that in practice, with finite resources, we cannot distinguish a continuous
state space from one with a discrete state space having a sufficiently small
minimum spacing between adjacent locations. For describing realistic models of
quantum computation, we will typically only be interested in degrees of freedom
for which the state is described by a vector in a finite-dimensional (complex)
Hilbert space.