QUANTUM COMPUTING: AN

INTRODUCTION

Amanuel Ermias NSR/6087/10

Apr , 2021
 QUANTUM COMPUTING: OUTLINE

• Introduction: Different types of Computing.

• What is Quantum Computing ?
• Bits vs Qubits.
• Superposition.
• Quantum Entanglement.
• What to Expect in the next several years.
• Applications.
 FOUR TYPES OF COMPUTERS
Digital Computer (Von Neumann Architecture) Analog computer
Works on analog signals using resistors, capacitors & inductors to
Works on binary units, the type of computer that we all use . solve differential equations.

Quantum Computer Parallel Distributed Processor (Neural Network/Brain)

Works on qubits, quantum-entangled bits of information. Memory, processing & connectivity are all massively distributed.
HOW QUANTUM COMPUTING WORKS
The mysterious, magical qubits
 QUANTUM COMPUTING

• Quantum Computing: Studies theoretical Computation systems (Quantum

Computers) that makes direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as
superposition and entanglement to perform operation on data.
• Digital Computers require data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), each of
which is always in one of two definite states (0 or 1), quantum Computation uses
quantum bits ( qubits), which can be in superposition of states.
 BITS VS. QUBITS
• BITS (a short for binary digits) is the smallest unit
of data
• in a computer. A bit has a single binary value, either
0 or 1.
• The bit is the basic unit of information used to
represent data/ info in a machine understandable
format.
• An analogy to this is a light switch—its off position
can be thought as 0 and its on position as 1.
 QUBITS

• Q1. What is a Qubit ?

• Qubits: In quantum Computing, a qubit or
quantum bit is a unit of quantum
information or the quantum analogue of the classical bit.
A qubit uses spin of an atom to
represent the current value. At any one
time the qubit is 0 and 1.
It is only when the bit is read that it
reduces to a single value 0 or 1.
 QUBITS RELY ON QUANTUM
ENTANGLEMENT
• A qubit is a quantum-entangled bit of information.
Just like a bit is a 1 or a 0, a qubit is two entangled
states that either could be one or zero,
but is both 1 and 0 at the same time.

• Typically a qubit is an entangled pair of photons, electrons, or nuclei. The entangled part is the
spin of the particle (spin up versus spin down). The spin can be measured with an
electromagnetic field, and can be manipulated (flipped, if you will) with a pulse of radio-
frequency energy, or measured via a light polarizer.
 ENORMOUS QUANTUM POWER

Example:
A 64-bit computer can perform manipulation on 64 -bit binary numbers at a time.

A 64-qubit quantum computer operates in a space of 264 dimensions, or roughly 16,000,000,000,000,000,000

(16*1018)numbers to specify the state of the quantum system.

Using cleverly crafted quantum algorithms and “quantum gates”, the computation can happen in this enormous
space in parallel – it is as if all of the answers were being evaluated simultaneously, and the quantum system freezes
out the right answer from this vast space.

It also means you double the power with every added qubit.
To double the power of a digital computer 32bits -> 64 bits
To double the power of a quantum computer 32qubits -> 33 qubits
 QUANTUM SUPERPOSITION

• Q1. What is Superposition ?

• The principle of superposition

is claims that while we don’t know

what the state of any object is, it is
actually in all possible states
simultaneously as long as we don’t look to check.
 SO WHAT CAN QUANTUM COMPUTERS DO?

What would take a normal supercomputer tens of millions of

years can be done in minutes on a quantum computer.

Quantum communication

Unhackable Communication
Using the properties of quantum entanglement, quantum
communication is immune to “man-in-the-middle”
eavesdropping.

Anyone trying to listen to the communication breaks the

entanglement, rendering the eavesdropping useless.
 CONT…
 Secure communications
 Quantum-based networking allows perfectly secure communications. Any eaves-dropping on the signal
destroys the signal, hence quantum networks are perfectly secure and invulnerable to hijacking.

 Solve a variety of problems that are hard for digital computers

 Random walk problems & classes of NP problems may be tractable with quantum computers.

 Solve quantum-mechanics/material science problems

 What better to solve quantum mechanics problems than a quantum computer?

 But, they are not a panacea

 They will not replace digital computers for day-to-day tasks. We will still need digital computers.
 IS THIS JUST SCIENCE FICTION?
 D-wave already has quantum annealing computers
 2000 qubit available now and 4000 bit available soon:
http://www.nature.com/news/d-wave-upgrade-how-scientists-are-using-the-world-s-most-controversial-quantum-com
puter-1.21353

 IBM, Google, Microsoft, Intel and others are all in a race for the quantum
computer
 Intel announced 49-qbit chip in January 2018
 https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/intels-49qubit-chip-aims-for-quantum-supremacy

 Google a 72-qbit quantum computer in March 2018

 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/google-moves-toward-quantum-supremacy-72-qubit-computer

 China and others are working on satellite-based Quantum Key Distribution.

Demonstrated > 1,000KM this year.
 http://www.nature.com/news/chinese-satellite-is-one-giant-step-for-the-quantum-internet-1.20329
 Several other companies also have active research programs, including Toshiba, HP, 
Mitsubishi, NEC and NTT 
 APPLICATIONS

• Q1. Name at least one Application of Quantum Computing ?

• Optimization
• Radiotherapy
• Protein Folding
• Machine Learning
• Object/pattern recognition
• Video Compression /processing
D-WAVE QUANTUM COMPUTER
 IBM FREE QUANTUM COMPUTER IN THE CLOUD
HTTPS://QUANTUMEXPERIENCE.NG.BLUEMIX.NET/Q
X/EXPERIENCE