Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You_ A Guide to the Universe - Marcus Chown [12]
The key property of a quantum computer—the ability to do many calculations at once—follows directly from two things that waves—and therefore microscopic particles such as atoms and photons, which behave like waves—can do. The first of those things can be seen in the case of ocean waves.
On the ocean there are both big waves and small ripples. But as anyone who has watched a heavy sea on a breezy day knows, you can also get big, rolling waves with tiny ripples superimposed on them. This is a general property of all waves. If two different waves can exist, so too can a combination, or superposition, of the waves. The fact that superpositions can exist is pretty innocuous in the everyday world. However, in the world of atoms and their constituents, its implications are nothing short of earth-shattering.
Think again of a photon impinging on a windowpane. The photon is informed about what to do by a probability wave, described by the Schrödinger equation. Since the photon can either be transmitted or reflected, the Schrödinger equation must permit the existence of two waves—one corresponding to the photon going through the window and another corresponding to the photon bouncing back. Nothing surprising here. However, remember that, if two waves are permitted to exist, a superposition of them is also permitted to exist. For waves at sea such a combination is nothing out of the ordinary. But here the combination corresponds to something quite extraordinary—the photon being both transmitted and reflected. In other words, the photon can be on both sides of the windowpane simultaneously!
And this unbelievable property follows unavoidably from just two facts: that photons are described by waves and that superpositions of waves are possible.
This is no theoretical fantasy. In experiments it is actually possible to observe a photon or an atom being in two places at once—the everyday equivalent of you being in San Francisco and Sydney at the same time. (More accurately, it is possible to observe the consequences of a photon or an atom being in two places at once.) And since there is no limit to the number of waves that can be superposed, a photon or an atom can be in three places, 10 places, a million places at once.
But the probability wave associated with a microscopic particle does more than inform it where it could be located. It informs it how to behave in all circumstances—telling a photon, for instance, whether or not to be transmitted or reflected by a pane of glass. Consequently, atoms and their like can not only be in many places at once, they can do many things at once, the equivalent of you cleaning the house, walking the dog, and doing the weekly supermarket shopping all at the same time. This is the secret behind the prodigious power of a quantum computer. It exploits the ability of atoms to do many things at once, to do many calculations at once.
DOING MANY THINGS AT ONCE
The basic elements of a conventional computer are transistors. These have two distinct voltage states, one of which is used to represent the binary digit, or bit, “0”, the other to represent a “1.” A row of such zeros and ones can represent a large number, which in the computer can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided by another large number.
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But in a quantum computer the basic elements—which may be single atoms—can be in a superposition of states. In other words, they can represent a zero and a one simultaneously. To distinguish them from normal bits, physicists call such schizophrenic entities quantum bits, or qubits.
One qubit can be in two states (0 or 1), two qubits in four (00 or 01 or 10 or 11), three qubits in eight, and so on. Consequently, when you calculate with a single qubit, you can do two calculations simultaneously, with two qubits four calculations, with three eight,