Abstract
The idea of quantum computing was put forward 40 years ago. It became a subject of great excitement after 1994, when Peter Shor proposed his fameous factoring algorithm. In this chapter, the main theoretical ideas and terminology of quantum computing are briefly presented. The frightening statement, commonly used by journalists that the qubit can be in two different states at the same time, is demystified.
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Notes
- 1.
This meaning of this will be explained in Chap. 3
- 2.
Another notation used for these states is: \(\left| {\text{up}} \right\rangle\) and \(\left| {\text{down}} \right\rangle\).
- 3.
This is just text-book quantum mechanics. Apparently, it comes as a surprise for many theorists of quantum computing.
- 4.
The importance of having equal energies of the |1⟩ and |0⟩ states of a qubit is explained in Chap. 4.
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Dyakonov, M.I. (2020). Brief History and Overview of the Main Ideas for Quantum Computing. In: Will We Ever Have a Quantum Computer?. SpringerBriefs in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42019-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42019-2_1
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-42018-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-42019-2
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