Comment on Scientists may have found the holy grail of quantum computing

mech@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• SmoothOperator@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It would be a terrible machine for that. Never use a quantum computer to multiply numbers.

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  • mech@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Isn’t that kind of a thing it needs to do to find the factorials of large numbers to break traditional encryption?

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    • SmoothOperator@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Not really. It needs to apply unitary operators to elements in Hilbert space, which is essentially multiplying matrices onto vectors.

      Which you could do by multiplying the involved numbers one by one, as most classical methods would, but then you’re missing the point of using a quantum computer.

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