The quantum world is fascinating. It presents a description of nature that defies our most rooted concepts about what reality is. For example, quantum objects possess \lq\lq spooky\rq\rq\ properties that allow them to be in multiple places at the same time, to move in different directions simultaneously, or to exist and not to exist. In other words, to live several parallel stories. Making use of these parallel stories to compute is the realm of quantum computation, a world in which information is processed using the laws of quantum physics. Nowadays, quantum computers are an object of an extensive experimental and theoretical research, since it is known that, on paper, these can solve many of the current computational challenges. These are the problems that even the most sophisticated supercomputers of today, or tomorrow, will not be able to solve.
The quantum world is fascinating. It presents a description of nature that defies our most rooted concepts about what reality is. For example, quantum objects possess \lq\lq spooky\rq\rq\ properties that allow them to be in multiple places at the same time, to move in different directions simultaneously, or to exist and not to exist. In other words, to live several parallel stories. Making use of these parallel stories to compute is the realm of quantum computation, a world in which information is processed using the laws of quantum physics. Nowadays, quantum computers are an object of an extensive experimental and theoretical research, since it is known that, on paper, these can solve many of the current computational challenges. These are the problems that even the most sophisticated supercomputers of today, or tomorrow, will not be able to solve.
It was Richard Feynman who first proposed, in 1982, the far-reaching concept of \na ”quantum computer”—a device more powerful than classical computers. The idea \nof a quantum computer is to employ the fascinating and often counterintuitive \nlaws of quantum mechanics to process information. It is far from obvious that \nthe proposed concept of a quantum computer is more powerful than its classical \ncounterpart, it was only in 1994 when Peter Shor theoretically demonstrated the \nexistence of a quantum algorithm for factorizing integers into prime factors \nthat runs in polynomial time unlike its classical counterpart which works in \nsub-exponential time. The factorization of integers into prime factors is the \nbasis of asymmetric cryptography. These early theoretical results lunched an \nimmense interest of the scientific community. Already during ’90s, the first \nproposals for the physical implementation of quantum computation emerged. Ever \nsince, many experimental groups around the world pursued different physical \nimplementations of quantum bits (qubits). The first decade of the new century \nsaw a steady improvement in the control and decoherence time (the time over \nwhich the information carried by the qubit is lost) for various qubits by many \norders of magnitude. The natural next step in this context is to answer the \nquestion of how to scale the system up to include many qubits and thus build a \nquantum computer? One of the main parts of this thesis addresses exactly this \nquestion, namely the question of architecture and scalability of future quantum \ncomputer. \n \nAmong various different physical realizations of qubits, the idea of using \nelectron spins trapped in electrostatic semiconductor quantum dots as the \nbuilding blocks of a quantum computer (the so-called spin qubits), put forward \nby Daniel Loss and David DiVincenzo in 1997, triggered tremendous interest in \nscientific community. Nevertheless, the implementation of the original \nLoss-DiVincenzo proposal posed a considerable technical challenge. It used \nquantum tunneling between qubits to enable their communication with each other, \nand thus required that the qubits to be placed very close to each other. This \nrequirement not only leaves little \nspace for the placement of the vast amount of gates and wirings needed to define \nthe electrostatic quantum dots, but also makes it challenging to control the \nlocal magnetic field needed for single-qubit operations. For these reasons, no \nsystem with more than a couple of spin qubits has been \nsuccessfully implemented thus far. In the first part of this thesis, we leap \nover this long-standing problem with an entirely different strategy of using \nmetallic floating gates or ferromagnets to couple together qubits that are \nseparated over a long distance. Our scheme works for any type of \nspin qubits, including the qubits based on nitrogen-vacancy center (NV-center) \nin diamond and technologically very important silicon qubits. \n \nThe main topic of this thesis is related to quantum computer. Still, quite \nunexpectedly, some of the ideas we employed in order to tackle the problem of \nquantum computer scalability can be utilized in a completely different field of \nresearch, namely, in the field of magnetic field sensing. Qubit are not only a \nnecessary ingredient of quantum computer but they also provide a way to measure \nvery accurately magnetic fields. The magnetometer build upon the qubit based on \nNV-center, so-called NV-magnetometer, emerged in recent years as most sensitive \nmagnetic moment sensor. These magnetometers are able to detect about hundred \nnuclear spins within a minute of acquisition time. In the second part of this \nthesis, we propose an entirely novel experimental realization of \nNV-magnetometers which increases present NV-center sensitivities by four orders \nof magnitude at room temperature. This unprecedented amplification of \nsensitivity will render magnetometers capable of detecting individual nuclear \nspins. This amplification is achieved by introducing a ferromagnetic particle \nbetween the nuclear spin that needs to be detected and the NV-magnetometer. Our \nsetup, in contrast to existing schemes, is particularly advantageous because, \ndue to the large amplification of sensitivity, the nuclear spin need not lie \nwithin a few nanometers of the surface but rather can be detectable at a \ndistance of 30 nm. With these novelties, our scheme provides chemically \nsensitive spin detection under ambient conditions allowing nanoscale resolution \nof nuclear magnetic moments in biological systems—the holy grail of nuclear \nmagneticresonance. \n \nIn the last part of the thesis we focus our attention to a new direction in \nquantum computer implementation that deals with topological quantum computer \nintroduced by Alexei Kitaev in 1997; in this approach the idea is to use \nquasiparticles with ”fractional” statistics and to perform the single- and \ntwo-qubit gates by merely exchanging these quasiparticles. Additionally, \ninformation in this system is stored non-locally thus it mitigates the problem \nof decoherence caused by local noise from the environment. Majorana fermions are \none of the most well known examples of such excitations. We analyze transport \nsignatures of different topological states in one-dimensional systems, like \nMajorana fermions and fractionally charged states. We envision an Aharonov-Bohm \nsetup wherein conductance measurement provides a clear signature of presence of \nfractionally charged fermionic states, since oscillations with double period \nemerge in this case. Additionally, we propose a very simple setup that enables \nexistence of degenerate mid-gap states, so-called Tamm-Shockley states that are \ncharacterized by fractional charge and discuss possible ways of detecting these \nstates experimentally. \n
Quantum computing is emerging as a revolutionary paradigm in the field of computing, promising an exponential leap in computing power and problemsolving that challenges even the most advanced supercomputers of the classical era.At the heart of this revolution lies the peculiarity of the quantum world, where subatomic particles can exist in multiple states simultaneously, a phenomenon known as superposition, and entangle their states in a way that defies classical logic.It is this capacity for superposition and entanglement that gives quantum computing its disruptive power.One of the most intriguing properties of quantum computing is its ability to process information using Qubits, the quantum analogues of classical bits.While a classical bit can only be in a single 0 or 1 state, a Qubit can simultaneously represent a 0, a 1, or any superposition of these states, allowing multiple calculations to be performed in parallel.This massively parallel processing capability is the basis for the potential superiority of quantum computers over their classical counterparts in a wide range of applications.The architecture of quantum computers is inherently different from classical computers.While the latter use transistors to store and manipulate information in bits, quantum computers use Qubits, which can be implemented in a variety of physical systems, such as atoms, ion traps, photons, superconductors or nuclear magnetic resonance.The manipulation of the Qubits is carried out through quantum gates, fundamental operations that transform the quantum state of the Qubits and allow quantum calculations to be carried out.Furthermore, to maintain quantum coherence, the control and isolation of the quantum system from its environment is crucial, posing significant challenges in terms of designing and building scalable and robust quantum systems.
The elementary particle of information used by modern digital computers is the bit—a register or memory element that can be in one of two distinct states, 0 or 1. But we live in a quantum world, and one can design computers in which each elementary unit of information is a quantum bit, or qubit, which can be in any superposition of two quantum states, |0〉 and |1〉. A quantum computer built with n such components could itself be in a superposition of 2n distinct states, each splinter of the superposition performing its own computation in parallel with all the rest.
The essay provides an overview of current scientific and philosophical publications on quantum physics and interpretations of quantum mechanics. Based on the ideas of British physicist David Deutsch and American theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll, the substantiation of a multi-world interpretation from the point of view of physical theory, its consistency and ability to explain the paradoxes of quantum physics without involving additional auxiliary concepts and unknown laws of physics is presented. The author suggests that the rejection of a multi–world interpretation should be attributed to a psychological barrier – the refusal to look at reality from a different angle, or the "illusion of common sense". The mechanism of quantum computing (quantum computing) and the possibility of the quantum nature of the functioning of consciousness of living organisms based on the concepts of Roger Penrose and Mikhail Mensky and their ambiguity are considered. Using analysis and general scientific research methods, a mechanism for the interaction of biological organisms and the quantum nature of the world is proposed based on the principle used by quantum mechanics to solve the Elitzur-Weidman problem. The conclusion is made about the possibility of functioning of a biological quantum mechanism that provides a significant gain in environmental competition between living beings by increasing the effectiveness of their predictive behavior. Arguments are given both in favor and against the existence of such a mechanism based on the analysis of publicly available research materials on this topic. In conclusion, an attempt is made to determine the place of man in the expanded picture of the universe in this way. It is shown how important it could be whether human beings are able to exchange information with their invariants in the Multiverse, from the point of view of the concepts of personality and self-awareness. A brief overview of the influence of the ideas of quantum physics in general and the multi-world interpretation in particular on modern religious movements, philosophy and media culture is given.
We have ubiquitous presence of computers today, ranging from simple controllers in modern appliances to smartphones in our pockets that provide a wide range of everyday services, to powerful supercomputers and large data centers that carry out the most computationally intensive tasks. These computational machines have a few things in common: for example, the information they handle is stored in bits (0 or 1), and the procedure for processing the information is specified by a program. A great deal is known about the limits of what such computational machines can and cannot do efficiently. There are many important computational problems that are believed to be very difficult to solve using even the most powerful computers, where the resource requirement-whether it is the size of the machine or the time it takes to finish the task-increases exponentially as a function of the problem size.