Quantum computer - the technology of the future

A quantum computer is something unreal and distant, like a guest from the future. From time to time, there are notes about scientists and their modest achievements in the field of quantum physics, but it's too early to celebrate the victory, because there are still a lot of white spots in this scientific branch. Perhaps in a couple of decades, quantum computers will completely replace ordinary computers that are usual for us, overtaking them in mental development and leaving them far behind, but today we can only hope for that.

Scientists have already managed to develop a quantum clock that exceeds the accuracy of the current time measurement standard by 100,000 times, so it may very well be that a breakthrough in the field of computer technologies will be made soon. Today, there is a huge amount of developments in the development of quantum computers. Not so long ago, four groups of scientists from Italy, Britain, Austria and Australia independently created the simplest model of a quantum computer, tuned to limited quantum computing.

A quantum computer can solve the problem of all modern computer technology. Now you can only encode one of the values - zero or one, but a photon at the same time can carry both values for vertical and horizontal polarization. The newest systems will be able to carry out all the calculations simultaneously, and not alternately, as conventional computers do.

A modern quantum computer, or rather its primitive model, looks like a network of fiber optic paths on a microchip with several inputs and outputs. In the labyrinth, individual photons are launched, at each intersection they pass through a beam splitter mirror system. At this stage the photons are either reflected or pass on. It turns out that while the photon reaches the exit from the labyrinth, it will collide with the beam splitter three times.

Quantum nature itself is very complex, so it is almost impossible to make a correct calculation showing where a photon will exactly appear. It is not easy to do this, even if only one photon is launched into the labyrinth. And if the task is to complicate and run several particles, and in the labyrinth to increase the number of paths, then making the forecast will be very difficult. The model invented by scientists is nothing more than a permanent matrix, the embodiment of a mathematical function.

On a modern computer, you can simulate the solution of the problem, but only on condition that several particles travel through the labyrinth, and the small one itself. If the conditions are complicated, for example, to increase the number of photons or paths in the labyrinth, then even the most powerful technique can not perform calculations .

A quantum computer created by scientists can only calculate the permanent matrix, for more complex and diverse tasks it does not fit. But this is only the first step towards the invention of the technology of the future. The task of the researchers was to demonstrate the possibility of using photonic devices that can cope with the task. The research was brilliant, so it is very possible that new devices based on this technology will appear in the near future and they will completely replace modern computers.