The first aim of this paper is to demonstrate the emergence of quantum informatics as a new, important, deep and broad area of science, that explores phenomena, laws and limitations of the (quantum) information processing world, and brings also a new methodology for other sciences, especially those dealing with microworld. The second aim is to discuss briefly long term global goals and paradigms of quantum informatics. The third aim is to try to point out some of the current main challenges of quantum informatics.
The first aim of this paper is to demonstrate the emergence of quantum informatics as a new, important, deep and broad area of science, that explores phenomena, laws and limitations of the (quantum) information processing world, and brings also a new methodology for other sciences, especially those dealing with microworld. The second aim is to discuss briefly long term global goals and paradigms of quantum informatics. The third aim is to try to point out some of the current main challenges of quantum informatics.
Quantum information processing and communication (QIPC) theory has developed recently very fast and brought a variety of interesting and important results of the great value also for the whole area of quantum physics. One can also say that the field of QIPC has been so far mainly theory driven and the experiments have been mostly done to show that it is indeed possible, and how difficult is to make it, what theory shows as possible. One of the main reasons for such a fast and successful development of the QIPC science is the fact that paradigms, models, concepts, value system, as well as methods and results of the (theoretical) informatics have been intensively used. The goal of this paper is to go behind this successful crusade and applications of the informatics for QIPC and to present, analyse and illustrate the main ideas, concepts, methods and tools that have been involved. All that should help more physics‐oriented researchers in QIPC to understand that in order to explore the quantum world, new paradigms, concepts, models and so on are now available, and they could and should be used, due to the progress in (theoretical) informatics. Our concentration will be not only on what has been achieved, but even more on the main new challenges. In doing that we will concentrate more on the backgrounds, motivations, goals and implications than on the very technical results.
Information is physical: the laws which govern its encoding, processing and communication are bound by those of its unavoidably physical embodiment. In today's informatics, information obeys the laws of Newton's and Maxwell's classical physics: this assertion holds all the way from commercial computers down to (up to?) their most abstract models, e.g. Turing machines and lambda-calculus. Today's computation and communication are classical. Research in quantum information processing and communication was born some twenty five years ago, as a child of two major scientific achievements of the 20th century, namely quantum physics and information sciences. The driving force of this interdisciplinary research is that of looking for the consequences of having information encoding, computation and communication based upon the laws of quantum physics, i.e. the ultimate knowledge that we have, today, of the foreign world of elementary particles, as described by quantum mechanics. Breakthroughs in cryptography, communications, information theory, algorithmics and, more recently, in abstract computational models, programming languages and semantics frameworks, have shown that this transplantation of information from classical to quantum has far reaching consequences, both quantitative and qualitative, and opens new avenues for research within the foundations of computer science.From a computer scientist's point of view, which is my point of view, I will explain the basics, survey the main achievements, and outline the current hot topics and major challenges of this promising and stimulating research. I will not assume any prior knowledge in quantum mechanics from the audience.
Quantum Information is the science that aims to use the unusual behavior of the microscopic world, governed by the laws of Quantum Mechanics, in order to improve the way in which we compute or communicate information. Though the first ideas in this direction come from the early 80’s, it is in the last decade when Quantum Information has suffered an spectacular development. It is impossible to resume in a paper like this one the importance and complexity of the field. Therefore, I will limit to briefly explain some of the initial ideas (considered classical by now), and to briefly suggest some of the modern lines of research. By the nature of this exposition, I have decided to avoid rigor and to concentrate more in ideas and intuitions. Anyhow, I have tried to provide with enough references, in such a way that an interested reader could find there proper theorems and proofs.
An essential overview of quantum information Information, whether inscribed as a mark on a stone tablet or encoded as a magnetic domain on a hard drive, must be stored in a physical object and thus made subject to the laws of physics. Traditionally, information processing such as computation occurred in a framework governed by laws of classical physics. However, information can also be stored and processed using the states of matter described by non-classical quantum theory. Understanding this quantum information, a fundamentally different type of information, has been a major project of physicists and information theorists in recent years, and recent experimental research has started to yield promising results. Quantum Approach to Informatics fills the need for a concise introduction to this burgeoning new field, offering an intuitive approach for readers in both the physics and information science communities, as well as in related fields. Only a basic background in quantum theory is required, and the text keeps the focus on bringing this theory to bear on contemporary informatics. Instead of proofs and other highly formal structures, detailed examples present the material, making this a uniquely accessible introduction to quantum informatics. Topics covered include: * An introduction to quantum information and the qubit * Concepts and methods of quantum theory important for informatics * The application of information concepts to quantum physics * Quantum information processing and computing * Quantum gates * Error correction using quantum-based methods * Physical realizations of quantum computing circuits A helpful and economical resource for understanding this exciting new application of quantum theory to informatics, Quantum Approach to Informatics provides students and researchers in physics and information science, as well as other interested readers with some scientific background, with an essential overview of the field.
The urgency of conducting research in the field of quantum informatics is grounded. Promising areas of research are highlighted. For foreign and Russian publications and materials, a review of the main scientific results that characterize the current state of research in quantum computer science is made. It is noted that knowledge and funds are invested most intensively in the development of the architecture of a quantum computer and its elements. Despite the fact that today there is no information on the creation of a physical implementation of a quantum computer comparable in functionality to a classical digital computer, the development of quantum algorithms is one of the popular areas of research. An advantage of quantum algorithms is the fact that they reduce the time required to solve the problem due to the parallelization of operations by generating entangled quantum states and their subsequent use. This advantage (quantum acceleration) is most important when solving the problem of modeling the dynamics of complex systems and enumerated mathematical problems. (The general case of enumeration is the Grover scheme and its variants; the tasks of searching for hidden periods: Shor's scheme of using the fast quantum Fourier transform and its analogues.) The demand for cybersecurity developments (search for vulnerabilities in smart spaces, secure storage and use of big data, quantum cryptography) is noted. More than a dozen articles are devoted to quantum algorithms of key search, key distribution on optical fibers of various lengths, and the analysis of quantum resources necessary for conducting a cyber attack. In the field of artificial quantum intelligence, attention is paid, first of all, to the “search” for a model of a quantum neural network that is optimal from the point of view of using all the advantages presented by quantum computing and neural networks, as well as machine learning algorithms. Examples of the use of quantum computing in cognitive and social sciences for studying the decision-making mechanism with incomplete data are given. It is concluded that quantum informatics is promising for the simulation of complex natural and artificial phenomena and processes.