Quantum Computation
Vedat Bayraktar
June 5, 2007
Abstract
We live in a quantum mechanical universe why don’t
we have quantum computers.The quantum theory is
the deepest theory ever made in the history and is the
least understood one since it contains many unfamil-
iar phenomena for humans who perceive the nature
according to the classical laws.Similarly,our comput-
ers perform computations according to the classical
laws.Nevertheless,researchers from all over the world
are racing now to build the first practical quantum
computer which will provide us new modes of com-
putations that are impossible using classical comput-
ers.In this paper,I’ll try to illustrate the fundamental
ideas of the quantum computation.
1 Introduction
The prototype of all today’s classical computers is the
abstract Universal Turing Machine which is proposed
by Alan Turing in 1936.Similar to the quantum rev-
oluion in 1920’s,in 1980’s it is understood that Tur-
ing Machine is a special case of a Universal Quan-
tum Computer.There is a very closed link between
theabstract computation and physics.A pyhsical sys-
tem such as a measuring instrument can be seen as a
computer.In computation there is an input which is
evolved according to some prespecified rules to give
us some useful output.In Physics computation can
be done by an experiment for example a measuru-
ment which involves the motion of a physical sys-
tem.Furthermore,in Physics the input is the initial
state of the system which evolves according to the
laws of motion to the final state which is the out-
come of the experiment.Therefore,the motion of any
physical system can be regarded as information pro-
cessing.Hugh Everett (1957) proposed the multiverse
interpretation to the quantum physics.This is a very
controversial issue but nevertheless it helps to inter-
pret some results of quantum physics.According to
this proposal,physical objects are confined to a single
universe but they have some extensions or counter-
parts in other coexisting universes which can behave
independently and can affect each other only on the
quantum scale.These effects are called quantum in-
terference.These phenomena provides new modes of
information processing which is called quantum com-
putation.
1.1 The Qubit
We can futher build some anologies between compu-
tation and physics.The variables in the computation
can be seen as the degrees of freedom in the clas-
sical physics that correspond to the observables in
quantum physics.A quantum system can be repre-
sented via the entity called observable and each ob-
servable Ô is represented by a Hermitian matrix.The
eigenvalues of this matrix constitute the spectrum of
this observable.In order to describe a quantum phys-
ical system one has to determine its static constitu-
tion,its dynamics aand its state.The algebraic rela-
tions between these matrices(observables)at any one
time defines the static of the physical system.The
algebra of the observables at different infinitesimal
times specifies the dynamics of the system,namely the
laws of motion.They can be summarized as differen-
tial equations.To specify the state of a system one
has to build the expextation value function which
maps an observable to a real number.The state is
a real valued function of matrices.For example one
can specify
 it as the top left element of a matrix
a b
= a. Expectation value is the aver-
b∗ c
age outcome of a measurement performed on infinitely
many copies of the system or the average outcome of
a measurement repeated infinitely many times.We are
interested in observables with exactly two eigenvalues
in other words observables whose spectrum contain
exactly 2 elements.They are called Boolean observ-
ables.The quantum bit,the Qubit is the minimal quan-
tum physical system,each of whose nontrivial observ-
ables is Boolean.The physical implemention of a qubit
can be done for instance by employing the direction
of a photon as an obsevable. Consider a qubit which
has many observables,pick one of them Ẑwhich is rep-
  
−1 0
resented by such a matrix Ẑ = . Ẑ(t)
0 1
has eigenvalues -1 or 1.Therefore
D E spectrum of Ẑ(t) is
sp(Ẑ(t)) = {−1, 1} and Ẑ = −1. This means it is
a sharp observable in this state according to the pre-
diction of the quantum theory.Let’s pick nowanother
0 1
observable of the same qubit X̂(t) = .In this
1 0D E gle photon is send via laser to a beam splitter in the
case sp(X̂(t)) = {−1, 1} same spectrum but X(t)ˆ = Z=+1 direction.Ẑ is sharp
0,in fact no particular outcome could be zero since it
is not contained in the spectrum.In this state X̂(t) is
not sharp,in the long run half of the measurements
give -1 and the other half gives 1.At this point the
nature dictates the Heisenberg Uncertainity Principle
all observables of a quantum system can not be sharp
simultaneously.
2 Quantum Interference
Quantum interference is a phenomenon in which an
observable is at first sharp but then becomes un-
sharp and then becomes sharp again.In terms of mul-
tiverse proposal the outcome of a measurement of an
observable depends on the superpositon of the out-
comes in the other coexisting universes.If we specify
our qubit as a subsystem of a single photon,we can
perform some computations in a interference experi-
ment.Interestingly in this experiment a single photon
interferes with itself which is an inherently quantum
phenomenon.Consider a qubit based on a Boolean
type observable Ẑ(t) of a photon which has eigen-
values -1 and 1 corresponding to the which path the
photon is travelling on a time t.The observables of
the qubit can be shown using 2 × 2 hermitian ma-
trices.Every hermitian matrix can be written as the
linear combination of 4 basic matrices with real co-
efficents,one is the unitmatrix and the  others are
 of motion implements a rule that defines each out-
1 0 0 1
the Pauli matrices I = , σx =
0 1 1 0
   
0 −i 1 0
σy = and σz = . Eigen-
i 0 0 −1
values of Pauli matrices are -1 and 1.If the ma-
trices are expressed as the linear combinations of
{I, σx , σy , σz },the algebraic relations between them
are straightforward.At time zero observable of the
qubit is represented as Ẑ(0) = σz .Also we assign to
the other observables at time zero matrices as shown
in the table.So,the algebraic relations between them
at any time is clear.During the experiment or equally
well during the computation the state of our system
will change and you can follow it from the shown ta-
t X̂ Ŷ Ẑ
0 σx σy σz
beam splitter
1 −σz σy σx
ble. , At t=0 a sin-
mirrors
2 σz σy -σz
beam splitter
3 σx σy σz
D with
E value +1,therefore
its expectation value is 1. Ẑ(0) = 1 also hσz (0)i =
1,hσy (0)i = 0 and hσx (0)i = 0, so this specifies the
expectation value function for the matrices.Since any
observable of the qubit can be expressed as a linear
combination of these Pauli matrices the expectation
value of it at this time is determined,so the state of the
system.After photon passes through a beam splitter,it
becomes unsharp having an equal probability to go in
plus or minus 1 direction.Next,photon reflects from
mirrors and comes to the second beamsplitter.The ef-
fect of the beam splitter is shown on the table symbol-
ized with B and the effect of the mirrors is the NOT
operation.Overall operation is this Ô · B · N ot · B = Ô.
That is to say B · N ot · B = I. The operation B is
an example of an elemantary quantum computation
that doesn’t exist in√ classical computation. B also has
an inverseB −1 = N OT .This is an example of how
quantum physics provides a new kind of computation
but it must be kept in mind that we manupulated only
one qubit.According to the last news a research group
in Waterloo University had accomplished a computa-
tion using 16 qubit.16 qubit is the current maximum
level.
3 The Measurement
A Quantum Gate is a physical process whose law
put qubit in terms of the input qubits.Measurement
,
is also one of the highly debated issues in physics.We
can think of measurement from the point of view of
computation as copying information.Suppose that we
want to measure a single qubit with an unknown
value a either plus or minus 1.Its value must be
copied to another target bit with value b and we must
end up with 2 bits having the value of the bit be-
ing measured.However,in classical reversible compu-
tations different inputs must produce different out-
puts.One possible law of motion for two qubit is the
Controlled NOT operation.Ordinary NOT operation
is a single bit operation that flips the value of the
bit.In controlled not the target bit is flipped if the
2
control bit (also it’s the bit being measured) is minus
1.The inputs of the controlled not gate {a, b}becomes
{a, a · b}.If b=+1 the physical process copies infor-
mation of the control bit to the target bit.This 2 bit
reversible computational gate is the analog of the clas-
sical XOR gate.In interference experiment the √ mirror
works as a NOT gate and the beam splitter as NOT
gate.It must be understood that computation is not
performed by these physical objects rather the dy-
namical process undergone by the qubits physically
realizes a rule to obtain a specified output in terms of
the inputs.We have a physical system consisting of two
qubits which passes through a quantum controlled not
gate.The observables of the qubits are Ẑ1 and Ẑ2 .To
speciyfy the static consitution first the algebra of the
system must be determined which is the time invari-
ant feature of a system that undergoes motion.We al-
ready know the algebra of a single qubit.The observ-
ables of the qubit X̂(t), Ŷ (t), Ẑ(t) and unit observ-
able 1̂ obeys the Pauli algebra. [X̂(t), Ŷ (t)] = iẐ(t),
[Ŷ (t), Ẑ(t)] = iX̂(t), [Ẑ(t), X̂(t)] = iŶ (t) where the
operation meant with brakets is commutator oper-
ation.The addititional algebra involving both qubits
must be specified for example [Ẑ1 (t), X̂2 (t)] =?.As a
general rule for a composite quantum system the ob-
servables of the different constutients commute with
each other namely [Â1 (t), B̂2 (t)] = 0.T he2×2 ma-
trix represantation of a qubit is not enough here.The
algebra of the whole system can be represented
here by a 4 × 4 matrix of the 
tensor product of
a b N e f
the observable matrices. = tion are constrained to preserve the algebraic rela-
c d g h

ae af be bf
 tions between the observables of the system.Pick an
 ag ah bg bh 
 ce cf de df .A 4 × 4 represantion of the
 
cg ch dg dh
N N
first qubit is X̂1 (0) = σx I Ŷ1 (0) = σy I ,
N should build a law of motion which obeys the alge-
Ẑ1 (0) = σz I. In order to see the dynamics of
the controlled NOT gate the relation of the observ-
ables after one computational time to the observables
at time zero must be obtained.For instance such a
relation X̂1 (1) = X̂1 (0)X̂2 (0).Mostly,quantum com-
putation relies on the inteference,but any informa-
tion transferred out of the system changes the system
therefore causes the decoherence which is the bigest
problem in the practical implementation of the quan-
tum computers.We can add to the single qubit inter-
ference experiment a second qubit which may be a
subsystem of a measuring instrument.The instrument
consists of a particle with an Boolean type observable
which may serve as the target bit in a controlled not
gate measurament.In the original experiment a pho-
3
ton with a sharp observable which corresponds to the
direction of motion strikes a beam splitter,and the
observable value becomes unsharp.Although it may
look like science-fiction,the photon may have now the
ability to be in different universes and perform some
parts of a complex computation and ultimately after
passing through the beamsplitter its observable value
may become sharp again.This is the quantum inter-
ference phenomenon.The most interesting part is the
computations it did in different universes may be com-
bined through superposition to obtain the final answer
of the computation.In some instants,it may perform
a computation which can’t be possible using classi-
cal computation because to get the right answer em-
ploying classical computation there must be present
more particles than the particles present in our uni-
verse.Nevertheless,in this case the presence of the sec-
ond qubit because of the uncertainty principle and
the effect of the quantum gate on the expection value
function of the observable causes the observable to
stay unsharp and this amounts to the suppression of
the interference.
4 The Schrodinger Picture
It is possible to look at the quantum physics from
two different pictures,Heisenberg and Schrodinger
pictures.Although the observables of a system may
change the algebra which specifies the constitution of
the system stays invariant,therefore the laws of mo-
observable of a qubit H for instance,at any given time
a different observable can be expressed as the linear
combination of the represantative observables of the
system Ĥt = a(t)X̂ + b(t)Ŷ + c(t)Ẑ + d(t)1̂. We
bra of the system.A plausible candidate is dÂ(t) =
dt
i[Ĥt , Â(t)].Integrating it over an infinitesimal time
Â(t + dt) = Â(t) + idt[Ĥt , Â(t)],one gets a relation be-
tween observables at time t and observables at t + dt.
For the gates we are interested in observables at the
input time and after one unit computational time
at the output from the gate.Any law of motion un-
der which the algebra of the observables stay invari-
ant must have this form dÂ(t) dt = i[Ĥt , Â(t)],proof is
straightforward.Ĥt is called theHamiltonian of the
system and this is the Heisenberg equation of mo-
tion.If Ĥt is time independent then being aside an ob-
servable it is also a conserved entity of the system Ĥ dt =
t
Ĥ(t)
dt = i[Ĥ(t), Ĥ(t)] = 0.If it is the case then any
observable that commutes with Hamiltonian is also
constant of the system.A coherent system is the one
whose Hamiltonian is a possibly time dependent func-
tion of the observables of its system only and if the
Hamiltonian depends on other systems then it is deco-
herent.In order to have interference to perform quan-
tum computation the process must be coherent which
is possible only if observables at the end of the pro-
cess are functions of only of the observables of the
same system at the beginning.In an isolated system
Hamiltonian is only an observable of that system.The
equation of motion can be solved as Â(t)
dt = i[Ĥ, Â(t)],
Â(t) = eiĤt Â(0)e−iĤt .For a coherent system solu-
tion will be Â(t) = Ut † Â(0)Ut where Ut † Ut = 1̂
and dUt dt = −iUt Ĥt , Ut is unitary transforma-
tion matrix called evolution matrix of the system be-
tween time 0 and t.The state of a system is defined
in terms of the expectation function of its observ-
ables which
D Eis a X
mapping from a matrix to a real
value Â(t) = Aˆαβ (t)ρβα = T rÂ(t)ρ ,where ρ
α,β
is called the density
D matrix
E of the system.For an arbi-
trary observable Â(t) = T rA(t)ρ ˆ = T rÛt † Â(0)Ut ρ
Using the cyclic permutation of the trace function
one can define a new density matrix ρt = Ut ρUt †
which changes in time and a constant observable
 = Â(0),thereby constituting a new picture called
the Schorodinger picture. Unlike the Schrodinger pic-
ture, Heisenberg picture consists of changing observ-
ables and a constant density matrix.The law of motion
for the Schrodinger picture is dρ dt = −i[Ĥt , ρt ].The
t
eigenvectors of the density matrix form the Hilbert
space which a is vector space that has a norm.The
observables represented by the matrices are linear op-
erators on the Hilbert space.The eigenkets of an ob-
servable or the density matrix form a basis for the
Hilbert space.Therefore,the
X density matrix can be ex-
panded as ρt = pn |n; ti hn; t|.The eigenvalues pn
n x
remains constant and the equation of motion for the
d 1
eigenkets is dt |n; ti = −iĤt |n, ti,which is the no-
torious Schrodinger equation.For a general eigenket
d -1
dt |ψi = −iĤt |ψ(t)i the solution will have this form
|ψ(t)i = Ut |ψ(0)i .The unitary transfomation matrix
Ut which defines the motion amounts to a rigid rota-
tion in the Hilbert space(meaning it preserves scalar
product on a ket it acts on).The density matrix rep-
resents the state of the world.In Heisenberg picture
state is fixed and eigenkets of the observables ro-
tate,whereas in Schrodinger picture the observables
are fixed and the state rotates rigidly in the oppo-
site sense,hence makes it possible the observables in
4
both pictures to have the same expectation values.If
the density matrix is sharp meaning at that time
it is equal to a sharp observable ,the system is in
a pure state.For example,if the Ẑ observables of a
set of qubits are sharp then the density matrix is
sharp and the system is in pure state.In a pure state
ρt = |ψ(t)i hπ(t)| where ψ(t) is called the Schrodinger
state vector.For a quantum system in a pure state all
the motion is summed up by this state vector.The
computations of quantum computers namely the mo-
tions of the quantum systems are analyzed through
the Schrodinger equation.
5 A Quantum Algorithm
This is the first quantum algorithm proposed by
Deutsch to speed up a classical computation. Prob-
lem it solves is that given a black box,which is used
as a part of a quantum computational network,in
other words an oracle which is dedicated to com-
pute a Boolean function f using reversible classic
computation ,the algorithm determines the function
that the oracle performs. Oracle computes such a
Boolean function f : {−1, 1} −→ {−1, 1} As a gate
{x, y} → {x, y · f (x)} and in order to compute f(x), y
must be initiliazed to 1.There are only four functions
that can map a single bit to a single bit.The four pos-
sible fuctions mapping{−1, 1} −→ {−1, 1} are iden-
tity functionx → x, not function x → −x or constant
functions x → −1 or x → 1.In reality the oracle may
perform a subroutine for a complex problem such as
travelling salesman problem and it may compute a
Boolean part of the problem for instance if the total
steps are even or odd.The computational task is to
find what f is without looking inside? The compu-
tational task is obtaining whether f (1) = f (−1) or
computing the product of f (1) · f (−1).Classicaly one
has to invoke the oracle at least 2 times with different
In Out
y x y
1 1 f(1)
inputs to find what f is
1 -1 1 -f(1)
1 -1 f(-1)
-1 -1 -1 -f(-1)
The Quantum algotithm invokes the oracle one time
but with different inputs from different universes.In
other words the oracle performs different computa-
tions in different universes.The single qubit which
holds the different outputs from different universes
combine them with quantum interference to get the
final ouput.To describe this quantum algorthim it is
simple to work in Schrodinger picture and to assume
the system is in a pure state in which the density ma-
trix takes the form ρ̂(t) = |ψ(t)i hψ(t)| where |ψ(t)i
is the state vector of the system simply the state of
the system.The effect of the quantum gate operat-
ing on a state is |ψ(t + 1)i = U |ψ(t)i where U is a
unitary matrix characterizing the gate.We invoke the
oracle with 2 qubits one of them is labeled as sys-
tem 1 and the other system 2. If the system 1 is
in a pure state|ψ(t)i and the system 2 is in a pure
state |φ(t)i,then the combined system is the tensor
product of |ψ(t)i |φ(t)i.Cosidering now the system as
two qubits in a simultaneous eigenstate of their Ẑ ob-
servables |ai |bi where a and b can be plus or minus
1,these 4 eigenkets form a basis in the 4-D vectorspace
more precisely an orhtonormal basis in the Hilbert
space of the combined system.Pure states are always
unit vectors by definition.The normalized eigenstates
lie in a unit shere in Hilbert space.A fixed basis is
picked in the system’s Hilbert space called thereupon
computation basis and the evolving state of the sys-
tem is expressed as the linear combination of the ba-
sis states.When a quantum computer executes classi-
cal operations,the simultanous eigenstates of all the Ẑ
observables of the qubits evolve independently which
makes them a good candidate to be chosen as the
computational basis.To specify a Gate it is enough
to specify its effect on an arbitrary compuation ba-
sis.For example the not gate is a single qubit gate.A
single qubit has a 2-D Hilbert space.Dynamics of the
not gate is given as |ai → |−ai ,a is plus or minus
1. Ẑ |ai = a |ai and also these are the eigenstates of
the Ẑ observable.Another single qubit gate which will
be used in the quantum network of the algorithm is
the Hadamart gate H which has this effect |1i −→
√1 (|1i + |−1i) , |−1i −→ √1 (|1i − |−1i),Hadamart
2 2
operation has this features H 2 = I meaning H = H −1
which has no classical analog . Definiton of the
Controlled-not gate |xi |yi = |x, yi −→|x, xyi where
x is control and y is target.The operation of the or-
acle is |x, yi → |x, y · f (x)i. In the algorithm qubits
start at time t=0 sharp with value 1 , |1i.We can
think of it as the blank state of our computer mem-
ory.At start taskless qubits are always blank to keep
the account of the available resources.Our quantum
network will look like this, imagine it in a diagram
f irstqubit |1i → (t = 0) → (t = 1) → [H] →
(t = 2) → [f ] → (t = 3) → [H] → (t = 4)output
secondqubit |1i → (t = 0) → [not] → (t = 1) →
[H] → (t = 2) → [f ] → (t = 3) → (t = 4)output The
overall state at the beginning is the tensor product of
the Ẑ observables of the qubits |1i |1i = |1, 1i = |ψ(0)i
Then the second qubit encounters a not gate which
5
flips its Ẑ observable to minus 1 so the state vec-
tor of the system becomes |ψ(1)i = |1, −1i.Next both
qubits pass through Hadamard gates according to
the definiton of the Hadamart gate the state will be
at time t= 2 |ψ(2)i = 12 (|1i + |−1i)(|1i − |−1i) =
1
2 (|1, 1i + |−1, 1i − |1, −1i − |−1, −1i). Then the
oracle acts on the qubits once but now neither of
the Ẑ observables are sharp now.We are presenting
4 different inputs from different universes to the ora-
cle,namely to the gate f.After passing through the or-
acle at time 3 the state will be |ψ(3)i = 21 (|1, f (1)i +
|−1, f (−1)i − |1, −f (1)i − |−1, −f (−1)i) .If f (1) =
f (−1) = f is the case then the state will take this
form |ψ(3)i = 12 (|1, f i + |−1, f i − |1, −f i − |−1, −f i)
factorizing into a tensor product |ψ(3)i = 12 (|1i +
|−1i)(|f i − |−f i), √12 (|1i + |−1i) shows the pure state
of the first qubit and if f (1) = −f (−1) then its
state is √12 (|1i − |−1i). finally the first qubit goes
to the Hadamard gate Interference occurs at the
Hadamard gate, the unsharp observables of the first
qubit becomes sharp again through the opreation of
the hadamart gate.Since H √12 (|1i + |−1i) = |1i and
H √12 (|1i − |−1i) = |−1i So we can distinguish if
f (1) = f (−1) or iff (1) = −f (−1) according to the
sharp value of the first qubit ,the state of the second
qubit is not important for the decision.This algorithm
is recently realized in April 2007 for cluster states by
a Queens University theoretical group and an exper-
imental group in Vienna and their next target is to
apply it to larger systems.
6 Summary and Conclusion
Generally,in quantum algorithms the Ẑ observables
are prepared with a particular initial value and then
those observables are unsharpened via Quantum phe-
nomena so that they contain many possible values.In
the above algorithm we start with sharp values and
unsharpen them and there you have four different in-
puts for the gate f.With 2 qubits you perform compu-
tations as if you’ve got 4 qubits and this speeds up the
overall computation by a factor of two.In the coarse
of process we may perform classical reversible compu-
tation using coherent quantum componenents.We can
think of quantum computation as parallel computing
but with the difference that Quantum Parallelism use
parallel universe counter parts of the qubits which are
in principle infinite.Finally,these unsharp observables
must be combined through the interference to provide
a sharp output,which in practice gets difficult as the
number of involved particles increases.
References
[1] 1)Deutsch,David Lectures on Quan-
tum Computation, excellent Video lec-
tures designed as an introduction to
the quantum theory of computation
www.quiprocone.org/Protected/DD lectures.htm
,2003
[2] Deutsch,David Quantum theory,the Church-
Turing principle and the universal quantum com-
puter, Proceedings of Royal Society of London,A
400 pp. 97-117 ,1985.
[3] Feynman,Richard Simulating Physics with Com-
puters, International Journal of Theoretical
Physics, V21, 1982.