Nihal Mehta Ph. D. - Quantum Computing: Program Next-Gen Computers for Hard, Real-World Applications

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Richard Feynman, a Nobel Laureate, first postulated a computer rooted in the laws of quantum mechanics that govern the behavior of subatomic particles such as muons, gluons, quarks, and bosons. Its a theory that strains credulity at every turnits bizarre concepts jar against everyday experience. A long line of distinguished quantum physicists from Niels Bohr to Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman have been exasperated by the very theory they helped create. Yet, surprisingly, the theory has correctly predicted every phenomenon that physicists have thrown at it. These same principles now have their sights trained on digital computing. For the first time since Eniac, the modern computer built at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, the underlying fabric of computing is threatened: bits, with their rigid and states, are replaced with fluid units that seemingly exist in both states simultaneously, giving us unprecedented ways to tackle challenging computational tasks. Quantum mechanics is the most spectacular theory ever put forth, and we are going to latch onto its coattails to learn about quantum computing and how its challenging the notions of conventional computing.

I first got interested in quantum computing years ago when I was exploring ways to squeeze better performance from the mathematical-based computer models that I was tasked with building for some of the worlds largest organizations. Time and again, though the computer models would return acceptable solutions, I couldnt get them to do even better. Its like the models hit a wall. Quantum mechanical concepts such as tunneling seemed to offer a way to punch through the barrier. But quantum mechanics is strange, and it was far from clear how to model computational tasks using subatomic particles. I created paper models to help make sense of the counter-intuitive quantum mechanics concepts. But, with no real quantum hardware to validate the models, they remained untested ideas that I filed away.