FEDERAL UNIVERSITY DUTSE, JIGAWA STATE

FACULTY OF COMPUTING
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

COURSE TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM COMPUTING

COURSE CODE: CSC227

INTRODUCTION.

Evolution in one region of science and technology leads to the discovery of a new one.

In less than a century, research and development of functional computing technologies

have renovated science, technology, and nation massively. The first practical computer

around the 20th century was not capable of doing mathematical computations, on its

own. Practical devices need a solid physical implementation of theoretical concepts.

Nowadays, computers are solving problems instantly and accurately provided the input

is relevant, and a set of instructions given are Quantum Computing and

Communications 2 favourable. It all started from World War II when Alan Turing

created a real general purpose computer with a storable program model and is known

as the ‘Universal Turing Machine’. It was redesigned by Von Neumann and is now the

most important architecture for almost every computer. The computers and their

physical parts kept improving with time in terms of performance and their strengths.

And gradually, the industry of computers became larger than the military department

which initiated it. The advancement in control and understanding of humans over
nature and physical systems has given us the latest electronic devices we are utilizing

today.

A NEW KIND OF COMPUTING

Today’s computers are smaller, cheaper, faster, greatly efficient, and even more

powerful as compared to early computers that used to be huge, costly, and more power-

consuming. It becomes possible due to improvements in architecture, hardware

components, and software running on them. Electronic circuits used in computers are

getting smaller and smaller day by day. Transistors are small semiconductor devices

that are used to amplify and also switch electric or electronic signals. They were used

to be fabricated on a piece of silicon. The circuit was made by connecting these

transistors together into a single silicon surface. The shape of circuits in an IC was

printed together in all layers of silicon at the same time. This process takes the same

amount of time even if the number of transistors in the circuit was increased. The cost

of production of IC was decided by the size of silicon and not the number of transistors.

This reduced the price of products due to which manufacturing and selling of IC

increased and thus benefits and sales also. From the idea of connecting individual

transistors to the collection of these transistors (Logic Gates) and finally, the collection

of these Logic Gates used to get connected into a single integrated circuit (IC).

Nowadays, a single IC can even integrate small computers onto it. Gordon Moore, co-

founder of Intel, in 1965, discovered that the number of transistors on a silicon

microprocessor chip had made twice as much every year while the prices were reduced

to half since their invention. This is known as Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law is

considerable because it means that computers and their computing power get smaller
and faster over time. Though this law is putting the brakes on now and consequently,

the improvement in classical computers is not like before it used to be. This leads to

the idea of the smallest computer by reducing the size of the circuit up to the size of an

atom. But then these circuits will not be able to act as a switch as electrons inside an

atom can become invisible from one side of a barrier and appear on another side, i.e.

they can exist in more than one place at the same time. This is due to the teleporting

phenomena in quantum mechanics called “Quantum Tunneling”. It shows that the size

of the circuits of the classical computer after 5–7 nanometers has reached their limit.

The representation and processing of these computers can be illustrated by the law of

classical physics that gives us an only deterministic justification of the Universe. But

it fails to forecast all noticeable phenomena occurring in nature and this led to the

discovery of quantum mechanics, the biggest changeover in physics. Thus, there is a

need for new computing other than current classical computing to put its state into

some physical information rather than a circuit. Since the quantum phenomena are

bringing up more constraints on the design of the computers. It changes the basic

building blocks of a computer that not only expects new type of hardware creation but

also a new design, software, and layers of abstraction to facilitate the designers to

create and exploit these systems even if their complexities scale over time. The design of

the hardware components has to be governed by quantum properties. Quantum

Computing is a new kind of computing based on Quantum mechanics that deals with

the physical world that is probabilistic and unpredictable in nature. Quantum

mechanics being a more general model of physics than classical mechanics give rise

to a more general model of computing- quantum computing that has more potential to
 solve problems that cannot be solved by classical ones. To store and manipulate the

information, they use their own quantum bits also called ‘Qubits’ unlike other classical

computers which are based on classical computing that uses binary bits 0 and 1

individually. The computers using such type of computing are known as ‘Quantum

Computers’. In such small computers, circuits with transistors, logic gates, and

Integrated Circuits are not possible. Hence, it uses the subatomic particles like atoms,

electrons, photons, and ions as their bits along with their information of spins and

states. They can be superposed and can give more combinations. Therefore, they can

run in parallel using memory efficiently and hence is more powerful. Quantum

computing is the only model that could disobey the Church-Turing thesis and thus

quantum computers can perform exponentially faster than classical computers.

What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum computing is the use of quantum mechanical phenomena to transcend classical time

complexity limitations in computing or simply an advanced field of computing that leverages

the principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations that are infeasible by classical

computers. Unlike classical computers, which use binary bits (0s and 1s) for information

processing, quantum computers use quantum bits (qubits), which can exist in multiple states

simultaneously, enabling a new paradigm of computation.

Why Quantum Computers?

Classical computers have served us well, but as computational problems become more

complex (e.g., drug discovery, optimization, cryptography, and AI), they face limitations.
Quantum computing offers exponential speedup for certain tasks, promising breakthroughs in

various industries.

KEY CONCEPTS IN QUANTUM COMPUTING

1. Qubits (Quantum Bits)

 The fundamental unit of quantum information.

 Unlike classical bits, qubits can be in a superposition of 0 and 1 at the same time.

2. Superposition

 A qubit can exist in both |0⟩ and |1⟩ states simultaneously.

 This allows quantum computers to process multiple possibilities at once.

3. Entanglement

 A quantum phenomenon where two or more qubits become correlated in such a way

that the state of one instantly affects the state of the other, no matter the distance.

 This property is crucial for quantum computing’s power.

4. Quantum Interference

 Used to amplify correct solutions and cancel incorrect ones in quantum algorithms.

QUANTUM GATES & CIRCUITS

Quantum computers use quantum gates to manipulate qubits, similar to how classical

computers use logic gates.

  Hadamard (H) Gate: Creates superposition.

 Pauli-X Gate: Like a classical NOT gate.

 CNOT (Controlled-NOT) Gate: Used for entanglement.

 Toffoli Gate: Quantum version of the AND gate.

Quantum circuits combine these gates to perform computations.

QUANTUM ALGORITHMS

• Shor’s Algorithm: Efficiently factors large numbers, threatening RSA encryption.

• Grover’s Algorithm: Speeds up search operations in unstructured databases.

• Quantum Machine Learning: Enhances AI capabilities with faster optimization

CURRENT CHALLENGES IN QUANTUM COMPUTING

• DE coherence: Quantum states are fragile and easily disturbed by the environment.

• Error Correction: Quantum error correction is still in its early stages.

• Scalability: Building large-scale quantum computers with stable qubits is a major

challenge.

APPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

• Cryptography: Breaking and creating next-gen encryption.

• Drug Discovery: Simulating molecules for faster pharmaceutical breakthroughs.

• Optimization Problems: Improving logistics, finance, and machine learning.

• Artificial Intelligence: Accelerating training of neural networks.

NEED FOR QUANTUM COMPUTERS

Quantum computers can solve any computational problem that any classical computer

can. According to the Church-Turing thesis, the converse is also true that classical

computers can solve all the problems of quantum computers too. It means they provide

no extra benefit over classical computers in terms of computability but there are some

complex and impossible problems that cannot be solved by today’s conventional

computers in a practical amount of time. It needs more computational power. Quantum

computers can solve such problems in reasonably and exponentially lower time

complexities, also known as “Quantum Supremacy”.

Peter Shor in 1993 showed that Quantum computers can help to solve these problems

considerably more efficiently like in seconds without getting overheated. He

developed algorithms for factoring large numbers quickly. Since their calculations are

based on the probability of an atom’s state before it is actually known. These are having

the potential to process data in an exponentially huge quantity. It also explains that a

practical quantum computer could break the cryptographic secret codes. It can risk the

security of encrypted data and communication. It can expose private and protected

secret information. But the advantages of quantum computers are also kept in mind

that is significantly more than its flaws. Hence, they are still needed and further

research is going towards a brighter future.

FUNDAMENTALS OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

While designing the conventional computer, it was kept in mind that transistors’

performance especially when getting smaller, will be affected by noise if any type of

quantum phenomenon takes place. They tried to avoid quantum phenomena

completely for their circuits. But the quantum computer adapts a different technique

instead of using classical bits and even works on the quantum phenomenon itself. It

uses quantum bits that are analogous to classical bits and have two quantum states

where it can be either 0 or 1 except it follows some quantum properties where it can

have both values simultaneously leading to a concept of superposed bits.

WHERE THE CONCEPT OF BITS CAME FROM?

Transistors are the fundamental construction blocks for an IC which are connected

through wires in a circuit. They conduct electric signals between devices. The

communication between transistors within an IC takes place through electric signals.

The behaviour of the signals is analog in nature. Therefore, their values are real

numbers that change smoothly between 0 and 1. These electric signals can also interact

with the environment resulting in noise. Therefore, a little change from 0 to 0.1 due to

temperature or vibrations from the environment can drastically change the system’s

behavior. There are two types of noise present in the environment. The first type of

noise results from energy instabilities occurring suddenly within the object like

temperature above absolute zero Kelvin. These are fundamental in nature. Other types

of noise are the consequences of signal interactions. This type of noise could have

corrected or designed. But neither of them got designed nor corrected or maybe left

intentionally uncorrected at the hardware layer. They are systematic in nature.

To overcome these noises in analog circuits, the IC is built with transistors in such a

way that it could work on digital signals (binary bits) instead of analog signals. These

circuits are called ‘Logic Gates’. They perceive the electric signals containing values

of real numbers as a binary digit or ‘bit’ of either 0 (low voltage) or 1 (high voltage).
Registers are another type of Gate which stores a bit or the number of bits present in

an input value to process further. Gates can remove noise from a signal by limiting the

set of values a signal can hold. Constructing IC using logic gates rather than transistors

simplifies the designing by creating a powerful circuit that is not sensitive to design

and fabrication issues and facilitates abstraction to designers so that they can focus

only on gate functions (Boolean functions) rather than circuit issues. Boolean functions

are defined by the rules of Boolean algebra. They can use an automated design tool for

mapping the required logic gates. A standard library containing a set of tested logic

gates is integrated into the silicon chip design with the help of their manufacturing

technology. Negligible error rates can be achieved using digital logic and standard

libraries. This helps in making the design robust. Also, the data is encoded by adding

some redundant bits in the memory using an error correction code. This code is

checked at regular intervals to detect the error. It also helps in other traits of design

like testing and debugging.

Quantum Bit or Qubit is the fundamental unit of quantum information that represents

subatomic particles such as atoms, electrons, etc. as a computer’s memory while their

control mechanisms work as a computer’s processor. It can take the value of 0, 1, or

both simultaneously. It is a million times more powerful than today’s strongest

supercomputers. Production and management of qubits are tremendous challenges in

the field of engineering. They acquire both, digital as well as analog nature which gives

the quantum computer their computational power. Their analog nature indicates that

quantum gates have no noise limit and their digital nature provides a norm to recover

from this serious weakness. Therefore, the approach of logic gates and abstractions
created for classical computing is of no use in quantum computing. Quantum

computing may adopt ideas only from classical computing. But this computing needs

its own method to overcome the variations of processing and any type of noise. It also

needs its own strategy to debug errors and handle defects in design.

Qubit has two quantum states similar to the classical binary states. The qubit can be in

either state as well as in the superposed state of both states simultaneously. There is a

representation of these quantum states also known as Dirac notation. In this notation,

the state label is kept between two symbols | and ⟩. Therefore, states are written as |0⟩

and |1⟩ which are literally having analog values and both are participating to give any

value between 0 and 1 given that sum of probability of occurrence of each state must

be 1. Thus any quantum bit wave function can be expressed as a two-state linear

combination each with its own complex coefficient i.e. |w⟩ = x |0⟩ + y |1⟩ where x and

y are coefficients of both the states. The probability of the state is directly proportional

to the square of the magnitude of its coefficient. |x|2 is the probability of identifying

the qubit state 0 and |y|2 is the probability of identifying the qubit state 1. These

probabilities when summed up must give a total of 1 or say 100% mathematically, i.e.

|x|2 + |y|2 = 1. 6. Properties of quantum computing In quantum physics, the quantum

object does not exist in an entirely determined state. It looks like a particle but behaves

like a wave when not being observed. This dual nature of particles leads to interesting

physical phenomena. The state of any quantum object is expressed as a sum of possible

participating states or a wave function. Such states are coherent due to the interference

of all the participating states either in a constructive or a destructive manner.

Observation of quantum objects when they interact with some larger physical system
results in the extraction of information. Such observation of quantum objects is called

quantum measurement. Measurement can also result in the loss of information by

disrupting the quantum state. These are some of the PROPERTIES OF QUANTUM

OBJECTS

Quantum objects referred here are the qubits in the case of quantum computing. The

progress of any quantum system is regulated by Schrodinger’s equation that tells us

about the change in the wave-function of the system due to the energy environment.

This environment is the system Hamiltonian which is a mathematical description of

energies experiencing from all forces felt by all components of the system. To control

any quantum system, there is a need to control this environment by isolating the system

from the forces of the universe that cannot be controlled easily and by assigning energy

within this isolated area only. A system cannot be completely isolated. However,

energy and information exchanges can be minimized. This interaction with the outside

environment can lead to loss of coherence and can result in “Decoherence”. The

properties are the conceptual rules and mathematical manifestations that describe the

behavior of the particles. Quantum computers use three fundamental properties of

quantum mechanics to store, represent, and perform operations on data in such a way

so that it can compute exponentially faster than any classical computer. The three

properties are given as follows:

 Superposition in quantum mechanics states that any two quantum states can

be summed up (superposed) resulting in another valid quantum state. It is a

fundamental principle of quantum mechanics. Oppositely we can say that any

quantum state is the sum of two or more than two other unique states.
 Superposition in quantum computing refers to the ability of a quantum system

where quantum particle or qubit can exist in two different positions or say, in

multiple states at the same time. It provides high-speed parallel processing in

an unbelievable way and is very different from their classical equivalents that

have binary constraints. The quantum computer system holds the information

that exists in two states simultaneously. Qubits are brought into a superposition

by influencing them with the help of lasers so that it can simultaneously store

0 and 1 at the same time. In classical computing, if there are 2 bits, the total

possible values after combining we get are 4, out of which only 1 value is

possible at any instant. But on the other hand, if there are 2 qubits in the

quantum computer. The total possible values after combination are 4 and all

are possible at once. It looks like unthinkable Quantum Computing and

Communications 6 because it is not like gravity that can be proved easily just

by looking at the falling of an apple. The laws of classical physics fail here

because superposition only exists in the territory of quantum particles. For

example, when solving a puzzle-like maze, a quantum particle can decide to

take the various paths at the same time using superposition. This process

matches the function of the parallel computer. Due to this property, the qubit is

able to navigate the maze in exponentially less time than a classical bit

 Entanglement in quantum mechanics is a physical phenomenon where two

or more quantum objects are inherently linked such that measurement of one

rules the possible measurement of another. In other words, a pair or a group of

particles interacts or share spatial locality such that the quantum state of each
 particle cannot be characterized independently of the other particle’s state in

the same group even when they are separated by a large distance. Entanglement

is one of the important properties of quantum computing. It refers to the strong

correlation existing between two quantum particles (physical properties of

systems) or qubits. Qubits are linked together in a perfect instantaneous

connection, even if they are isolated at any large distances such as located at

the opposite ends of the Universe. They are entangled or defined with reference

to each other. The fact is that the state of one particle influences the state of the

other. It creates strong communication between qubits. Once they got

entangled, they will stay connected even after separated at any distance. In

classical computers, if bits are doubled, computational power also gets

doubled. But in the case of Entanglement, adding extra bits to a quantum

computer can increase its computational power exponentially. Quantum

computer uses this property in a sort of quantum daisy chain. Some examples

of entanglement can be seen in nature such as electrons separated from each

other at some distance inside an electron cloud are massively entangled with

one another. If one electron is at both the states of spin-up and spin-down with

each state having a probability of ½, a similar case is with the other electron.

 Interference The property of interference in quantum computers is similar

to wave interference in classical physics. Wave interference happens when two

waves interact with each other in the same medium. It forms a resultant wave

with either their amplitudes added together when they are aligned in the same

direction known as constructive interference or a resultant wave with their

 amplitudes canceled out when waves are in opposite direction known as

destructive interference. The net wave can be bigger or smaller than the original

wave depending on the type of interference. Since all subatomic particles along

with light pose dual nature, i.e. particle and wave nature both. The quantum

particle may experience interference. If each particle goes through both the slits

(Young’s double-slit experiment) simultaneously due to superposition, they

can cross its own path interfering with the path direction. The idea of

interference allows us to intentionally bias the content of the qubit towards the

needed state. However, it can also result in a quantum computer to combine its

various computations into one making it more error-prone.

THE TOPOGRAPHY OF QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY

The quantum phenomena are not limited to just quantum computing but they apply to

other technologies also including quantum information science, quantum

communication, and quantum metrology. The progresses of all these technologies are

mutually dependent on each other and can control as well as transform the entire

quantum system. They share the same theory of physics, common hardware and related

methods.

Quantum Information Science seeks the methods of encoding the information

in a quantum system. It includes statistics of quantum mechanics along with their

limitations. It provides a core for all other applications such as quantum computing,

communications, networking, sensing and metrology.

Quantum Communication and networking concentrates on the conversation

or exchange of information by encoding it into a quantum system to facilitate

communication between quantum computers.

Quantum cryptography is the subset of quantum communication in which

quantum properties help to design the secure communication system.

Quantum sensing and metrology is the study and development of quantum

systems. The drastic sensitivity of such a system to environmental nuisances can be

utilized in order to measure important physical properties (e.g. electric and magnetic

fields, temperature, etc.) more accurately than classical systems. Quantum sensors are

based on qubits and are carried out using the experimental quantum systems.

Quantum computing exploits the quantum mechanical properties of superposition,

entanglement and interference to enact computations. In common, a quantum computer

is a physical system that comprises a collection of qubits that must be isolated from

the environment for their quantum state to stay coherent until it performs the

computation. These qubits are organized and manipulated in order to enforce an

algorithm and to achieve a result with high probability from the measurement of its

final state.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSICAL COMPUTERS AND

QUANTUM COMPUTERS.

Comparison key Classical computer Quantum computer

Basis of Computing Large scale integrated High speed parallel computer

multipurpose computer based based on quantum mechanics

on classical physics

Information Storage Bit based information storage Quantum bit (qubit) based

using voltage/ charge information storage using

electron spin

Bit Values Bits having a value of either 0 Qubits having a value of 0,1 or

or 1 and can have a single value sometimes negative and can

at any instant have both values at the same

time

Number of possible states The number of possible states is The number of possible states is

2 which is either 0 or 1 infinite since it can hold

combinations of 0 or 1 along

with some complex

information

Output Deterministic- (repetition of Probabilistic- (repetition of

computation on the same input computation on superposed

gives the same output) states gives probabilistic

answers)

Gates used for processing Logic gates process the Quantum logic gates process

information sequentially, i.e. the information parallel

AND, OR, NOT, etc.

Scope of possible solutions Defined and limited answers probabilistic and multiple

due to the algorithm’s design answers are considered due to

superposition and

entanglement properties
 Operations Operations use Boolean Operations use linear algebra

Algebra and are represented with

unitary matrices.

Circuit implementation Circuits implemented in Circuits implemented in

macroscopic technologies (e.g. microscopic technologies (e.g.

CMOS) that are fast and nuclear magnetic resonance)

scalable that are slow and delicate

THE ARCHITECTURE OF QUANTUM COMPUTER

Architecture can be seen as a blueprint. The architecture of the quantum computer is a

combination of classical and quantum parts and can be divided into 5 layers where

each layer is represented as the functional part of the computer.

 Application Layer- It is not a part of a quantum computer. It is used for

representing a user interface, the operating system for a quantum computer,

coding environment, etc. that are needed for formulating suitable quantum

algorithms. It is hardware-independent.

 Classical Layer- It optimizes and compiles the quantum algorithm into

microinstructions. It also processes quantum-state measurement returned back

from hardware in the below layers and gives it to a classical algorithm to

produce results. Figure 1. The architecture of a practical quantum computer. It

can be divided into five layers, each performing different types of processing.
Figure 1
The architecture of a practical quantum computer. It can be divided into five layers, each performing different
types of processing

 Digital Layer- It interprets microinstructions into signals (pulses) needed by

qubit which act as quantum logic gates. It is the digital description of the

required analog pulses in the below layers. It also gives quantum measurement

as feedback to the above classical layer for merging the quantum outcomes to

the final result.

  Analog Layer- It creates voltage signals which are having a phase and

amplitude modulations like in wave, for sending it to the below layer so that

qubit operations can be executed.

 Quantum Layer- It is integrated with the digital and the analog processing

layer onto the same chip. It is used for holding qubits and is kept at room

temperature (absolute). Error correction is handled here. This layer determines

how well the computer performs. Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) is made up

of three layers including the digital processing layer, analog processing layer,

and quantum processing layer. QPU and classical layer together constitute the

Quantum Computer. Digital and Analog layers operate at room temperature.

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE OF QUANTUM COMPUTERS

There should be an interface between the quantum computer and conventional

computers for tasks related to data, networks, and users. In order to function usefully,

the quantum qubit system needs organized control that can be managed by a

conventional computer. The necessary hardware components for analog quantum

computers are designed in 4 conceptual layers. First is the “quantum data plane” where

qubit is present. Second is the “control and measurement plane” which is liable for

performing operations and measurement on qubits as needed. The third is the “control

processor plane” which defines the sequence of those operations and measurement

outcomes to inform successive quantum operations required by the algorithm. And the

last one is “host processor” which is a classical computer running a conventional

operating system that handles user interfaces, network access, and big storage data
structures. The processor is controlled using a high bandwidth connection that it

provides.

A functional Quantum computer also requires software components in addition to the

hardware. It is comparable to classical computers. Various new tools including

programming languages are needed to substantiate quantum operations so that

programmers can formulate algorithms, compilers that can map them to the hardware

used by quantum computers and some other supports which can evaluate, optimize,

debug and test programs. The programming language must be designed for any

targeting quantum architecture. Some preparatory tools have been developed to

support quantum computers and are accessible on the web. These tools must be

designed in an abstract way so that software developers can think more algorithmically

without much concern for details of quantum mechanics. This software must be

flexible enough to adapt to the changes in hardware and algorithms. This is one of the

biggest challenges in quantum computing to develop complete software architecture.

Other than programming languages, there must be simulation tools for modeling

quantum operations and tracking quantum states and optimization tools for evaluating

needed qubit resources so that it can perform different quantum algorithms in an

efficient manner. The main goal is to minimize the number of qubits and the operations

required for the hardware.

WHAT IS QUANTUM ALGORITHM?

An algorithm is a sequence of instructions or a set of rules to be followed to perform

any task or calculation. It is a step-by-step process for solving a problem, especially

by a computer. Any algorithm that can be executed on a quantum computer is called

the Quantum algorithm. Generally, it is possible to execute all classical algorithms

on quantum computers. However, the algorithms should contain at least one unique

quantum step due to the property of either superposition or entanglement to be called

a Quantum algorithm.

Quantum algorithms are characterized by a quantum circuit. A quantum circuit is a

prototype for quantum computation that includes each step of the quantum algorithm

as a quantum gate. A quantum gate is an operation that can be performed on any

number of qubits. It changes the quantum state of the qubit. It can be divided into a

single-qubit or multi-qubit gate, depending on the number of qubits on which it is

applied at the same time. A quantum circuit is determined with qubit measurement.

An algorithm executing on a simulator rather than hardware is very profitable in terms

of execution time by replacing the measurement overhead at the end of the algorithm.

It is also known as simulation optimization. A quantum algorithm is always reversible

when compared to the classical algorithm. It implies that if the measurement is not

considered, a quantum circuit can be traversed back which can undo all the operations

done by a forward traversing of the circuit. According to the undecidability problem,

all problems that are unsolvable by a classical algorithm cannot be solved by quantum

algorithms too. But these algorithms can solve problems significantly faster than

classical algorithms. Some examples of the quantum algorithm are Shor’s algorithm

and Grover’s algorithm. The Shor’s algorithm can do factorization of very large

numbers in exponentially faster than best-known classical algorithms, whereas,

Grover’s algorithm is used for searching large unordered list or unstructured databases
 that is four times faster than the classic algorithm. There are various quantum

algorithms available so far are as follows.

 Fourier transform-based quantum algorithms

 Amplitude amplification-based quantum algorithms

 Quantum walks based algorithm

 BQP-complete problems

 Hybrid quantum/classical algorithms

DESIGN LIMITATIONS OF QUANTUM COMPUTER

The exponential computing power of quantum computers can be accomplished by

assessing and rectifying any kind of design limitation which helps to avoid their quality

degradation. There are four major design limitations.

The first limitation is that the number of coefficients in Dirac notation that defines

the state of a quantum computer rise exponentially with the rise in the number of

qubits, only when all the qubits get entangled with each other. To obtain the full

potential of quantum computing, qubits must follow the property of entanglement

where the state of any qubit must be linked with states of other qubits. It cannot be

achieved directly since it is hard to generate a direct relation between qubits. But it can

be decomposed into a number of simple fundamental operations directly aided by the

hardware. One can also perform indirect coupling which is known to be an overhead

in machines in classical computing and is crucial at the early stages of development

especially when qubits and gate operations are confined.

The second limitation is that it is impossible to copy an entire quantum system

because of a principle called a no-cloning principle. There is a risk of deletion of

arbitrary information from the original qubits since the state of qubits or set of qubits

are moved to another set of qubits rather than being copied. The generation and storage

of copies of intermediate states or partial outcomes in memory is a necessary aspect of

classical computing. But quantum computers need a different strategy. There are

quantum algorithms that help to access classical bits from the storage so that it can be

known which bits are loaded and being queried into the memory of the quantum system

to perform its task successfully.

The third limitation is due to the absence of noise protection of qubit operations. The

small deformities in gate operations or input signals are collected over time disturbing

the state of the system because they are not discarded by the fundamental gate

operations. This can highly affect the calculation preciseness, measurements and

coherence of the quantum systems and lessen the qubit operations integrity. The final

limitation is the incapability of the quantum machine to identify its full state even after

it has finished its operation. Assume quantum computer has introduced an initial set of

qubits with the superposition of all states combination. After applying a function to

this state, the new quantum state will have information about the function value for

each possible input and measuring this quantum system will not give this information.

Therefore, a successful quantum algorithm can be achieved by manipulating the

system in such a way so that states after finishing the operations have a higher

probability of getting measured than any other probable result.

APPROACHES TO QUANTUM COMPUTING

If we can design each gate slightly different from others, then the generated electric

signals on communicating with each other produce periodic noise in each other. Thus,
the noise immunity of gates used will be adequate to cancel the impact of various noise

origins. Therefore, the concluding system will produce the same outcome as the logical

gate model, even with millions of gates operating in parallel. The goal of the design is

to minimize the noise in qubit that can prevent the qubit state to pass through noisy

channels. The qubit state can be changed by changing its physical energy environment.

Thus, it leads to 2 approaches to quantum computing. In the first approach, the energy

environment representing Hamiltonian is frequently changed smoothly as qubits

operations are analog in nature and smoothly changes from 0 to 1 which cannot be

completely corrected. It initializes the quantum state and then uses Hamiltonian

directly to develop the quantum state. This is known as ‘Analog Quantum

Computing’. It includes quantum annealing, quantum simulation and adiabatic

quantum computers.

The second approach is similar to the classical computer approach where the problem

is decomposed into a sequence of fundamental operations or gates. These gates have

adequately defined digital outcomes for some input states. The set of fundamental

operations of quantum computing is different from that of classical computing. This

approach is referred to as ‘Gate-based quantum computing’.

DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF QUANTUM COMPUTER

Analog quantum computer This type of system performs its operation by manipulating

the analog values in the Hamiltonian representation. It does not use quantum gates. It

includes quantum annealing, quantum simulation and adiabatic quantum computing.

The quantum annealing is done using some initial set of qubits that gradually changes

the energy encountered by the system until the problem parameters are defined by

Hamiltonian. This is done in order to get the highest probability final state of the qubits

that corresponds to the solution of that problem. The adiabatic quantum computer

performs computation using some initial set of qubits in the Hamiltonian ground state

and then Hamiltonian is changed slowly enough such that it stays in its ground state or

lowest possible energy while the process takes place. It has processing power similar

to a gate-based computer but still cannot perform full error correction. There are three

basic types of analog quantum computing.

These are divided on the basis of the required amount of processing power (number of

qubits) and time to become practically and commercially available.

 Quantum Annealing

A basic rule of physics is that everything inclines towards a minimum energy

state of a problem. This behavior is also true in the world of quantum physics.

Quantum annealing is naturally used for real low-energy solutions such as

optimization problems. It is useful where the best solution is needed out of all

possible solutions available. However, it is least powerful among all the types

available. An example of this demonstrates an experiment to optimize traffic

flows in a crowded city. Such an algorithm could successfully decrease traffic

by choosing a convenient path. Volkswagen performs this with Google and D-

wave system partnership. Such an experiment can be applied on a universal

scale for all to get the cost-productive travel. This method can be applied to a

collection of industry problems. For example, optimization of the flight route,

 petroleum price, weather and temperature information and passenger details,

developing commercial aircraft. Quantum annealing is also used for digital

modeling, sampling problems and other science fields. This will take only a

couple of hours to model all the individual atoms of air flowing over an

airplane’s wing at every tilts and speeds to formulate an optimized wing design.

Using a sampling problem from energy-based distribution, the shape of energy

can be characterized and is useful in machine learning problems. The samples

improve the model using information about the state of the model for the given

parameters.

 Quantum Simulation

Quantum simulations examine certain problems in quantum mechanics that are

beyond classical physics. Simulating quantum phenomena that are complex in

nature is one of the most important applications of quantum computing such as

quantum chemistry. It includes modeling of chemical reactions on a large

number of quantum subatomic particles. Quantum simulators can be used to

simulate the misfolded protein structure. Diseases like Alzheimer’s are caused

by misfolded proteins. Using random computer simulation, researchers test

new treatment drugs and learn reactions. To achieve correctly folded protein

structure and study all drug-induced effects, sequential sampling is done which

could take more than a million years. Quantum computers can help evaluate it

for making more effective treatments and medicines and it would be a

significant healthcare improvement. In the future, quantum simulations will

 facilitate quick drug designing and testing by evaluating every possible drug

combinations of protein.

 Adiabatic Quantum Computing

Adiabatic quantum computing is the most dominant, commonly applicable and

hardest to create. A truly adiabatic quantum computer will use over a million

of qubits. The maximum qubits we can access is less than 128 today. The basic

idea behind this is that the machine can be directed at any complex calculation

and obtain an immediate solution. This comprises analyzing the annealing

equations, quantum phenomena simulation, etc. At least fifty unique

algorithms other than Shor’s and Grover’s algorithm have been formulated to

run on this quantum computer.

There is a possibility that quantum computers could revolutionize the area of

artificial intelligence and machine learning. Some work has been done on

algorithms that would operate as building blocks of machine learning but the

hardware and software for quantum AI are still not practically accessible.

NISQ GATE-BASED COMPUTER

NISQ stands for Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum. It is also known as the Digital

NISQ computer. These type of systems are gate-based and operates on a collection of

qubits without full error correction and cannot restrict all the errors. The computations

must be designed in a way so that they remain practical on a quantum system with little

noise and can be finished in fewer and sufficient steps so that Decoherence and gate

errors do not hide the outcomes.

 GATE-BASED QUANTUM COMPUTER WITH FULL ERROR
CORRECTION.

Such computers also perform gate-based operations on a set of qubits with the

implementation of the Quantum Error Correction algorithm. It reduces or corrects the

noise in the system occurring during the computation period. Errors may include

inadequate signals, device forgery or undesired bonding of qubits to the environment

or with each other. The error is reduced to such a limit that the system seems valid and

precise for all computations. Such quantum computers can have various realizations

and they must fulfill some conditions such as there must be an availability of a well-

defined two-level system that can be used as qubits, a potential to initialize those

qubits, a sufficiently extended amount of Decoherence time which can perform error

correction and computation, quantum gates (a set of quantum operations) common for

every quantum computation and a capability of measuring each quantum bit

individually without bothering others. The analog quantum computers and digital

NISQ computers are in progress while the gate-based computers with full error

corrections are much more difficult and demanding.

ADVANTAGES OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

1. According to researchers, quantum computers will be able to solve those complex

mathematical problems that traditional computers find impossible to solve in a

practical timeframe.

2. It provides that computing power which can sufficiently process excessively large

amounts of data (2.5 Exabyte daily i.e. equal to 5 million laptops) created all around

the world to extract meaning from it.

3. Due to the teleportation phenomenon known as ‘quantum tunnelling,’ it can work in

parallel and use less amount of electricity, hence, reducing the power consumption up

to 100 to 1000 times.

4. A general quantum computer is “thousands of times” faster than any classical

computer. For example, Google has made a quantum computer that is 100 million

times faster than any classical computer present in its lab.

5. It can solve complex problems without being overheated since for its stability it kept

cold up to 0.2 Kelvin inside the quantum system.

6. It can easily solve optimization problems such as finding the best route and scheduling

trains and flights. It would also be able to compute 1 trillion moves in chess per second.

Quantum computers will be able to crack the highest security unbreakable encryption

techniques. However, it would also build hack-proof alternates.

7. It can bring up revolution from drugs to petroleum industries. The invention of new

drugs will become possible. The marketable algorithms of financial organizations can

be improved. The field of artificial intelligence can be improved soon.

DISADVANTAGES OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

1) Due to advancements in quantum computers, the security of the existing Internet of

Things (IoT) would fall down. Cryptographic techniques, Databases of government

and private large organizations, banks, and defense systems can be hacked.

Considering these facts, quantum computers can be terrible for our future.

2) The Quantum Computer will work as a different device and cannot replace classical

computers entirely. Since, classical computers are better at some chores than quantum

computers like email, excel, etc.

3) It has not been invented completely yet as only parts are being implemented and people

are still imagining how it would look.

4) It is very delicate and error-prone. Any kind of vibrations affects subatomic particles

like atoms and electrons. Due to which noise, faults, and even failures are possible. It

leads to “Decoherence” which is a loss of coherence in quantum.

5) Quantum processors are very unstable and are very hard to test even. For the stability

of the quantum computer, it is kept at 0.2 Kelvin (absolute Kelvin) which is nearly

below the universe temperature. It is very hard to maintain and regulate such

temperature. The main problem is to really develop it as a personal computer with the

price range in the budget of consumers. They will be firstly accessible to large scale

industry then come to retail markets.

APPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

Many quantum algorithms have been evolved for quantum computers that deliver speedup

which is a result of some fundamental mathematical methods like Fourier transform,

Hamiltonian simulation, etc. Most algorithms require a large number of qubits of the best

quality and some error correction to provide useful functionalities. These algorithms are

formed in blocks rather than as a whole combined application since it is not practical.

Therefore, it is a great challenge to create quantum applications that are really practically

useful along with providing speedup with no error. The potential utility or say useful

application of a quantum computer is an area of ongoing research. It is predicted that those

applications require fewer qubits and can be carried out with a lesser amount of codes. It

is possible to build algorithms that can run faster on quantum computers because of the
distinct features of the qubit. Below are some of the primary applications that we will see

soon in the upcoming era:

 Cryptography Many important elements of IT security and online security such

as e-commerce and electronic secrecy depend on encryption and mathematical

algorithms which are difficult to break such as factoring very huge numbers

into primes (RSA technique). It is done by traversing through every possible

factor using conventional computers which takes a significant amount of time.

Also, some modern algorithms other than RSA like AES, ECDSA, etc. cannot

be cracked using even high computing power. It makes it costly and cracking

them even less practical. Quantum computers can do all these kinds of stuff in

exponentially less amount of time. New quantum algorithms (e.g. Shor’s

algorithm) are able to do it and more unique algorithms will develop. But

before that, new encryption techniques are being made to resist the quantum

ones. Since the already running techniques and digital applications security are

at greater risks.

 Optimization Problems Optimizing a problem implies finding the best solution

to that problem out of all the possible solutions. It can be done by minimizing

the error and even minimizing the steps available. Quantum computers are best

in solving optimization problems. There are a lot of quantum algorithms out of

which quantum optimization algorithms might improve the already existing

optimization problems which are solved using conventional computers

currently. Some of them are quantum semi-definite programming, quantum

data fitting, and quantum combinatorial optimization. Some of the examples

 include simulating the molecular model like protein behavior for medical

research which can lead to the new discovery of drugs for serious diseases like

cancer, lung disease, etc. Another example is the Simulation of the cellular

structure of batteries for improving battery power and life in electric vehicles.

It could also solve travel-related problems in real traffic just like traveling

salesman problems to find the shortest path between many cities, going to each

city once and returning back, modeling the entire finance market, and many

more. Traveling optimization is the major work under Volkswagen recently.

 Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence counts on processing large and

complex datasets. It is responsible for learning, inferring, and understanding. It

learns until it stops Quantum Computing and Communications 16 mistaking

and making errors in its task. It takes a significant amount of time in learning

too. But quantum computing can make it easy and more accurate. Since

conventional computers are only training the learning model from a specific

size of the dataset to restrict the computation time. Quantum computers can

train these models over a huge dataset without sticking into the exponential

time. The more data it uses to train, the more accurate it will be. Generative

models generate output such as image, audio, etc. that can be fed to quantum

computers to improve its quality and accuracy. Natural Language processing is

another example that can understand complete sentences. Quantum computers

can make it understand all the phrases and speech in real-time with improved

quality, which is computationally costly with today’s computer.

  Quantum Simulation It is an important utility in the field of quantum chemistry

and material science. This problem needs solving ground state energies of

electrons and their wave functions, with or without the presence of some

external electric or magnetic field. From the structure of atoms and electrons in

chemistry to the rate at which chemical reactions are taking place, everything

can be simulated very well. The classical computer when applied to this

problem often fails to reach the level of precision needed to predict the rate of

the chemical reaction. It could also have commercial applications in areas such

as medical and health care fields, chemical catalysts, storage of energy,

pharmaceutical advancement and device displays.

MAJOR CHALLENGES IN QUANTUM COMPUTING

The good news is that at any instant of time, the quantum state with the same number of

quantum bits can stretch over all possible states as compared to classical computers and

thus works in an exponentially massive space. However, to be able to use this space

requires all qubits to remain interconnected. Even after such progress, improvements are

still needed. The bad news is that making new and high-quality qubits does not guarantee

the creation and efficient use of fault-tolerant quantum computers and is still having

challenges in its path.

Qubits cannot naturally ignore the noise. Hence, the quantum system is more error-prone.

It suffers from Decoherence. The biggest challenge is how it can handle any undesirable

deviations or noise in quantum computers. Classical computers can produce clean noise-

free outcomes by simply putting its state as off or ‘0’, which is not possible for quantum
computers where errors occur in physical circuits. Qubits will gradually lose its

information as well as interconnection (entanglement) between each other. The error rate

is seen as a design parameter for such systems which should be improved in large qubit

systems also. However, to make the qubits stable and error-free, they are being insulated

from the outside environment in super-refrigerated fridges or vacuum chambers and

accurately handled.

Qubits are neither completely binary nor digital. It is having analog properties also. Gate

can reject noise by dealing with the input signal value of 0.8 and treating it as 1. But in the

analog signal, every value between 0 and 1 is permitted since they have their meanings.

Signals cannot be checked for any kind of noise or corruption. Since 0.8 can be 1 with

some error or 0.8 without error. Presuming the error as 0 like Gates do or taking some

noise value even if it was not present there can affect the adherence of the resulting

quantum computation. Hence, there is a need for 17algorithms like quantum error

correction similar to the logical error correction in classical computers. These algorithms

can be run on a noisy gate-based quantum computer to eliminate the errors and noises

present in them.

It is possible to employ a Quantum Error Correction algorithm on a quantum system.

But quantum error correction requires dealing with the overhead such as a large number

of qubits and their fundamental operations and generally needs more resources. Also,

problems with large data inputs require a large amount of time to create the input quantum

state that would monopolize the computation time lessening the quantum benefits.

Quantum algorithm development is another challenge since achieving quantum speedup

expects entirely new types of algorithm design as the speed of computation depends on the
design of the algorithm. The design of the algorithm should be corresponding to the

number of qubits used.

Further development of software tools in addition to hardware, is required to create and

debug quantum systems to help explain unknown issues and push towards designs.

Debugging quantum hardware and software is of utmost importance which depends on

memory and intermediate machine states in classical computers. But in the case of

quantum computing, states cannot be copied directly for later evaluation, and directly

measuring intermediate state can bring it to halt. Hence, new strategies for debugging are

essential for their development.

IMPORTANCE OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

It is clearly possible to build a quantum computer that could perform computations that

would run a lifetime on a classical computer. Practical applications of quantum computing

need controlling the quantum phenomena and thus the quantum world to an exceptional

level. This job requires substantial engineering and research to build, manage and employ

a noiseless quantum system. The experiment with quantum supremacy is an important test

of the theory of quantum mechanics that will help to improve the support of quantum

theory and leads to unexpected discoveries. The development of aspects and components

of quantum information technology and computing has already started to influence the

area of physics. The quantum error correction theory to attain the fault-tolerant quantum

system has proven important. The quantum information theory is practically useful to

study physics and dynamics of multibody systems like a massive number of quantum

subatomic particles and even in blackhole and related concepts. Advancement in this area
is important for an accurate understanding of various physical structures. It has contributed

to many other engineering fields like physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science,

material science, etc. It has also advanced classical computing. Strategies to develop a

quantum computing algorithm have helped in improving the classical computing algorithm

also. Research in the quantum algorithm has answered many questions in the computer

science area. It can help to evaluate the safety of cryptographic systems, clarifying the

limitations of physical computational and advancing computational methods. It will help

to advance the human’s understanding of the universe. The qubits that are recently being

used in quantum computing is also used for building sensors, precision clocks, and other

applications. Quantum communication is used for communicating two quantum systems

at distance. There is an increased risk of asymmetric cryptography as well as the entire

security system. Hence, the actions are being taken towards new quantum cryptography.

The development of quantum information, science, technology and computing is a global

area now.

FUTURE SCOPE OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

A significant amount of struggle is remaining before a practical quantum computer can be

launched. There are some future advancements that are needed. Some of the future needs

are enabling a Quantum Error Correction algorithm that requires low overhead and

decreases the error rates in qubits, developing more algorithms with lesser qubits for

solving problems, reducing circuit thickness so that NISQ computers can be operated, the

advancement of methods which can verify, debug, and simulate the quantum computers,

scaling the number of qubits per processor in such a way so that error rate is maintained

or can be improved if possible, interleaving of operations in a qubit, recognizing more

algorithms that can reduce the computation time and creating input–output for the quantum

processor.

Such ‘Quantum games’ are predicted in the future that will give unexpected situations and

results that a player can experience because quantum computers will take all the possible

operations and throws them into the game randomly due to its quantum properties like

superpositioning and entanglement of qubits. It will be a never-ending experience.

‘Quantum computing in Cloud’ has the potential to overtake business initiatives like in

other emerging technologies such as cryptography and artificial Intelligence. Since the

classical simulation of fifty qubits is equal to the memory of one Petabyte that doubles

with every single qubit added, the memory required should also be large enough to provide

an environment for application development and testing for multiple developers to

simulate quantum computers using suitable shared resources.

AI and machine learning problems could be solved in a practical amount of time that can

be reduced from hundreds of thousands of years to seconds. Several quantum algorithms

have been developed such as Grover’s algorithm for searching and Shor’s algorithm for

factoring large numbers. More quantum algorithms are coming soon. Google has also

declared that it would produce a workable quantum computer in the following 5 years with

a 50-qubit quantum computer and will achieve quantum supremacy. IBM is also offering

commercial quantum computers soon.

The progress of development in the field of quantum computers depends on many factors.

Interest and financial support from the private sector can help developing commercial

applications for NISQ computers. It depends on the progress of quantum algorithm

development, availability of enough investment in the quantum technology field from

government and the exchange of ideas within researchers, scientists and engineers. To

illuminate the limitations of quantum technology, a defensive result is also beneficial. It

can help in overcoming those negative results which can lead to a new discovery.