AlbaNova Colloquium

What does quantum mechanics have to do with factoring?

Name: What does quantum mechanics have to do with factoring?
Start: 2009-04-23T15:15:00+02:00
End: 2009-04-23T16:15:00+02:00
Location: No location set

by Prof. N. David Mermin (Cornell University)

Thursday 23 Apr 2009, 15:15 → 16:15 Europe/Stockholm

Klein Auditorium

Description

Quantum computer science will be introduced in the context of its most sensational algorithm: the highly efficient factoring routine discovered by Peter Shor. I will emphasize those features of Shor's procedure that puzzled, surprised, and charmed me in the course of my own efforts to better understand how it does its magic. The subject offers some offbeat glimpses of both quantum mechanics and computation.