Quantum Photonics Beyond Conventional Computing
Jeremy L. O’Brien · 2015
Abstract : This project builds toward a simplified quantum information processing device which, though simpler than a universal quantum computer, uses far fewer resources and can still outperform any classical device for a particular specific task. Using the evolution of photons through linear optical networks for computation, we introduce the Boson Sampling model of linear optical quantum computing, realizing the first universally reconfigurable linear optical circuit, and demonstrate how the device can perform quantum simulations of the evolution of vibrational wave-packets in molecules, suggesting that such an approach could yield the first meaningful quantum simulations which are not possible with classical computation.