A reductionistic approach to quantum computation

Handbook of Quantum Logic and Quantum Structures, 2007

Physical Review A, 2013

We show that quantum theory allows for transformations of black boxes that cannot be realized by inserting the input black boxes within a circuit in a pre-defined causal order. The simplest example of such a transformation is the classical switch of black boxes, where two input black boxes are arranged in two different orders conditionally on the value of a classical bit. The quantum version of this transformation-the quantum switch-produces an output circuit where the order of the connections is controlled by a quantum bit, which becomes entangled with the circuit structure. Simulating these transformations in a circuit with fixed causal structure requires either postselection, or an extra query to the input black boxes.

Time in Physics

International Journal of Quantum Information, 2016

Classical and quantum parallelism are deeply different, although it is sometimes claimed that quantum Turing machines are nothing but special examples of classical probabilistic machines. We introduce the concepts of deterministic state machine, classical probabilistic state machine and quantum state machine. On this basis, we discuss the question: To what extent can quantum state machines be simulated by classical probabilistic state machines? Each state machine is devoted to a single task determined by its program. Real computers, however, behave differently, being able to solve different kinds of problems. This capacity can be modeled, in the quantum case, by the mathematical notion of abstract quantum computing machine, whose different programs determine different quantum state machines. The computations of abstract quantum computing machines can be linguistically described by the formulas of a particular form of quantum logic, termed quantum computational logic.

Physical review letters, 2010

Measurement based quantum computation, which requires only single particle measurements on a universal resource state to achieve the full power of quantum computing, has been recognized as one of the most promising models for the physical realization of quantum computers. Despite considerable progress in the past decade, it remains a great challenge to search for new universal resource states with naturally occurring Hamiltonians and to better understand the entanglement structure of these kinds of states. Here we show that most of the resource states currently known can be reduced to the cluster state, the first known universal resource state, via adaptive local measurements at a constant cost. This new quantum state reduction scheme provides simpler proofs of universality of resource states and opens up plenty of space to the search of new resource states.

2009

We introduce a task—the classical switch of black boxes—that is easily implementable in a quantum laboratory, and we prove that it cannot be translated into a quantum circuit with fixed causal structure. The task involves assembling a circuit conditionally on the value of a classical bit. We also introduce a generalization of the same task—the quantum switch—where the control is performed by a quantum bit, that can thus become entangled with the circuit structure, and propose a scheme for its implementation.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014

In measurement-based quantum computing one starts with a large entangled resource state |Ψ RES on n qubits. We identify a two sets of qubits, I which will represent the inputs, and O which will represent the outputs of the computation, with n ≥ |O| ≥ |I|. Generally one can consider three types of computation using this resource, one with a classical input and a classical output (let's call this CC), one with a quantum input and a classical output QC and one with a quantum input and a quantum output QQ. Clearly QQ is the most general, since one can always encode classical information onto quantum states. In this work we focus on QQ. When considering a quantum input |ψ S (on a system S of |I| qubits) the first step is to teleport the input system qubits S onto I on the resource state, by some global map on I and S. This can be done for example by entangling I with S (using, say, a control-Z gate) and performing Pauli X measurements on S then appropriate corrections (see e.g.

Annual Reviews of Computational Physics VI, 1999

In the last few years, theoretical study of quantum systems serving as computational devices has achieved tremendous progress. We now have strong theoretical evidence that quantum computers, if built, might be used as a dramatically powerful computational tool, capable of performing tasks which seem intractable for classical computers. This review is about to tell the story of theoretical quantum computation. I left out the developing topic of experimental realizations of the model, and neglected other closely related topics which are quantum information and quantum communication. As a result of narrowing the scope of this paper, I hope it has gained the benefit of being an almost self contained introduction to the exciting field of quantum computation. The review begins with background on theoretical computer science, Turing machines and Boolean circuits. In light of these models, I define quantum computers, and discuss the issue of universal quantum gates. Quantum algorithms, including Shor's factorization algorithm and Grover's algorithm for searching databases, are explained. I will devote much attention to understanding what the origins of the quantum computational power are, and what the limits of this power are. Finally, I describe the recent theoretical results which show that quantum computers maintain their complexity power even in the presence of noise, inaccuracies and finite precision. This question cannot be separated from that of quantum complexity, because any realistic model will inevitably be subject to such inaccuracies. I tried to put all results in their context, asking what the implications to other issues in computer science and physics are. In the end of this review I make these connections explicit, discussing the possible implications of quantum computation on fundamental physical questions, such as the transition from quantum to classical physics.

2007

I provide an alternative way of seeing quantum computation. First, I describe an idealized classical problem solving machine that, thanks to a many body interaction, reversibly and nondeterministically produces the solution of the problem under the simultaneous influence of all the problem constraints. This requires a perfectly accurate, rigid, and reversible relation between the coordinates of the machine parts - the machine can be considered the many body generalization of another perfect machine, the bounching ball model of reversible computation. The mathematical description of the machine, as it is, is applicable to quantum problem solving, an extension of the quantum algorithms that comprises the physical representation of the problem-solution interdependence. The perfect relation between the coordinates of the machine parts is transferred to the populations of the reduced density operators of the parts of the computer register. The solution of the problem is reversibly and no...

Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, 2014

Quantum computation and quantum computational logics give rise to some non-standard probability spaces that are interesting from a formal point of view. In this framework, events represent quantum pieces of information (qubits, quregisters, mixtures of quregisters), while operations on events are identified with quantum logic gates (which correspond to dynamic reversible quantum processes). We investigate the notion of Shi–Aharonov quantum computational algebra. This structure plays the role for quantum computation that is played by σ-complete Boolean algebras in classical probability theory.