2000/03/09 by Lance Fortnow, Fortnow, Lance · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Computational Complexity (cs.CC) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #cs.CC #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0003035
13 pages. Based on a talk presented at the Second Workshop on Algorithms in Quantum Information Processing at DePaul University, Chicago, January 21, 1999
arxiv created 2000/03/09 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
The complexity of quantum computation remains poorly understood. While physicists attempt to find ways to create quantum computers, we still do not have much evidence one way or the other as to how useful these machines will be. The tools of computational complexity theory should come to bear on these important questions. Quantum computing often scares away many potential researchers from computer science because of the apparent background need in quantum mechanics and the alien looking notation used in papers on the topic. This paper will give an overview of quantum computation from the point of view of a complexity theorist. We will see that one can think of BQP as yet another complexity class and study its power without focusing on the physical aspects behind it.