A comparative study of optical parallel computers working in quantum and classical modes

Peter Heszler; Laszlo B. Kish

doi:10.1117/12.501150

8 May 2003 A comparative study of optical parallel computers working in quantum and classical modes

Peter Heszler, Laszlo B. Kish

Proceedings Volume 5115, Noise and Information in Nanoelectronics, Sensors, and Standards; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.501150
Event: SPIE's First International Symposium on Fluctuations and Noise, 2003, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States

Abstract

A model of parallel optical computer for Fourier transform tasks is built. The computer operates in both quantum and classical modes. The quantum computer (QC) works with entangled photons and the input gates are n-qubit sensitive, while the classical computer (CC) operates without entanglement. The information capacity (I) for both CC and QC is given as a function of number of qubits and N_p (number of photons per input pixel). It is shown that the information capacity significantly increases for the quantum computer compared to the classical one as the number of qubits is increased, assuming that N_p is constant for both the QC and CC, i.e. same amount of energy input is assumed for the computers. However, it is also pointed out that the complexity of the QC significantly increases, too. To quantify this, we introduce a new physical quantity called physical complexity (noted as Q). We define the physical complexity (Q) of a computer as ∑_i,klog₂n^k_ai where k runs over all the gates/elements in the computer; n_ai is the number of distinguishable states what a gate can set for a_i. For QC a_i is defined as the i^th coefficient of the wave function. For CC it is the i^th independent component of the Fourier transform of the energy flow what a particular gate is able to control. By using this definition we show that, for both the quantum and classical computers built in this work, I ≤ Q, in other words the information capacity is less or equal than the physical complexity. Intuitively we suggest that this is a general law that is valid for every computer irrespectively of type, quantum or classic, and architecture.

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Peter Heszler and Laszlo B. Kish "A comparative study of optical parallel computers working in quantum and classical modes", Proc. SPIE 5115, Noise and Information in Nanoelectronics, Sensors, and Standards, (8 May 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.501150

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