Introduction

A Quantum Computer is a computer that harnesses the power of atoms to perform memory and processing tasks. It has the potential to perform certain calculations billions of times faster than any silicon-based computer.

The classical desktop computer works by manipulating bits, digits that are binary, i.e., which can be represented by zeroes and ones. Everything from numbers and letters to the status of your modem or mouse are all represented by a collection of bits in combinations of ones and zeros. These bits correspond very nicely with the way classical physics represents the world. Electrical switches can be on or off, objects are in one place or they're not, etc. Quantum computers aren't limited by the binary nature of the classical physical world, however, they depend on observing the state of quantum bits or qubits that might represent a one or a zero, might represent a combination of the two or might represent a number expressing that the state of the qubit is somewhere between 1 and 0.

Though quantum computing is still in its infancy, experiments have been carried out in which quantum computational operations were executed on a very small number of qubits. It is widely believed that if large-scale quantum computers can be built, they will be able to solve certain problems asymptotically faster than any classical computer. Integer factorization is believed to be computationally infeasible with an ordinary computer for large numbers that are the product of two prime numbers of roughly equal size (e.g., products of two 300-digit primes). By comparison, a quantum computer could solve this problem relatively easily. If a number has n bits (is n digits long when written in the binary numeral system), then a quantum computer with just over 2n qubits can use Shor's algorithm to find its factors. This ability would allow a quantum computer to "break" many of the cryptographic systems in use today, in the sense that there would be a relatively fast (polynomial time in n) algorithm for solving the problem.

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Important Information

Workshop Duration
Maximum 3 hours

Prerequisites
None

Cost per head
Nil