Quantum Bits and Quantum Secrets How Quantum Physics is revolutionizing Codes and Computers

by Morsch, Oliver

• ISBN13: 9783527407101
• ISBN10: 3527407103
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-17
• Publisher: Wiley-VCH

Summary

A concise, "no-frills" introduction to quantum computation and quantum cryptography for non-experts.Rather than concentrating on stories about scientists and philosophical concepts, Quantum Bits and Quantum Secrets: How Quantum Physics is revolutionizing Codes and Computers provides a step-by-step approach to quantum information. Starting from the idea of quantum cryptography, it presents the basic principles of quantum mechanics and explains how this can be used to make cryptography absolutely secure against eavesdropping. Subsequently, the most important quantum algorithms are explained and technical problems in realizing quantum computers are discussed, followed by a presentation of recent experiments-some of which are found here in a textbook for the first time.Easily accessible for undergraduates and graduates-especially those studying subjects other than physics-who need an introduction to this rapidly developing topic.

Author Biography

Oliver Morsch, born in 1970, received his Ph.D. in physics from Oxford University in 1999. He then accepted a post as senior researcher at the National Research Council of the National Institute for the Physics of Matter in Pisa, Italy. Dr. Morsch's research interests concentrate on ultracold atoms, Bose-Einstein condensation and quantum computers. He works as a freelance science journalist for various newspapers and journals and has published two popular science books with Wiley-VCH.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Colors of the Rainbow

A Prelude

The Early Beginnings

How Fast is Light?

Particle or Wave?

Ripples on a Lake

A Spark Flies

In Search of the Ether

Enter Einstein

Light, Waves and Oscillations

Some Useful Facts

Wavelength, Phase and Interference

Coherence

Polarization

Nature's Currency

The Story of the Quantum

An act of Desperation

Photons Galore

Uncertainty

Have You Ever Seen an Atom?

A Question of Stability

Surprising Discoveries

A Glimpse at Quantum Mechanics

Young Again

Which Way to the Screen?

Distant Relations

When Alice Met Bob

The Principles of Quantum Cryptography

A History of Secrets

Zeroes and Ones

One-time Pads

Secret Photons

An Element of Randomness

Sifting Keys

The BB84 Protocol

No Cloning, Please

Noisy Business

Growing Secrecy

Ekert's Idea

Real-world Quantum Cryptography

The Logic of Superpositions

How Quantum Computing Works

Logic Gates

The Basic Idea

Reversibility

The CNOT Gate

Something New

A Magic Test

Balanced and Unbalanced

One Step Closer . . .

Shor's Revolution

An Introduction to Quantum Algorithms

Grover's Database Search

How Fast?

Shor's Factorization Algorithm

Slow Calculations

A Nice Trick

Finding the Period

The RSA Code

Promising Prototypes

How Quantum Computers Might be Built

Moore's End

The DiVincenzo Criteria

Qubits in Different Physical Systems

Ions in Electric Traps

Optical Lattices

Superconducting Qubits

Electrons in Quantum Dots

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Photonic Quantum Computers

Sensitive States

Why Quantum Error Correction is Important

Classical Error Correction

A Simple Case

Trying the Impossible

More Quantum Tricks

Teleportation

Dense Coding

Dream or Reality?

The Past, Present and Future of Quantum Information

The Past

Feynman's Input

The Present

The ARDA Roadmap

Quantum Simulators

Commercial Systems

The Future

Internet Resources

Further Reading

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.