A fast quantum mechanical algorithm for database search
STOC '96 Proceedings of the twenty-eighth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing
Feynman Lectures on Computation
Feynman Lectures on Computation
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In a conventional computer, information is represented by quantities that obey the laws of classical physics, such as the voltage levels in a logic circuit. But as the size of microelectronics shrinks, the underlying quantum physics will eventually become important. In the early 1980s this observation led Benioff and later Feynman to consider how to compute with information represented by quantum mechanical quantities. For example, an atomic electron has certain quantum states of motion with energies that are discrete or quantized. An electron in one of these states could be used to represent a binary 0 and when it is in a second, to represent a binary 1. A two-state quantum system that is used to store a single bit of information has come to be known as a qubit. (Other examples of qubits include: the two distinct polarizations of a photon or single particle of light; and the orientation of the intrinsic angular momentum or spin of an atomic nucleus, which can be either parallel or antiparallel to an applied magnetic field.)