Review: Quantum Computing, 5.02.2018 [Englisch]

Am Montag, den 5. Februar 2018 hielten Bo Ewald  (D-Wave) und Dr. Florian Neukart (Volkswagen AG) ab 18 Uhr Vorträge über Quantencomputing am MobileLifeCampus in Wolfsburg.

Abstracts

In his talk, Mr. Bo Ewald introduced the concepts and history of quantum computing starting with Richard Feynman’s original ideas in 1982.  We then discussed different approaches to designing and building a quantum computer and then went into more detail about the world’s only commercial quantum computers from D-Wave Systems.  Finally, we reviewed some of the early prototype applications that have been tried on quantum computers andhave given some insight into where they might fit into the array of computational tools.

Afterwards Mr. Florian Neukart lectured about understanding how to leverage the power of quantum computers, and about quantum-assisted machine learning and simulated physics. Are QC generally more powerful than classical computers? By understanding when they are not powerful, we will understand how to efficiently write algorithms for certain quantum systems. Furthermore, there exists a remarkable harmony between physics and mathematics, but what about computer science? We walked through some basic quantum algorithms, and approached the limits of classical computation.

What if today someone shows that P does not equal NP for a classical computer? Would we really be happy that the intractability of NP- complete problems had been shown?

QC opens an entire bag of worrying about the foundations of computational complexity.