Abstract
Solving linear systems of equations is ubiquitous in all areas of science and engineering. With rapidly growing data sets, such a task can be intractable for classical computers, as the best known classical algorithms require a time proportional to the number of variables . A recently proposed quantum algorithm shows that quantum computers could solve linear systems in a time scale of order , giving an exponential speedup over classical computers. Here we realize the simplest instance of this algorithm, solving linear equations for various input vectors on a quantum computer. We use four quantum bits and four controlled logic gates to implement every subroutine required, demonstrating the working principle of this algorithm.
- Received 6 March 2013
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.230501
© 2013 American Physical Society
Synopsis
Solving for and
Published 6 June 2013
A calculation performed with four photon qubits proves that a promising quantum algorithm works.
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