How to Get started with Quantum Computing

Hello Friends! Welcome to another article in which I am writing about quantum computing, how it differs from classical computing, the advantages of quantum computers over classical computers, and how to simulate experiments on IBM quantum computers. Let’s get started.

In Classical computing, we use a binary number system where information is stored in bits that are represented either by the states 0 (off) or 1 (on). We implement the problem solution using Boolean logic on these bits. We have Universal gates like NAND, NOR, etc… helps in implementing the Boolean Logic. In low-level circuit design, these states are implemented as a transistor which acts like a switch that performs on or off operation. The electronic circuits present in our smart devices contain billions of transistors acting as switches that will implement Boolean logic to perform computation. We feel everything seemed to be fine in the classical computing world, but it has its own limitations.

First of all, Classical computers can solve the problems that belong to complexity class “P” (all the problems that a classical computer can solve quickly) and verify the answers of the solved problem of the “NP” complexity class (all the problems that classical computers can’t necessarily solve quickly, but for which they can quickly verify an answer if presented with one).

Secondly, according to Moore’s law roughly saying that the computing power doubles every two years, which is slowly coming to an end, because of fundamental technological barriers related to further miniaturization.

Finally, AI/ML model training requires great computational power, however, an increase in computational power duration (Moore’s law) is much less than an increase in AI/ML model training computational power duration. Having said that, we will discuss below what quantum computing has to offer.

Quantum Computing on the other hand use Qubits which works on principles of quantum mechanics such as Superposition and Entanglement. Superposition — the quantum system can exist in one or more states simultaneously. For instance, when we toss the unbiased coin, it can take up either of these two states: “head” (H) or “tail” (T). However, in a quantum world, a coin can exist in both the states “head” and “tail” simultaneously. Entanglement — in some multiparticle superposition states, where measurement of the state of one particle collapses the state of the other particles, even when they are placed at opposite ends of the universe.

One of the special advantages of quantum computing is due to the superposition principle — quantum computer using n qubits does (up to) 2^n computations in parallel. If we represent the state of the n qubits using probability amplitudes for each state on the computational basis, there are 2^n such probability amplitudes.

Secondly, coming to complexity classes, a new complexity class called BQP “bounded-error quantum polynomial time.” This contains all the decision problems — problems with a yes or no answer — that quantum computers can solve efficiently. Also, in addition to that quantum computer can solve all the problems that classical computer does. In short, we can say that BQP is a subset of P.

Finally, Quantum computing has so many applications in various fields such as Quantum Chemistry, Quantum communication, etc…One such field is Quantum machine learning it can speed up machine learning and help us train our models faster.

So far we understand the limitations of the classical computer and how quantum computers can solve these limitations. Quantum computers are really expensive than classical computers, but we can use them for free.

Here is how we do it. you can visit https://quantumcomputing.ibm.com and create an account for yourself and there you will see the real quantum computers which are available at the moment and you can use them in your IBM’s Quantum SDK — Qiskit program. I will publish a tutorial on how to get started with Qiskit.The list of quantum computers live displayed on the IBM Quantum website.

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