Explorations in Quantum Computing

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Quantum Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 9131

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science, Middlesex University, London NW4 4BT, UK
Interests: machine-learning (A.I.); cognitive systems; quantum computing; computer vision

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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy
Interests: theoretical computer science; formal methods; quantum computing

Special Issue Information

Exactly twenty years after publication of the first (by then unabridged) textbook on Quantum Computation and Quantum Information written by Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang, it is fitting to undertake a broad-based exploration into the field in order to map out about the progress that has been made in the intervening time.

It is clear that the subject has developed along many fronts in terms of its algorithmic range, its domains of application, its hardware implementation and its underlying theory. One of the most striking new theoretical proposals is that of topological quantum computing, but many other very important approaches are being investigated and have been attracting the efforts of large numbers of researchers, for example relating to the application of quantum computing in artificial intelligence, machine learning, chemistry, biology etc. Moreover, after decades of research, recent developments in quantum hardware and software seem to indicate that real-world relevant quantum computations are within reach, thus imposing the need to develop appropriate software toolchains that will bridge the gap between algorithms and physical machines. At the other end of the spectrum, the development of category-theoretic approaches to quantum computing is bringing fundamental new insight into the field.

With this Special Issue we aim at exploring the growing field of Quantum Computing and its expansions to areas such as Models of Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Chemistry, Cryptography, Languages and Compilers, Category theory, Information Theory, Optimisation Algorithms, Quantum Annealing, etc., by collecting both review articles and articles reporting on new findings produced in the extended quantum computing research area.

Dr. David Windridge
Dr. Alessandra Di Pierro
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • topological quantum computing
  • quantum machine learning
  • quantum biology
  • quantum information
  • quantum annealing

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 2573 KiB  
Article
Estimating Algorithmic Information Using Quantum Computing for Genomics Applications
by Aritra Sarkar, Zaid Al-Ars and Koen Bertels
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(6), 2696; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11062696 - 17 Mar 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4456
Abstract
Inferring algorithmic structure in data is essential for discovering causal generative models. In this research, we present a quantum computing framework using the circuit model, for estimating algorithmic information metrics. The canonical computation model of the Turing machine is restricted in time and [...] Read more.
Inferring algorithmic structure in data is essential for discovering causal generative models. In this research, we present a quantum computing framework using the circuit model, for estimating algorithmic information metrics. The canonical computation model of the Turing machine is restricted in time and space resources, to make the target metrics computable under realistic assumptions. The universal prior distribution for the automata is obtained as a quantum superposition, which is further conditioned to estimate the metrics. Specific cases are explored where the quantum implementation offers polynomial advantage, in contrast to the exhaustive enumeration needed in the corresponding classical case. The unstructured output data and the computational irreducibility of Turing machines make this algorithm impossible to approximate using heuristics. Thus, exploring the space of program-output relations is one of the most promising problems for demonstrating quantum supremacy using Grover search that cannot be dequantized. Experimental use cases for quantum acceleration are developed for self-replicating programs and algorithmic complexity of short strings. With quantum computing hardware rapidly attaining technological maturity, we discuss how this framework will have significant advantage for various genomics applications in meta-biology, phylogenetic tree analysis, protein-protein interaction mapping and synthetic biology. This is the first time experimental algorithmic information theory is implemented using quantum computation. Our implementation on the Qiskit quantum programming platform is copy-left and is publicly available on GitHub. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Explorations in Quantum Computing)
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33 pages, 597 KiB  
Article
Quantum Turing Machines: Computations and Measurements
by Stefano Guerrini, Simone Martini and Andrea Masini
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(16), 5551; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10165551 - 11 Aug 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3796
Abstract
Contrary to the classical case, the relation between quantum programming languages and quantum Turing Machines (QTM) has not been fully investigated. In particular, there are features of QTMs that have not been exploited, a notable example being the intrinsic infinite nature of any [...] Read more.
Contrary to the classical case, the relation between quantum programming languages and quantum Turing Machines (QTM) has not been fully investigated. In particular, there are features of QTMs that have not been exploited, a notable example being the intrinsic infinite nature of any quantum computation. In this paper, we propose a definition of QTM, which extends and unifies the notions of Deutsch and Bernstein & Vazirani. In particular, we allow both arbitrary quantum input, and meaningful superpositions of computations, where some of them are “terminated” with an “output”, while others are not. For some infinite computations an “output” is obtained as a limit of finite portions of the computation. We propose a natural and robust observation protocol for our QTMs, which does not modify the probability of the possible outcomes of the machines. Finally, we use QTMs to define a class of quantum computable functions—any such function is a mapping from a general quantum state to a probability distribution of natural numbers. We expect that our class of functions, when restricted to classical input-output, will not be different from the set of the recursive functions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Explorations in Quantum Computing)
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