After some remarks on the fundamental physical nature of information, Bennett and Fredkin’s ideas reversible computation are introduced. This leads to the suggestions of Benioff and Feynman as to the possibility of a new type of essentially ‘quantum computer’. If we happen to build such devices, Deutsch scientists showed that‘quantum parallelism’ leads to new algorithms and new complexity classes. This is dramatically illustrated by Shor's quantum algorithm for factorization which is polynomial in time in contrast to algorithms for factorization on a classical Turing computer. This discovery has potentially important implications for the security of many modern cryptographic systems. The fundamentals of quantum computing are then introduced - reversible logic gates, qubits and quantum registers. The key quantum property of ‘entanglement’ is described, with due homage to Einstein and Bell. As an illustration of a quantum program, Grover's database search algorithm is described in some detail. After all this theory, the status of experimental attempts to build a quantum computer is reviewed: it will become evident that we have a long way to go before we can factorize even small numbers. Finally, we end with some thoughts about the process of ‘quantum compilation’ - translating a quantum algorithm into actual physical operations on a quantum system - and some comments on prospects for future progress.
After some remarks on the fundamental physical nature of information, Bennett and Fredkin’s ideas reversible computation are introduced. This leads to the suggestions of Benioff and Feynman as to the possibility of a new type of essentially ‘quantum computer’. If we happen to build such devices, Deutsch scientists showed that‘quantum parallelism’ leads to new algorithms and new complexity classes. This is dramatically illustrated by Shor's quantum algorithm for factorization which is polynomial in time in contrast to algorithms for factorization on a classical Turing computer. This discovery has potentially important implications for the security of many modern cryptographic systems. The fundamentals of quantum computing are then introduced - reversible logic gates, qubits and quantum registers. The key quantum property of ‘entanglement’ is described, with due homage to Einstein and Bell. As an illustration of a quantum program, Grover's database search algorithm is described in some detail. After all this theory, the status of experimental attempts to build a quantum computer is reviewed: it will become evident that we have a long way to go before we can factorize even small numbers. Finally, we end with some thoughts about the process of ‘quantum compilation’ - translating a quantum algorithm into actual physical operations on a quantum system - and some comments on prospects for future progress.
The basic ideas of quantum computation are introduced by a brief discussion of Bennett (1973, 1982) and Fredkin's (1982, 1997) ideas of reversible computation. After some remarks about Deutsch's (1985) pioneering work on quantum complexity and Shor's (1996) factorisation algorithm, quantum logic gates, qubits and registers are discussed. The role of quantum entanglement is stressed and Grover's (1997) quantum search algorithm described in detail. The paper ends with a review of the current experimental status of quantum computers.
In the last few years, theoretical study of quantum systems serving as computational devices has achieved tremendous progress. We now have strong theoretical evidence that quantum computers, if built, might be used as a dramatically powerful computational tool. This review is about to tell the story of theoretical quantum computation. I left out the developing topic of experimental realizations of the model, and neglected other closely related topics which are quantum information and quantum communication. As a result of narrowing the scope of this paper, I hope it has gained the benefit of being an almost self contained introduction to the exciting field of quantum computation. The review begins with background on theoretical computer science, Turing machines and Boolean circuits. In light of these models, I define quantum computers, and discuss the issue of universal quantum gates. Quantum algorithms, including Shor's factorization algorithm and Grover's algorithm for searching databases, are explained. I will devote much attention to understanding what the origins of the quantum computational power are, and what the limits of this power are. Finally, I describe the recent theoretical results which show that quantum computers maintain their complexity power even in the presence of noise, inaccuracies and finite precision. I tried to put all results in their context, asking what the implications to other issues in computer science and physics are. In the end of this review I make these connections explicit, discussing the possible implications of quantum computation on fundamental physical questions, such as the transition from quantum to classical physics.
Summary form only given. Quantum mechanics offers the information scientist a new rich resource, which is only recently being tapped to allow for secure communication in the form of quantum cryptography, and for tremendous parallelism in quantum information processing and computing. I will describe developments and prospects for each. Quantum cryptography has already advanced beyond the research laboratory to become a realizable technology with proven secret key distribution for encryption. Quantum computing, although at an earlier stage of development has been recognized as a major new development in physics, enables us (if a quantum computer is realizable) to attack problems previously thought to be too complex for normal computation in a reasonable time. Examples of quantum algorithms involving this kind of advantage are Shor's for fast factorization (in itself a threat to secure communication) and Grover's for database searching. I will discuss the ways quantum mechanics allow such a speed-up, stressing how quantum entanglement is the key resource being exploited, and how quantum gates, networks, and the processors may be implemented in a realistically noisy environment. Simple demonstrators have already been built, and I will discuss prospects for future realization of large-scale processors.
The subject of quantum computing brings together ideas from classical information theory, computer science, and quantum physics. This review aims to summarize not just quantum computing, but the whole subject of quantum information theory. Information can be identified as the most general thing which must propagate from a cause to an effect. It therefore has a fundamentally important role in the science of physics. However, the mathematical treatment of information, especially information processing, is quite recent, dating from the mid-20th century. This has meant that the full significance of information as a basic concept in physics is only now being discovered. This is especially true in quantum mechanics. The theory of quantum information and computing puts this significance on a firm footing, and has led to some profound and exciting new insights into the natural world. Among these are the use of quantum states to permit the secure transmission of classical information (quantum cryptography), the use of quantum entanglement to permit reliable transmission of quantum states (teleportation), the possibility of preserving quantum coherence in the presence of irreversible noise processes (quantum error correction), and the use of controlled quantum evolution for efficient computation (quantum computation). The common theme of all these insights is the use of quantum entanglement as a computational resource. It turns out that information theory and quantum mechanics fit together very well. In order to explain their relationship, this review begins with an introduction to classical information theory and computer science, including Shannon's theorem, error correcting codes, Turing machines and computational complexity. The principles of quantum mechanics are then outlined, and the Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) experiment described. The EPR-Bell correlations, and quantum entanglement in general, form the essential new ingredient which distinguishes quantum from classical information theory and, arguably, quantum from classical physics. Basic quantum information ideas are next outlined, including qubits and data compression, quantum gates, the `no cloning' property and teleportation. Quantum cryptography is briefly sketched. The universal quantum computer (QC) is described, based on the Church-Turing principle and a network model of computation. Algorithms for such a computer are discussed, especially those for finding the period of a function, and searching a random list. Such algorithms prove that a QC of sufficiently precise construction is not only fundamentally different from any computer which can only manipulate classical information, but can compute a small class of functions with greater efficiency. This implies that some important computational tasks are impossible for any device apart from a QC. To build a universal QC is well beyond the abilities of current technology. However, the principles of quantum information physics can be tested on smaller devices. The current experimental situation is reviewed, with emphasis on the linear ion trap, high- Q optical cavities, and nuclear magnetic resonance methods. These allow coherent control in a Hilbert space of eight dimensions (three qubits) and should be extendable up to a thousand or more dimensions (10 qubits). Among other things, these systems will allow the feasibility of quantum computing to be assessed. In fact such experiments are so difficult that it seemed likely until recently that a practically useful QC (requiring, say, 1000 qubits) was actually ruled out by considerations of experimental imprecision and the unavoidable coupling between any system and its environment. However, a further fundamental part of quantum information physics provides a solution to this impasse. This is quantum error correction (QEC). An introduction to QEC is provided. The evolution of the QC is restricted to a carefully chosen subspace of its Hilbert space. Errors are almost certain to cause a departure from this subspace. QEC provides a means to detect and undo such departures without upsetting the quantum computation. This achieves the apparently impossible, since the computation preserves quantum coherence even though during its course all the qubits in the computer will have relaxed spontaneously many times. The review concludes with an outline of the main features of quantum information physics and avenues for future research.
This paper presents an extensive exploration of quantum computing as an emerging paradigm that operates on the principles of quantum mechanics to process information in ways unattainable by classical systems. It traces the evolution of quantum theory from its early conceptual foundations to its present-day technological applications, highlighting key milestones such as the development of qubits, quantum gates, and essential algorithms including Shor’s and Grover’s. The study examines the fundamental mechanisms of quantum superposition and entanglement, alongside the hardware and software innovations driving scalability and performance. By analysing experimental progress, programming models, and comparative advantages over classical and cloud computing, this paper underscores how quantum computing can transform industries such as data security, medicine, and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, it outlines future prospects involving error correction, neuromorphic integration, and commercialization trends that are shaping the next generation of computational technology.
Over the last decade a new way to compute has been defined which, unlike conventional methods, is based on quantum mechanics rather than classical physics. This fundamental change in paradigm can, in principle, solve some important and hitherto intractable problems such as prime factorization of large numbers. This tutorial presentation will review the basics of quantum computation and the design of circuits to implement quantum algorithms. The starting point is the notion of a quantum bit or qubit. Because of the superposition property of quantum states, n qubits can store 2n numbers simultaneously, implying a type of massive parallelism. Furthermore, quantum states allow powerful forms of interaction such as entanglement that have no classical counterparts. Qubits are fragile, however, and are altered by measurement; hence quantum circuits must follow very different rules from classical ones. The differences between quantum and classical logic circuits will be discussed and illustrated. Finally, the physical implementation of quantum devices will be considered, along with the prospects for practical quantum computers.