By Joseph Szatkowski and Cody Borgschulte

● Uses phenomenon associated with quantum mechanics instead of electrical circuitry ● Quantum mechanics explains how particles interact on an individual level. ● Superposition ● Entanglement

● Uses qubits instead of bits ● Unlike bits, qubits can be on, off, or a superposition of both. ● 2 qubits can hold 00, 01, 10, 11, or any superposition of these values. ● This allows a quantum computer to perform multiple calculations simultaneously.

● A qubit can be represented by a single electron. ● Electrons have a property called spin, which determines how they act in a magnetic field. ● Up spin and down spin representing 1 and 0

● Quantum particles have the ability to exist partially in different states. ● When measured the superposition collapses into a single state. ● A superposition can be represented by a complex number, with coefficients representing how much of each state there is.

● Entanglement allows two particle to interact directly with each other, allowing operations to be performed. ● Necessary because particles cannot be observed during calculations as this would collapse the superposition.

● First theorized by Paul Benioff in 1981 ● In 1998 the scientists at Los Alamos created an extremely simple prototype using 1 qubit. ● In 2000 a 7 qubit computer was created. ● This computer was programmed using radio frequency pulses. ● In 2001 Shor's algorithm was successfully demonstrated. ● In 2007 D-Wave used a 16 qubit computer to solve a Sudoku puzzle.

● To create a quantum computer you must be able to control and measure particles. ● Lasers, superconductors, etc. ● Super expensive ● It is unlikely quantum computers will be publicly available any time soon. ● Cannot measure while calculating. ● Individual operations are slower.

● Quantum computer can perform algorithms which transistor computers can't. ● Shor's algorithm can be used to factor large numbers in polynomial time (O((log N)^3)). ● Can be used to break RSA codes ● Can simulate quantum mechanics. ● Study cures, analyze large networks, solve other “unsolvable” problems.

 NAS Ames Research Center  Exascale Computing (10^18 floating point operations per second)  Grover’s algorithm (N^(1/2))