Overview of quantum computing for computer scientists

Quantum computation is a relatively new subset of quantum mechanics which is in itself a newer branch of physics originating in the 1920s. At the beginning of the 1980s it was proposed that quantum systems, which can not efficiently be simulated on a classical computer, could be simulated with quantum computation. Its goal is therefore to devise a computational system that uses the peculiarities of quantum mechanics. Indeed it has been shown that certain problems, such as prime factorization, that were thought to not be solvable efficiently by any computer can be solved with a quantum computer. Consequently it is an interesting subject for the future of informatics, as the predicition of Moore's law seems to be coming to a halt and new paradigms of computation are needed.

The inherent problem with quantum mechanics is that for humans with their limited point of view rooted in classical, newtonian physics it is next to impossible to grasp the concepts intuitively. Additionally no usable true quantum computer has been built yet. It is a very interesting and promising subject of physics and computer science though that could have long-reaching implications for our understanding of the complexity of solutions. In this thesis Leon will therefore try to give a practical overview of the young field of quantum computation, from the standpoint of a computer scientist.