Physics – Quantum Physics
Scientific paper
2010-01-13
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A August 13, 2010 368:3621-3632
Physics
Quantum Physics
10 pages, to appear in the Visions 2010 issue of Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A
Scientific paper
10.1098/rsta.2010.0017
We briefly review what a quantum computer is, what it promises to do for us, and why it is so hard to build one. Among the first applications anticipated to bear fruit is quantum simulation of quantum systems. While most quantum computation is an extension of classical digital computation, quantum simulation differs fundamentally in how the data is encoded in the quantum computer. To perform a quantum simulation, the Hilbert space of the system to be simulated is mapped directly onto the Hilbert space of the (logical) qubits in the quantum computer. This type of direct correspondence is how data is encoded in a classical analogue computer. There is no binary encoding, and increasing precision becomes exponentially costly: an extra bit of precision doubles the size of the computer. This has important consequences for both the precision and error correction requirements of quantum simulation, and significant open questions remain about its practicality. It also means that the quantum version of analogue computers, continuous variable quantum computers (CVQC) becomes an equally efficient architecture for quantum simulation. Lessons from past use of classical analogue computers can help us to build better quantum simulators in future.
Kendon Vivien M.
Munro William J.
Nemoto Kae
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