What is Quantum Computing?

By Arianna Otoo '21

Zeros and ones, binaries and bits, the comprehensive pieces of information that have defined our perception of computers and technology will soon be revolutionized by the integration of quantum mechanics into the world of computing. Though computers have grown and taken us further in the past few decades than ever before, their capabilities will soon hit a wall, as computer parts become smaller and smaller. This could only able to be surmounted by changing the functionality of computers entirely (1).

Despite the simplicity and benefit of the notion of a quantum computer, understanding its possibilities is substantially more difficult. Essentially, when bits become the size of atoms, they begin to exhibit qualities of quantum behavior, venturing into the complex world of quantum physics; while an ordinary bit can take on a definitive state of being either a zero or one, qubits, or quantum bits, can take on a state of being somewhere in between a zero or a one, as per the quantum characteristic of superposition (2). Given this principle, four bits can be in a total of two to the power of four, or sixteen total configurations, only one of which the bits can be in at any given time. Four qubits can be in these sixteen different configurations at once, and the number of configurations increases exponentially with each qubit added (1).

The ideas of entanglement and qubit manipulation further describe the capabilities of quantum computing. By applying quantum mechanics to the traditional idea of logic gates, quantum gates can be utilized to take an entire superposition as an input, output another superposition, collapse the qubits, forcing them into a binary state, and produce a series of zeros and ones.

The implications of quantum computing are quite promising. Ranging from quantum simulation of protein structures, database searching with exponentially increased speed, or information and technology security, the future of computing is rife with potential (1). In short, reaching a stage of efficient quantum computing will be a huge milestone in the field of science, and may--quite literally--change the world as we know it.

Work Cited

Source 1 - Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhHMJCUmq28

"Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology." YouTube, uploaded

by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, 8 Dec. 2015, www.youtube.com/

watch?v=JhHMJCUmq28. Accessed 17 May 2019.

Source 2 - Article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2888530.pdf

DiVincenzo, David P. "Quantum Computation." Science, ns, vol. 270, no. 5234, 13

Oct. 1995. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2888530.pdf. Accessed 17 May

2019.