The quantum search problem is an important problem due to the fact that a general NP problem can be solved efficiently by an unsorted quantum search algorithm. Here it has been shown that the quantum search problem could be solved in polynomial time on an NMR quantum computer. The NMR ensemble quantum computation is based on the quantum mechanical unitary dynamics that both a closed quantum system and its ensemble obey the same quantum mechanical unitary dynamics instead of on the pseudopure state or the effective pure state of the classical NMR quantum computation. Based on the new principle the conventional NMR multiple-quantum spectroscopy has been developed to solve experimentally the search problem. The solution information of the search problem is first loaded on the unitary evolution propagator which is constructed with the oracle unitary operation and oracle-independent unitary operations and is used to excite the multiple-quantum coherence in a spin ensemble. Then the multiple- quantum spectroscopy is used to extract experimentally the solution information. It has been discussed how to enhance the output NMR signal of the quantum search NMR multiple-quantum pulse sequence and some approaches to enhancing the NMR signal are also proposed. The present work could be helpful for conventional high field NMR machines to solve efficiently the quantum search problem.
The quantum search problem is an important problem due to the fact that a general NP problem can be solved efficiently by an unsorted quantum search algorithm. Here it has been shown that the quantum search problem could be solved in polynomial time on an NMR quantum computer. The NMR ensemble quantum computation is based on the quantum mechanical unitary dynamics that both a closed quantum system and its ensemble obey the same quantum mechanical unitary dynamics instead of on the pseudopure state or the effective pure state of the classical NMR quantum computation. Based on the new principle the conventional NMR multiple-quantum spectroscopy has been developed to solve experimentally the search problem. The solution information of the search problem is first loaded on the unitary evolution propagator which is constructed with the oracle unitary operation and oracle-independent unitary operations and is used to excite the multiple-quantum coherence in a spin ensemble. Then the multiple- quantum spectroscopy is used to extract experimentally the solution information. It has been discussed how to enhance the output NMR signal of the quantum search NMR multiple-quantum pulse sequence and some approaches to enhancing the NMR signal are also proposed. The present work could be helpful for conventional high field NMR machines to solve efficiently the quantum search problem.
A quantum computer (QC) can operate in parallel on all its possible inputs at once, but the amount of information that can be extracted from the result is limited by the phenomenon of wave function collapse. We present a new computational model, which differs from a QC only in that the result of a measurement is the expectation value of the observable, rather than a random eigenvalue thereof. Such an expectation value QC can solve nondeterministic polynomial-time complete problems in polynomial time. This observation is significant precisely because the computational model can be realized, to a certain extent, by NMR spectroscopy on macroscopic ensembles of quantum spins, namely molecules in a test tube. This is made possible by identifying a manifold of statistical spin states, called pseudo-pure states, the mathematical description of which is isomorphic to that of an isolated spin system. The result is a novel NMR computer that can be programmed much like a QC, but in other respects more closely resembles a DNA computer. Most notably, when applied to intractable combinatorial problems, an NMR computer can use an amount of sample, rather than time, which grows exponentially with the size of the problem. Although NMR computers will be limited by current technology to exhaustive searches over only 15 to 20 bits, searches over as much as 50 bits are in principle possible, and more advanced algorithms could greatly extend the range of applicability of such machines.
The multiple-quantum operator algebra formalism has been exploited to construct generally an unsorted quantum search algorithm. The exponential propagator and its corresponding effective Hamiltonian are constructed explicitly that describe in quantum mechanics the time evolution of a multi- particle two-state quantum system from the initial state to the output of the unsorted quantum search problem. The exponential propagator usually may not be compatible with the mathematical structure and principle of the search problem and hence is not a real quantum search network, but it can be further decomposed into a product of a series of the oracle unitary operations such as the selective phase-shift operations and the nonselective unitary operations which can be expressed further as a sequence of elementary building blocks such as one-qubit quantum gates and the two-qubit diagonal phase gates, resulting in that the decomposed propagator is compatible with the mathematical structure and principle of the search problem and thus, becomes a real quantum search network. The decomposition for the propagator can be achieved with the help of the operator algebra structure and symmetry of the effective Hamiltonian, and the properties of the multiple-quantum operator algebra spaces, especially the characteristic transformation behavior of the multiple-quantum operators under the z-axis rotations. It has been shown that the computational complexity of the search algorithm is dependent upon that of the numerical multidimensional integration and hence it is believed that the search algorithm could solve efficiently the unsorted search problem. An NMR device is also proposed to solve efficiently the unsorted search problem in polynomial time.
Quantum computers are able to operate on coherent superpositions of states, and to isolate a single global property of the set of computed quantities via interference. In principle, this permits them to solve certain problems exponentially faster thana classical computer, but not one has yet succeeded in implementing a true quantum computer on more than two quantum bits. Recently, however, it has been found that an ensemble of independent and identical quantum computers can perform mots of the same feats than a single quantum computer could, while at the same time bringing massive classical parallelism to bear on its computations. Such an ensemble quantum computer can be realized, to a limited extent, by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy on ordinary liquids at room temperature and pressure. This simple implementation depends on special kinds of mixed states, called pseudo-pure states, whose preparation entails a loss of signal that is exponential in the number of spins. While this would appear to limit such an implementation to ca. 8-10 spins in the foreseeable future, NMR spectroscopy has now permitted the first experimental demonstrations of all the basic features of quantum computing. We claim, moreover, that the product operator formalism, on which the theory of NM R spectroscopy is based, provides an efficient framework within which to analyze algorithms and decoherence effects in quantum computing more generally. This is illustrated by presenting our recent experimentally implementation of a quantum error correcting code.
In this paper it has been described how to use the unitary dynamics of quantum mechanics to solve the prime factorization problem on a spin ensemble without any quantum entanglement. The ensemble quantum computation for the prime factorization is based on the basic principle that both a closed quantum system and its ensemble obey the same unitary dynamics of quantum mechanics if there is not any decoherence effect in both the quantum system and its ensemble. It uses the NMR multiple-quantum measurement techniques to output the quantum computational results that are the inphase multiple-quantum spectra of the spin ensemble. It has been shown that the inphase NMR multiple-quantum spectral intensities used to search for the period of the modular exponential function may reduce merely in a polynomial form as the qubit number of the spin ensemble. The time evolution process of the modular exponential operation on the quantum computer obeys the unitary dynamics of quantum mechanics and hence the computational output is governed by the quantum dynamics. This essential difference between the quantum computer and the classical one could be the key point for the quantum computation outperforming the classical one in the prime factorization on a spin ensemble without any quantum entanglement. It has been shown that the prime factorization based on the quantum dynamics on a spin ensemble is locally efficient at least. This supports the conjecture that the quantum dynamics could play an important role for the origin of power of quantum computation and quantum entanglement could not be a unique resource to achieve power of quantum computation in the prime factorization.
A quantum computer is a device that processes information in a quantum-mechanically coherent fashion. In principle, it can exploit coherent quantum interference and entanglement to perform computations, such as factoring large numbers or searching an unsorted database, more rapidly than classical computers. Noise, decoherence, and manufacturing problems make constructing large scale quantum computers difficult. Ion traps and optical cavities offer promising experimental approaches, but no quantum algorithm has yet been implemented with those systems. On the other hand, because of their natural isolation from the environment, nuclear spins are particularly good 'quantum bits', and their use for quantum computation is possible by applying nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques in an unconventional manner. Here, we report on the experimental implementation of a quantum algorithm using NMR to solve a purely mathematical problem in fewer steps than is possible classically. Our simple quantum computer can determine the type of an unknown function using fewer function 'calls' than is possible using a classical computer.