27 pages, LaTeX, 8 PostScript figures embedded. A bug in one of the postscript files has been fixed. Reprints available from the author. The files are also available from http://eve.physics.ox.ac.uk/Articles/QC.Articles.html
Recent theoretical results confirm that quantum theory provides the possibility of new ways of performing efficient calculations. The most striking example is the factoring problem. It has recently been shown that computers that exploit quantum features could factor large composite integers. This task is believed to be out of reach of classical computers as soon as the number of digits in the number to factor exceeds a certain limit. The additional power of quantum computers comes from the possibility of employing a superposition of states, of following many distinct computation paths and of producing a final output that depends on the interference of all of them. This ``quantum parallelism'' outstrips by far any parallelism that can be thought of in classical computation and is responsible for the ``exponential'' speed-up of computation.
This is a non-technical (or at least not too technical) introduction to the field of quantum computation. It does not cover very recent topics, such as error-correction.
In this paper, we firstly briefly review the duality quantum computer. Distinctly, the generalized quantum gates, the basic evolution operators in a duality quantum computer are no longer unitary, and they can be expressed in terms of linear combinations of unitary operators. All linear bounded operators can be realized in a duality quantum computer, and unitary operators are just the extreme points of the set of generalized quantum gates. A d-slits duality quantum computer can be realized in an ordinary quantum computer with an additional qudit using the duality quantum computing mode. Dualit…
We study how to implement quantum stochastic differential equations (QSDEs) on a quantum computer. This is illustrated by an implementation of the QSDE that couples a laser driven two-level atom to the electromagnetic field in the vacuum state on the IBMqx4 Tenerife computer. We compare the resulting master equation and quantum filtering equations to existing theory. In this way we characterize the performance of the computer.
The Halting problem of a quantum computer is considered. It is shown that if halting of a quantum computer takes place the associated dynamics is described by an irreversible operator.
A computational problem fed into a gate-model quantum computer identifies an objective function with a particular computational pathway (objective function connectivity). The solution of the computational problem involves identifying a target objective function value that is the subject to be reached. A bottleneck in a gate-model quantum computer is the requirement of several rounds of quantum state preparations, high-cost run sequences, and multiple rounds of measurements to determine a target (optimal) state of the quantum computer that achieves the target objective function value. Here, we …
Universal quantum computers are the only general purpose quantum computers known that can be implemented as of today. These computers consist of a classical memory component which controls the quantum memory. In this paper, the space complexity of some data stream problems, such as PartialMOD and Equality, is investigated on universal quantum computers. The quantum algorithms for these problems are believed to outperform their classical counterparts. Universal quantum computers, however, need classical bits for controlling quantum gates in addition to qubits. Our analysis shows that the number…
We present a framework that utilizes quantum algorithms, an architecture aware quantum noise model and an ideal simulator to benchmark quantum computers. The benchmark metrics highlight the difference between the quantum computer evolution and the simulated noisy and ideal quantum evolutions. We utilize our framework for benchmarking three IBMQ systems. The use of multiple algorithms, including continuous-time ones, as benchmarks stresses the computers in different ways highlighting their behaviour for a diverse set of circuits. The complexity of each quantum circuit affects the efficiency of …
Local implementation of non-local quantum gates is necessary in a distributed quantum computer. Here, we demonstrate the non-local implementation of controlled-unitary quantum gates proposed by Eisert et al. (Phys Rev A 62:052317, 2000) using the five-qubit IBM quantum computer. We verify the fidelity and accuracy of the implementation through the techniques of quantum state and process tomographies.
Benchmarking is how the performance of a computing system is determined. Surprisingly, even for classical computers this is not a straightforward process. One must choose the appropriate benchmark and metrics to extract meaningful results. Different benchmarks test the system in different ways and each individual metric may or may not be of interest. Choosing the appropriate approach is tricky. The situation is even more open ended for quantum computers, where there is a wider range of hardware, fewer established guidelines, and additional complicating factors. Notably, quantum noise significa…
This is a position paper written as an introduction to the special volume on quantum algorithms I edited for the journal Mathematical Structures in Computer Science (Volume 20 - Special Issue 06 (Quantum Algorithms), 2010).
We show how a quantum computer can be employed to elucidate reaction mechanisms in complex chemical systems, using the open problem of biological nitrogen fixation in nitrogenase as an example. We discuss how quantum computers can augment classical-computer simulations for such problems, to significantly increase their accuracy and enable hitherto intractable simulations. Detailed resource estimates show that, even when taking into account the substantial overhead of quantum error correction, and the need to compile into discrete gate sets, the necessary computations can be performed in reason…
Quantum simulation can beat current classical computers with minimally a few tens of qubits and will likely become the first practical use of a quantum computer. One promising application of quantum simulation is to attack challenging quantum chemistry problems. Here we report an experimental demonstration that a small nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) quantum computer is already able to simulate the dynamics of a prototype chemical reaction. The experimental results agree well with classical simulations. We conclude that the quantum simulation of chemical reaction dynamics not computable on cu…
This work uses a simple quantum computer model to discuss the randomness of bit strings originated from integer sequences. The considered quantum computer model has three elements: a processing unit responsible for a mathematical operation, an initial equally weighted superposition and a quantum state used as resource. The randomness depends on the last.
The development of universal quantum computers has achieved remarkable success in recent years, culminating with the quantum supremacy reported by Google. Now is possible to implement short-depth quantum circuits with dozens of qubits and to obtain results with significant fidelity. Quantum walks are good candidates to be implemented on the available quantum computers. In this work, we implement discrete-time quantum walks with one and two interacting walkers on cycles, two-dimensional lattices, and complete graphs on IBM quantum computers. We are able to obtain meaningful results using the cy…
In quantum information theory, entropic inequalities act as the necessary and sufficient conditions to noncontextuality. Here, we first experimentally demonstrate the violation of the entropic noncontextual inequality in a four-level quantum system, by using the five-qubit IBM quantum computer. The experimental result disproves the existence of a local realist model.
The class of two-qubit Bell-diagonal states has been the workhorse for developing understanding about the geometry, dynamics, and applications of quantum resources. In this article, we present a quantum circuit for preparing Bell-diagonal states on a quantum computer in a tunable way. We implement this quantum circuit using the IBM Q 5 Yorktown quantum computer and, as an application example, we measure the non-local, steering, entanglement, and discord quantum correlations and non-local quantum coherence of Werner states.
We propose protocols for determining the distances in Hilbert space between pure and mixed quantum states prepared on a quantum computer. In the case of pure quantum states, the protocol is based on measuring the square of modulus of scalar product between certain states. Determination of the distance between mixed quantum states is reduced to measuring the squares of modules of scalar products between all pure states included in the mixed states. In addition, we develop a protocol that allows one to determine the speed of evolution of the spin system simulated by a quantum computer. These pro…
The DiVincenzo criteria for implementing a quantum computer have been seminal in focussing both experimental and theoretical research in quantum information processing. These criteria were formulated specifically for the circuit model of quantum computing. However, several new models for quantum computing (paradigms) have been proposed that do not seem to fit the criteria well. The question is therefore what are the general criteria for implementing quantum computers. To this end, a formal operational definition of a quantum computer is introduced. It is then shown that according to this defin…
Cloud-based quantum computers have become a reality with a number of companies allowing for cloud-based access to their machines with tens to more than 100 qubits. With easy access to quantum computers, quantum information processing will potentially revolutionize computation, and superconducting transmon-based quantum computers are among some of the more promising devices available. Cloud service providers today host a variety of these and other prototype quantum computers with highly diverse device properties, sizes, and performances. The variation that exists in today's quantum computers, e…
The mapping of quantum circuits to qubits represented by ion states in a storage ring quantum computer is examined. Serial, parallel and hybrid architectures for mapping such qubits onto a storage ring quantum computer are presented. Parallelism is an important part of the SRQC architecture in terms of multiple ions, windows and lasers. A "predecessor problem" that arises in such architectures is identified and a solution is proposed. Representative numerical sizing and timing calculations are presented. The entire methodology is very general and extends to several implementation options. Open…
Quantum computers are the promising candidates for simulation of large quantum systems, which is a daunting task to perform in a classical computer. Here, we report the experimental realization of quantum tunneling of a single particle through different types of potential barriers by performing digital quantum simulations using IBM quantum computers. We consider two and three-qubit systems to visualize the tunneling process and illustrate its unique quantum nature. We observe the tunneling and oscillations of the particles in a step-well, double-well, and multi-well potentials through our expe…
