Quantum Bits and Quantum Computation
Yorick Hardy, Willi-Hans Steeb · Birkhäuser Basel eBooks · 2001
Digital computers are based on devices that can take on only two states, one of which is denoted by 0 and the other by 1. By concatenating several 0s and is together, 0-1 combinations can be formed to represent as many different entities as desired. A combination containing a single 0 or 1 is called a bit. In general, n bits can be used to distinguish among 2 n distinct entities and each addition of a bit doubles the number of possible combinations. Computers use strings of bits to represent numbers, letters, punctuation marks, and any other useful pieces of information. In a classical computer, the processing of information is done by logic gate. A logic gate maps the state of its input bits into another state according to a truth table. Quantum computers require quantum logic, something fundamentally different to classical Boolean logic. This difference leads to a greater efficiency of quantum computation over its classical counterpart. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.