Evolution of Quantum Theory & Quantum
Technology
Quantum Computer
A computer that uses laws of quantum mechanics to perform massively
parallel computing through entanglement. superposition, and decoherence.
Quantum Mechanics
“Quantum mechanics is the theory that describes the behavior of
microscopic systems, such as photons, electrons, atoms, molecules,
etc.”
• Schrödinger equation.
• • It is based
Planck’s on the Schrödinger equation.
postulation,
• • In Planck’s postulation, only discrete values of energy are emitted or
“Quantum”.
• absorbed origin
Heisenberg’s of “quantum”.
uncertainty principle and de Broglie hypothesis.
• • Because
Find of at
particles Heisenberg’s uncertainty
various locations principle and de Broglie
in space.
⮞ hypothesis
Dirac’s dual nature of matter (both particle & wave), the state of a
ket, |ψ>
system cannot be specified exactly. d|ψ>/dt = -ίĤ(t)|ψ>/ħ
• This gives probabilities of finding particles at various locations in
|ψ> → Û(t)|ψ>
space. dÛ(t)/dt = -iĤ(t)Û(t)/ħ
⮞ Quantum states, represented by Dirac’s ket, |ψ>, evolve in time
according to the Schrödinger equation: d|ψ>/dt = -ίĤ(t)|ψ>/ħ
|ψ> → Û(t)|ψ>
Quantum Systems are
SPOOKY!
“I cannot seriously believe in [the quantum theory] because it cannot be
reconciled with the idea that physics should represent a reality in time
and space, free from spooky actions at a distance.” Albert Einstein, March
Entanglement
When a pair or group of particles is generated, interact, or share spatial
proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the
pair or group cannot be described independently of the state of the
others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance.
Entanglement is a primary feature of quantum mechanics lacking in
classical mechanics.
.
Superposition
“Every quantum state can be represented as a
sum of two or more other distinct states.”
Mathematically, it refers to a property of
solutions to the Schrödinger equation; since the
Schrödinger equation is linear, any linear
combination of solutions will also be a solution.
⮞ Qubit in superposition is in both of the states
|1> and |0 at the same time.
The classic example of superposition is
Schrödinger’s Cat in a black box.
Decoheren
ce
“Quantum decoherence is the loss of superposition, because of the
spontaneous interaction between a quantum system and its
environment.”
⮞ Loss of information from a system into the
environment.
⮞ Preventing decoherence remains the biggest
challenge in building quantum computers.
⮞ Quantum measurement is a decoherence process.
Requirements of Quantum Computer
• Physical system with two uniquely addressable states
• A universal set of quantum gates
• Ability to entangle two Qubits
• Liquid-state NMR
• NMR Spin Lattices
• Linear Ion-trap Spectroscopy
• Neutral-atom Optical Lattices
• Cavity QED + Atom
• Linear Optics
• Nitrogen vacancies in Diamond
• Electrons in liquid He
• Superconducting Josephson junctions
• Charge qubits; Flux qubits; Phase qubits
• Quantum Hall Qubits
• Coupled Quantum Dots
• Spin, Charge, Excitons
• Spin Spectroscopies, Impurities in
Semiconductors
Quantum Bit - Qubit
“The smallest component of information in quantum computer.”
It represents the state of the wavefunction | Ψ > in Schrödinger
equation.
⮞Quantum systems evolve according to linear equations (the
Schrödinger equation).
• A qubit may be in the “on” (1) state or in the “off” (0) state.
• They increase storage exponentially.
• Can do operations on all superpositions i.e. massively parallel
computation.
• A 64-qubit quantum computer operates in a space of 2⁶⁴ dimensions,
or roughly (16x10¹⁸) numbers to specify the state of the quantum
system.
Quantum Gate
“A quantum logic gate is a basic
quantum circuit operating on
qubits.”
Due to the normalization condition
every gate operation U has to be
unitary : UUᵗ = I
Unlike many classical logic gates,
quantum gates are reversible.
Quantum Programming
The purpose of quantum programming languages is to provide a tool for
researchers, not a tool for programmers.
Example:
★ QCL (Quantum Computation Language)
★ IBM QISKit (Quantum Information Science Kit)
Application of Quantum
Computers
Variational Quantum Eigensolver
Quantum/Classical Hybrid algorithm used to find Eigenvalues.
VQE used in Quantum Simulations has 2 Steps where. H =
Hamiltonian
1. Prepares Quantum States | ψ> - ansatz
2. Measure expectation value <ψ| H |ψ>
Run inside classical optimization loop having 2 Tasks.
1) Iterate until Coverage is reached.
2) Use classical nonlinear optimizer to minimize expectation value by
varying ansatz parameters.
Variational Quantum Eigensolver Procedures
● The Hamiltonian of the system is mapped to a qubit Hamiltonian.
● A trial wavefunction is picked.
● A quantum circuit is applied to prepare the desired state. The quantum
circuit used in the variational eigensolver is
a Hadamard gate applied to each qubit to create a superimposed
state, followed by a y and z rotation (R𝗒 , R𝗓)
● The energy of the trial state is estimated by a classic optimizer.
● Varies the parameters of the state to redo the loop.
● Loops until the energy minimization condition is met.
Advantages of Quantum Computer
Quantum Factoring
Quantum Search
Quantum Optimization
Problems with Quantum Computers
• Coherence / Decoherence
⤷ Quantum system is extremely sensitive to external environment, so it should be safely isolated.
⤷ It is hard to achieve the decoherence time that is more than the algorithm running time.
• Error correction (requires more qubits!)
• Physical implementation of computations.
• New quantum algorithms to solve more problems.
• Entangled states for data transfer.
• Running time increases exponentially with matrix size.
Danger Zone:
2048 bit
encryption can
be cracked
Post Quantum World
There is a good chance that quantum computers will be able to
crack RSA-2048 within five-ten years (need about 8,000 qubits in a
universal computer to do this).
Some encrypted data has a shelf-life of more than ten years. It may take ten
years to cut over to a new encryption scheme, so companies and
governments are scrambling to figure out what to do.
Https session may not be able to decrypt now, but a few years from now,
who knows.
There are encryption algorithms that are safe:
Secure communications will move to symmetric encryption or hash
algorithms, or perhaps lattice algorithms.
QKD (Quantum Key Distribution) will likely be more popular for the
most sensitive communications.
Thank
You