I am curious if there is anyone else who shares an interest in Quantum Computing, and would like to partake in a project to visually simulate quantum algorithms and how they compare with their classical counterparts. Inherently, this would simply be an algorithmic visual comparison program. I've attempted to collaborate with some of the other members here on similar projects before, so if this sounds familiar or perhaps just intriguing, let me know, I'd love to get something tangible up.

I'm not much for quantum computation, and I don't even know of any of the algorithm's or the classical algorithm's either. I do like working on projects though, and I might be able to contribute in some way.

What do you have in mind for a "visual representation" ?

I love games so I'm ok at implementing projects that use a 3d engine, 2d graphics are fun too.

Aet

If games are your forte I was actually thinking of using XNA to be the visualization tool. I'm not sure if you perhaps have a better idea as far as graphical implementation goes, in that realm I am a bit lacking so am certainly open to suggestions in that regard.

If you are a bit hazy on quantum algorithms, here is one of the better known ones for integer factorization (which actually has some classical components within the implementation) if you want to read up a bit on it.

Is there anything that basically relates to this that you have done before? Perhaps some graphics that you have that I could see online?

Since you forgot to name it or give a reference to it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor's_algorithm


I'm no whiz at quantum mechanics but I might be interested.

Haha, nice catch still have yet to get my daily dose of coffee.

Anyhow, you don't necessarily have to be any kind of whiz in quantum mechanics to develop the hardware/algorithms that drive the computers. Of course, it helps to have a more in depth knowledge of the underpinning laws and rules which they abide by, but for the sake of what I plan to do is not entirely necessary. Much like you don't need to understand all of the laws of electromagnetism to understand the functions and behavior of todays machines.

However, if this seems like something you would like to partake in let me know and we can attempt to draw up a basic framework to do so.

Ok Shor's algorithm read and understood...at least the concept. I'm familiar with determining prime of very large numbers which involves this factorization problem because the large primes are used in cryptography ( I covered it in computer security)

So the quantum algorithm is much faster than the classical, and has basically been proven to work at a very small scale. Given this information, how do you plan to Visualize a quantum algorithm? What are you wanting to display about it? I personally can't think of a way to visually simulate it. But maybe I haven't let it sink in enough. These are tough concepts for me.


Could you be thinking about visually depicting the multiple state positions of the quantum model VS the single state of classical?


Aet

This post has been edited by Aeternalis: 22 Oct, 2009 - 10:30 AM

As far as visualizations for Shor's algorithm verses a classical one, I'm assuming something as simple as two differing graphs which react accordingly to the size of the number and method used. The best representation I can find of it was actually implemented here by the team at Wolfram Alpha:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ATlZC-Ub8U

As you can see, there seems to be two bars and corresponding sliders to which the data correlates. I'm thinking a clean and simple looking representation like that would be easy to implement, however this is coming from the graphically non-inclined individual such as myself, so please don't let me put any restrictions or limitations as to what you have in mind to that regard.

And don't fret, these are tough concepts for absolutely everyone. As Feynman said, "If you think you understand Quantum Mechanics...you don't". I hope to at least use this as an exercise to deepen our understanding, and perhaps use it as a tool to help others as well.

The implementation you describe, and show an example of is pretty basic. I think we can certainly do better than that. At the very least we can make it more robust. At best we can blow it out of the water.

Now all that being said.. I am assuming you guys are doing the math for calculating the values that will be displayed as a comparison.

Different topic slightly..

Are you looking at implementing as windows forms, or a web based application? I can do either way. Web based is newer to me, and we would have to host it somewhere, but exposure and accessibility are so much better.

Aet

"I can't quote Feynman, hell I can't even remember what my wife just screamed at me. " ~me

This post has been edited by Aeternalis: 22 Oct, 2009 - 12:55 PM

Yes, the way that Wolfram Alpha shows it is certainly nothing amazing (Especially along with the ghastly music that plays). However, I just thought it would at least be a good baseline, I'm sure we'll have no problem in creating a better looking display.

As for the math, I plan on also outputting that information to the user, again to make it more robust and informative, much like in the link I posted but more in depth.

Since taking a web based approach would induce more overhead as you said, I say we keep it simple in the setup approach and just go for a windows form that we can make available for download.

Im still here , was waiting to see if any others were going to jump on the wagon.

I'll check in periodically. Let me know when you want to get started. May I suggest a different website to actually handle the project management and configuration control? I'm thinking we could use a sourceforge project... what do you think?

Aet

Good to know you're still around. Actually I've been researching how to efficiently visually simulate the algorithms, and one very powerful method which I am not too well versed in, but could probably pick up quickly is CUDA graphics card programming.

Some of the sources for this are quite obscure, but I found a scientific paper on this provided by Springerlink for $25, and since I'm pretty serious about this and the reference for anything that specific is pretty obscure so I decided to pick it up. I'll send you a link to it where I have it hosted.

Getting a sourceforge project started would be great, I'd say go ahead and fire one up and let me know when you get one started so that we can consolidate more of our material in one place.

Done,

You can check it out Here.

nothing there yet, just some place to put files and Ideas.
Aet

I'm still interested, but I'm still unsure how big of a work load I will have in school on some of the courses I have just started on.

I found a good introduction to quantum algorithms:
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms/chap10.pdf
The text get a little bit more complicated as they start to develop the actual algorithms, but the introduction in the beginnig to the concept of qubits and the superpostion principle is relatively easy to follow!

Wow,

That is an extremely well written article. It is explained in sufficient detail without burying you in the math.

I read up to the explanation of the FFT. It got me kinda excited about this.
Thank you Lafayette!
At the very least I have gained something already from this project. A MUCH better understanding of quantum computing.


Aet

Great job on the source forge project Aeternalis, and likewise terrific article on quantum algorithms Layfette. Speaking of resources, I have an astounding number of electronic books on the subject which I would be more than happy to share. I'd also like to point out that article repositories such as arxiv are incredibly resourceful for such topics.

I'm well aware that most of the documentation is sprinkled with a lot of math, I'll try and weed out some of my more conceptual texts and host them for you guys if you are still both interested.