Quantum Computing
Quantum mechanics emerged as a branch of physics in the early 1900s to explain nature on the scale of atoms and led to visionary inventions such as transistors, lasers, and magnetic resonance imaging. Hence after so much breakthrough discoveries quantum mechanics was merged with information theory leading to Quantum Computing.
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Understanding superposition makes it possible to understand the basic component of information in quantum computing, the qubit. In classical computing, bits are transistors that can be off or on, corresponding to the states 0 and 1. In qubits such as electrons, 0 and 1 simply correspond to states like the lower and upper energy levels discussed above. Qubits are distinguished from classical bits, which must always be in the 0 or 1 state, by their ability to be in superposition's with varying probabilities that can be manipulated by quantum operations during computations.
Superposition is the counter intuitive ability of a quantum object, like an electron, to simultaneously exist in multiple “states.” With an electron, one of these states may be the lowest energy level in an atom while another may be the first excited level. If an electron is prepared in a superposition of these two states it has some probability of being in the lower state and some probability of being in the upper. A measurement will destroy this superposition, and only then can it be said that it is in the lower or upper state.
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| Components Associated With Quantum Computing |
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Understanding superposition makes it possible to understand the basic component of information in quantum computing, the qubit. In classical computing, bits are transistors that can be off or on, corresponding to the states 0 and 1. In qubits such as electrons, 0 and 1 simply correspond to states like the lower and upper energy levels discussed above. Qubits are distinguished from classical bits, which must always be in the 0 or 1 state, by their ability to be in superposition's with varying probabilities that can be manipulated by quantum operations during computations.
Building quantum computers is incredibly difficult. Many candidate qubit systems exist on the scale of single atoms, and the physicists, engineers, and materials scientists who are trying to execute quantum operations on these systems constantly deal with two competing requirements.
Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize computation by making certain types of classically intractable problems solvable. While no quantum computer is yet sophisticated enough to carry out calculations that a classical computer can't, great progress is under way. A few large companies and small start-ups now have functioning non-error-corrected quantum computers composed of several tens of qubits, and some of these are even accessible to the public through the cloud.
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