Photonic Quantum Computing

Quantum Computing

A computing paradigm that uses quantum mechanical phenomena like superposition and entanglement to process information exponentially faster for certain problems.

Qubit

The fundamental unit of quantum information, capable of existing in a superposition of both 0 and 1 states simultaneously.

Superposition

A quantum mechanical property where a qubit exists in multiple states simultaneously until measured.

Quantum Entanglement

A phenomenon where two or more qubits become correlated such that the quantum state of one instantly influences the other regardless of distance.

Quantum Gate

A basic quantum circuit operation that manipulates one or more qubits, analogous to logic gates in classical computing.

Quantum Circuit

A sequence of quantum gates applied to qubits to perform a quantum computation.

Quantum Error Correction

Techniques for protecting quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other quantum noise sources.

Decoherence

The loss of quantum coherence when a quantum system interacts with its environment, causing errors in computation.

Quantum Noise

Random fluctuations in quantum systems that introduce errors and limit the accuracy of quantum computations.

NISQ

Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum — the current era of quantum computing with limited, error-prone qubits.

Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

Quantum computing systems that can continue to operate correctly even in the presence of errors.

Quantum Teleportation

The transfer of quantum states between qubits using entanglement and classical communication.

Google's open-source framework for writing, manipulating, and running quantum circuits on quantum hardware and simulators.

A quantum algorithm for integer factorisation that runs exponentially faster than the best known classical algorithms.

A device that generates truly random numbers using quantum mechanical processes.

A collection of qubits that together store quantum information for processing in a quantum circuit.

Cryptographic algorithms designed to be secure against both classical and quantum computer attacks.

The practical ability of a quantum computer to solve real-world problems faster or better than classical computers.

The demonstration that a quantum computer can solve a problem that no classical computer can solve in a feasible time.

The quantum mechanical analogue of a classical random walk, used as a building block for quantum algorithms.