ISCAS 2000 - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, May 28-31, 2000, Geneva, Switzerland

QUANTUM COMPUTING: AN INTRODUCTION

Thomas Beth Institut fur Algorithmen und Kognitive Systeme, Universitat Karlsruhe Am Fasanengarten 5, 76 128 Karlsruhe, Germany email: EISS-Of f ice@ira. uka.de
ABSTRACT
This talk will open the sessions on Quantum Computing. For this, we give a system theoretic approach to the concept of quantum computing. A quantum computer is envisaged to be a system of quantum circuits, acting on a state space, which is a finite say 2n-dimensional -complex Hilbert space. The circuitry is a sequence of unitary transforms Ut E SU(2n) followed by a measurement. These transforms, so-called quantum gates, are controlled by a classical computer, usually especially electromagnetic fields. The state space of a Quantum Computer has the structure of a Hermitian vector space. Thus it allows simultaneous superposition of orthogonal basis states (corresponding to classical states) with the possibility of constructive and destructive interference between different paths of computation [l, 21. What is more: This principle allows the usage of so-called entangled states by preparing the superposition of special bent configurations of basis vectors in the product Hilbert space, e. g., as they are known from error control [3] and cryptography. This latter entanglement not only promises to make a quantum computer much more powerful than a probabilistic one, but it also allows a method of parallelism, unheard of in the world of classical computers [4, 5, 61. The reason for this lies not only in the fact that the 2ndimensional Hilbert space is the n-fold tensor product of 2dimensional spaces as it is given by spin-l/2-particles, like photons, representing a quantum bit. First of all, we shall address the fact that the power of quantum computing lies in the properties of entangled states as opposed to those of separable states which essentially would resemble classical circuits without giving the feature of exponential speed-up [71. We shall briefly describe possible physical realisations of quantum (optic, electronic, magnetic, . . . ) devices allowing the engineering of Hamiltonians needed for quantum systems. Basic quantum gates, especially the Quantum Homer-Toffoli Gate [8, 91, will be discussed to display the principles and methodology for designing quantum circuits. An outlook towards the possible availability of nanoand mesoscopic technologies supporting this new architec0-7803-5482-6/99/$10.002000 IEEE

ture in future generations will conclude the talk based on a speculative worsthest case forecast of possible applications, e. g., in public key and conventional cryptography.

1. REFERENCES
[ l ] Thomas Beth, Sebastian Egner, and Jorn MiillerQuade, Workshop on Quantum Cryptography and Quantum Information Theory, E.1.S.S.-Report Nr. 1994/5, 1993. [2] Thomas Beth and Gilles Brassard, Eds., Quantum Algorithms, vol. 2 10 of Dagstuhl-SeminarReport, Dagstuhl, 10.-15. May 1998. Intemationales Begegnungs- und Forschungszentrum fur Informatik. [3] Thomas Beth and Markus Grassl, The Quantum Hamming and Hexacodes, Fortschritte der Physik, vol. 46, no. 4-5, pp. 459-491, 1998. [4] Hoi-Kwong Lo, Sandu Popescu, and Tim Spiller, Eds., Introduction to Quantum Computation and Information, World Scientific, Singapore, 1998.

[5] Markus Piischel, Martin Rotteler, and Thomas Beth,

Fast Quantum Fourier Transforms for a Class of Non-abelian Groups, in Proceedings AAECC-13. 1999, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, See also LANL preprint quant-phl9807064. [6] Martin Rotteler and Thomas Beth, PolynomialTime Solution to the Hidden Subgroup Problem for a Class of non-abelian Groups, LANL preprint quantph/9812070,1998.

[7] Thomas Beth, Quantum Information Processing: Facts and Visions, EU IST E T Proactive Initiatives - Information Days, Quantum Information Processing & Communications (QIPC), Lecture, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 12 March 1999.

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- Algorithmen fur Quantensysteme (AQUA), Antrag Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SPP 1078, Be 887/13-1, 1998.

[9] Josef Gruska, Quantum Computing, McGraw-Hill, London, 1999. [IO] Thomas Beth, Dieter Jungnickel, and Hanfried Lenz, Design Theory,Encyclopaedia of Mathematics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2nd edition, 1999.

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