All Quantum Computing Posts
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Quantum Computing
The Toffoli Gate: The Unsung Workhorse in Quantum Codebreaking
Understanding the Toffoli gate’s role isn’t just an academic exercise – it has real implications for when and how quantum computers might break our cryptography. Each Toffoli gate isn’t a single physical operation on today’s hardware; it has to be decomposed into the basic operations a quantum machine can do (typically one- and two-qubit gates). In many quantum architectures, a Toffoli might be broken down…
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Quantum Computing
Wave Function Collapse: When Quantum Possibilities Become Reality
Wave function collapse is the idea that a quantum system, described by a wave function embodying several possible states at once, suddenly reduces to a single state when observed. In simple terms, before you measure it, a quantum object can be in a superposition of many possibilities; when you measure it, you get one definite outcome. This seemingly abrupt leap from many possibilities to one…
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Quantum Computing
Cat Qubits 101
Bosonic “cat qubits” are quantum bits encoded in the states of bosonic oscillators (e.g. modes of a microwave cavity) that resemble Schrödinger’s famous alive/dead cat superposition. Instead of relying on a single two-level quantum element, a cat qubit stores information in two coherent states of a harmonic oscillator and their quantum superposition. This approach is promising for quantum computing because it inherently protects the qubit…
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Quantum Computing
Quantum Entanglement: The “Spooky” Glue Uniting Qubits and Beyond
From enabling quantum supercomputers to securing communications and teleporting quantum states, entanglement is the thread weaving through all of quantum technology. What once struck Einstein as a paradox is today routinely observed and harnessed in labs – the “spooky action” has become a practical tool. We have learned that entanglement is not some esoteric fringe effect; it’s a concrete physical resource, much like energy or…
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Quantum Computing
Transmon Qubits 101
Transmon qubits are a type of superconducting qubit designed to mitigate charge noise by shunting a Josephson junction with a large capacitor. In other words, a transmon is a superconducting charge qubit that has reduced sensitivity to charge fluctuations. The device consists of a Josephson junction (a nonlinear superconducting element) in parallel with a sizable capacitance, which increases the ratio of Josephson energy to charging…
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Quantum Computing
Glossary of Quantum Computing Terms
Glossary of Quantum Computing, Quantum Networks, Quantum Mechanics, and Quantum Physics Terms for Cybersecurity Professionals.
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Quantum Computing
Lattice Surgery
Quantum computing promises to solve complex problems far beyond the reach of classical machines, but today's quantum hardware is plagued by short-lived qubits and error rates that make long computations infeasible. Quantum error correction (QEC) is essential to stabilize qubits and enable fault-tolerant quantum computing. One of the leading QEC approaches is the surface code, a topological error-correcting code known for its high error threshold…
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Post-Quantum
Adiabatic Quantum Computing (AQC) and Impact on Cyber
Adiabatic Quantum Computing (AQC), and its variant Quantum Annealing, are another model for quantum computation. It's a specialized subset of quantum computing focused on solving optimization problems by finding the minimum (or maximum) of a given function over a set of possible solutions. For problems that can be presented as optimization problems, such as 3-SAT problem, quantum database search problem, and yes, the factoring problem…
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