Quantum Computing

 

Quantum IT  - Quantum Encryption - Commercialization/Companies

Photosynthesis and Quantum Computing   Quantum Teleportation
 
Nanotech Fortunes

 
The Physics of Quantum Information: Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Teleportation, Quantum Computation

The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to M Theory-The New Physics of Information

Quantum Computation and Quantum Information
Quantum computing is a new field that combines ideas from computer science and quantum physics to explore hypothetical computing devices that harness delicate quantum effects .
 

Performing calculations with a tool outside of the Human Mind began when Humans first began to assign numeric values to the god given appendages of the hand , which is the reason Base 10 is our numbering system today, 10 fingers, there generally wasn't much need to go beyond that. When the need arose eventually crude calculating and data storage systems evolved into the abacus and written languages. That process of non-organic computation has been evolving ever since ,for Thousands of years .

it has evolved through fingers, clay tablets, mechanical gears and levers, file cabinets, to transistors & capacitors, to silicon chips and integrated circuits . Current techniques can implant an entire quarry of stone tablets onto the head of a pin, and in most cases can retrieve the requested information with in ..at the most.. a few minutes { If you use the correct search terms}.

However, The high speed ultra- modern optimized computer sitting in front of you is only slightly ahead of its predecessors of 20-30 years ago.  The next major phase in this non-organic computational evolution will be "quantum computing" . The consensus seems to be that Commercial quantum-based products are 15 -20 years away.
  

Basic Concept of Quantum Computers  

In current computational devices Information storage is based on the Bit . A bit can represented by one of only two possibilities such as 0 or 1, positive or negative , yes or no, up or down. A seemingly endless string of Ones and Zeroes.

In a quantum computer, information storage is not based on a Bit, a string of ones and zeroes, but on a Qubit ... a series of quantum-mechanical states such as the spin directions of an electron, or orientation of a photon....A Qubit is the basic unit of information in a quantum computer.

A Qubit can represent more than 0 or 1, 1 and 0, yes and no , up and down. and all that simultaneously.

In summary While one bit represents just 1 or 0, one Qubit represents a vast array of possibilities and all can be calculated simultaneously taking numerous probabilities and variables into account.

"For a start, a qubit can be both a 0 and 1 at the same time. Take the spin of an electron--a property that can be imagined as the spin of a top with its axis pointing either up or down . The up or down spin can correspond to a 0 or 1. But the electron can also be placed in a ghostly dual existence, known as a superposition of states, in which it is both up and down, a 0 and a 1, at the same time. Carry out a calculation using the electron, and you perform it simultaneously on both the 0 and the 1, two calculations for the price of one.
At first glance, this may not seem impressive, but add more qubits and the numbers become much more persuasive. While 1 qubit can be in a superposition of two states, 0 and 1, two qubits can be in a superposition of four states--00, 01, 10, and 11--representing four numbers at once. The increase is exponential: with m qubits, it is possible to carry out a single calculation on 2m numbers in parallel. With only a few hundred qubits, it is possible to represent simultaneously more numbers than there are atoms in the universe." Justin Mullins Spectrum Online

As any other physical laws, Quantum laws are constant/ unvarying and A number of scientists have been exploring ways to exploit the eccentric laws of quantum physics for the purpose of creating a new computational "stone tablet/abacus/super computer" smaller, faster, better than anything silicon based.

This concept has been evolving for almost 3 decades—and it could take another two or three decades before the concept becomes commercially viable.

The mastering of this concept will lead to an incredible technological quantum leap, allowing us to solve problems that otherwise would take generations to decipher.

 

Quantum Cryptography / Quantum Encryption

Traditional cryptography depends on its own mathematical complexity to prevent eavesdroppers
from deciphering the contents of encrypted messages. Quantum cryptography relies upon on
the fact that any attempts to read quantum information without the requisite 'key' will destroy or alter the information, rendering it useless to hackers and eavesdroppers.

German physicist  Werner Heisenberg In 1927 discovered that merely observing a  photon will alter it. Once you look at it, it's changed forever - this is Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

In quantum information, eavesdropping can be viewed as measurements on a physical object 
Using quantum phenomena such as quantum entanglement, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - one can create a novel communication system which will always detect eavesdropping.  Reading the protected information requires its measurement by the reader, measurement requires altering, altering renders the data useless to any who lack the requisite key.  Any measurement is detectable.


 

Commercialization - Quantum Computing Companies

 

D-Wave

Website

Geordie Rose and a handful of cohorts opened Dwave in 1999 with relatively minuscule capital.  Alexandre Zagoskin, a leading member of the group developed his idea of utilizing "entanglement"  in the development of Quantum Computing.

In the entanglement hypothesis, a pair of atoms can become "entangled". When one spins  left, the other spins right. They can be light years apart, space/distance are irrelevant,  if you stop one and find it is pointing up, the other will point the exact opposite . Somehow they are communicating instantaneously, so time is somewhat irrelevant as well. Scientists have no idea how this happens, it just does --- It's Magic !!!.

Zagoskin theorizes that if he can create entangled atoms, one set can do the calculating untouched, yet instantly communicate the results to the other set, hypothetically the results would be read and translated to a computer screen.

In April of 2007, decades ahead of  expectations Dwave demonstrated what it claims is “the world’s first commercial quantum computer”  Dwave demonstrated its Orion Computer at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., Orion searched for a protein in a database and found the closest match, as well as solving a Sudoku puzzle.  Many scientists are still skeptical. D-Wave initially provided no evidence to back up its quantum claims, and released only the sketchiest details about the inner workings of Orion. Something solved the problems at the demonstration, but it may not have been a quantum computer, and it certainly wasn't utilizing the "entanglement" theory described above..

D-Wave Chief Executive Herb Martin verified that the Orion is not a true quantum computer ,but rather a machine that uses some quantum mechanics to solve problems. " Orion is more of an early prototype than the full-blown quantum system that some demonstration attendees might have anticipated.  Instead of the atomic entanglement based system hoped for , Orion is based on Adiabatic Quantum Computing 

 

MagiQ Technologies

Website

Quantum communication and quantum computing are the stated fortes of MagiQ. Privately-held, MagiQ Technologies is based in New York City with research & development laboratories in Somerville, Mass.

 

idQuantique

Website

Advanced encryption solutions based on quantum and classical cryptography, random number generators.

 

The Artiste Company

Website

 

 

Developers of quantum computing software
 

NEC Laboratories

Website

In 1994 NEC demonstrated a system that generated quantum keys at 100K bps (bits per second) and could transmit them over distances up to 40 kilometers. 

In 1999, NEC succeeded in controlling the quantum state of one qubit made of small superconductors. This was the world’s first realization of a one-qubit rotation gate in a solid state device.

In 2003, a joint NEC/RIKEN experiment demonstrated the world’s first two-qubit gate in a solid-state device, namely the controlled-NOT gate.

In 2005 NEC along with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology,  Japan Science and Technology Agency and POWEREDCOM, Inc., succeeded in realizing  quantum cryptography generation at an average rate of 13 kbps over a 16-km-long commercial optical network.

Mitsubishi  Quantum Encryption
Website

Fujitsu Quantum Devices

Subsidiary of  Fujitsu Ltd

IBM

IBM Almaden Research Center

IBM Researchers have built quantum computers utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques to measure and alter the spin of individual atoms. Radio-frequency energy bursts can begin the "computing" process by changing the energy level of an atom, which then interacts with other atoms in a controlled manner, to establish quantum computing patterns that correspond to answers that might be gathered through conventional computers.

 

 

PoweredCom  Inc

Japanese/Tokyo based Communications Company which, in collaboration with NEC has been experimenting with Quantum Cryptography Key Generation.

NEC Succeeds in World's Fastest Continuous Quantum Cryptography Key Generation over Fortnight Period
 
Photosynthesis and Quantum Computing
 

Scientists have recently discovered that plants and light sensitive bacteria [cyanobacteria] utilize quantum physics to perform photosynthesis, turning sunlight into energy quickly and efficiently, nearly 100-percent efficiency. Exploring these aspects of natural quantum activity , scientists could conceivably duplicate nature's machinery and harness sunlight.

The classic classroom explanation of photosynthesis states that sunlight excites chlorophyll molecules sequentially in a random blind search for a place to release electrons for conversion into chemical energy for the plant.

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley theorize that this is only a fraction of the truth.
In the British journal - Nature , they reported detecting quantum waves of energy exploring all possible excitation states in a bacterial protein simultaneously.

“The classical hopping description of the energy transfer process is both inadequate and inaccurate,...It gives the wrong picture of how the process actually works, and misses a crucial aspect of the reason for the wonderful efficiency.”  -Graham Fleming, principal investigator for the study.



"The effect is like if you're trying to run in a maze but instead of having to choose which way to go, you could choose to go several ways at once," -Gregory Engel, an ultra-fast laser spectroscopist and chemist at Berkeley.
 

The findings suggest that excitation energy within bacteria and plants simultaneously tries multiple paths and selects the most efficient ones . Essentially ,plants use the basic principle of quantum computing—the exploration of a multiplicity of different answers at the same time—to achieve near-perfect efficiency.

 

When It Comes to Photosynthesis, Plants Perform Quantum Computation -  Scientific American  4/13/2007

Green Quantum Computers - Dwave 4/14/2007


Quantum Teleportation

"Beam me up Scotty!"  comes to mind when the phrase "Quantum teleportation is uttered, a scenario in which people and objects are teleported across space in classic trekkie fashion. In actuality however, Quantum teleportation does not transport energy or matter, and it does not allow communication of information at super light speed- or warp factor 5, as Capt. Kirk would say. It is useful to quantum communication and computation and is relevant to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and entanglement described earlier in this page.

IBM - Quantum Teleportation

Physicists Succeed In Transferring Information Between Matter And Light

Quantum Teleportation, Information and Cryptography
 

Links

Finding a way to build a quantum computer that works more efficiently than a classical computer has been the holy grail of quantum information processing for more than a decade. “There is quite a strong competition at the moment to realize these protocols,” Mark Tame tells PhysOrg.com.