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QUIC Overview

The long range goal of this program of research is to realize a totally new class of computing engine --The Quantum Computer. It will directly employ the principles of quantum mathematics to perform, in a massively parallel fashion, calculations that are infeasible on today's computers.

This ultimate goal will require the solution of many outstanding problems. To address these, the scope and goals of the QUIC project are as follows:

• Develop and explore new ideas for implementing quantum gates in the laboratory.
• Broaden the range of problems that are known to be efficiently solvable using quantum computation.
• Design efficient networks of quantum gates that can solve interesting problems.
• Develop methods to improve the reliability of a quantum computer that operates under realistic noisy conditions (Quantum Error Correction).
• Develop sequential simulators to directly model the factor problem in the presence of realistic physical errors, to explore requisite gate fidelity for robust computation and evaluate error correction schemes.
• Build devices and conduct experimental studies of their performance.
• Consider the applicability of well-tested many-body methods to quantum computation.

  

  The effort is truly to be collaborative and multidisciplinary. For example, while Despain will lead the effort to simulate quantum computers, the physicists will provide guidance to ensure that the simulations are realistic and instructive. Feedback from the simulations, in turn, will stimulate and constrain new ideas about error-correction protocols, and will help to guide the experimental program. With our pooled expertise, we will able to explore the potential of quantum computation far more effectively than we could as individuals.