Friday, August 23, 2013

An Actual Test To Verify A Quantum Computer?

We may just have one, according to this Wired article.

In the April 25 issue of the journal Nature, Vazirani, together with Ben Reichardt of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Falk Unger of Knight Capital Group Inc. in Santa Clara, showed how to establish the precise inner state of such a computer using a favorite tactic from TV police shows: Interrogate the two components in separate rooms, so to speak, and check whether their stories are consistent. If the two halves of the computer answer a particular series of questions successfully, the interrogator can not only figure out their internal state and the measurements they are doing, but also issue instructions that will force the two halves to jointly carry out any quantum computation she wishes.

Wonder if the D-Wave people would like to subject their machines to such a test?

The article also has some coverage of quantum entanglement and the basics of quantum computation.

Zz.

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