Quantum computing

Read the following words and word combinations and use them for understanding and translation of the text:

property - свойство, качество

quantum - квант. квантовый

spin - вращение

superposition - суперпозиция, наложение, совмещение

to flesh out - конкретизировать, изложить в деталях

to spur - побуждать, стимулировать

in part - частично

to outline - намечать, изложить вкратце

to factor - факторизовать, разложить (на множители)

integer - целое число

to be of great interest (to) - представлять большой интерес (для)

to tackle - заниматься

entanglement - перепутывание (квантовых состояний)

to crack - раскалывать(ся), ломаться

civilian - гражданский

The fundamental basis of electronic digital computing is the ability to store a binary value (1 or 0) using an electromagnetic property such as electrical charge or magnetic field.

However, during the first part of the 20^th century, physicists discovered the laws of quantum mechanics that apply to the behavior of subatomic particles. An electron or photon, for example, can be said to be in any one of several “quantum states” depending on such characteristics as spin. In 1981, physicist Richard Feynman came up with the provocative idea that if quantum properties could be “read” and set, a computer could use an electron, photon, or other particle to store not just a single 1 or 0, but a number of values simultaneously. This ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at the same time is called superposition. The simplest case, storing two values at once, is called a “qubit” (short for “quantum bit”). In 1985, David Deutsch at Oxford University fleshed out Feynman’s ideas by creating an actual design for a “quantum computer”, including an algorithm to be run on it.

At the time of Feynman’s proposal, the techniques for manipulating individual atoms or even particles had not yet been developed, so a practical quantum computer could not be built. However, during the 1990s, considerable progress was made, spurred in part by the suggestion of Bell Labs researcher Peter Shor, who outlined a quantum algorithm that might be used for rapid factoring of extremely large integers. Since the security of modern public key cryptography depends on the difficulty of such factoring, a working quantum computer would be of great interest to spy agencies.

The reason for the tremendous potential power of quantum computing is that if each qubit can store two values simultaneously, a register with three qubits can store eight values, and in general, for n qubits one can operate on 2 ⁿ values simultaneously. This means that a single quantum processor might be the equivalent of a huge number of separate processors. Clearly many problems that have been considered not practical to solve might be tackled with quantum computers.

Quantum computers also utilize another aspect of quantum mechanics known as entanglement. Unfortunately, quantum particles cannot be observed without being altered. Scientists use their knowledge of entanglement to indirectly observe the value of a qubit. When two subatomic particles become entangled, one particle adopts the properties of the other. Without looking at the qubit itself, scientists can read its value by observing the behavior of a particle with which it is entangled.

There are many potential applications for quantum computing. While the technology could be used to crack conventional cryptographic keys, researchers have suggested that it could also be used to generate unbreakable keys that depend on the “entanglement” of observers and what they observe. The sheer computational power of a quantum computer might make it possible to develop much better computer models of complex phenomena such as weather, climate, and the economy – or of quantum behavior itself.

As of 2014 quantum computing is still in its infancy but experiments have been carried out in which quantum computational operations were executed on a very small number of qubits. Both practical and theoretical research continues, and many national governments and military funding agencies support quantum computing research to develop quantum computers for both civilian and national security purposes, such as cryptanalysis.

Notes:

Bell Labs (Bell Laboratories) - бывшая американская, а ныне франко-американская корпорация, крупный исследова­тельский центр в области телекоммуникаций, электронных и компьютерных систем. Штаб-квартира Bell Labs располо­жена в Мюррей Хилл (Нью-Джерси, США)