Introduction

Introduction to quantum computing

Quantum computing is the discipline of studying algorithms based on the principles of quantum theory. The computing models work under the assumption of the existence of a quantum computer and rely on quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglementQuantum entanglement refers to the condition of interacting particles whose quantum state cannot is described independently from the quantum state of the other particles, meaning that the internal state of two qubits are correlated if they are entangled., which can be used to solve number-theoretical problems that are intractable for present conventional computers (Matthias Homeister (2009)Matthias Homeister. Quantum Computing verstehen: Grundlagen - Anwendungen Perspektiven. Computational Intelligence. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, 2009. and Colin P. Williams (2010)Colin P. Williams. Explorations in Quantum Computing. Texts in Computer Science. London, 2010. Springer.).

In this section, we’ll give a brief introduction to quantum computing. We’ll outline the impact of a quantum computer on the current cryptographic primitives in use, estimating the possible vulnerability of the underlying schemes.

Chapter structure