9 avril 2003
All information processing that is currently performed, and even within such futuristic ideas as DNA computing and molecular computing, is actually done within the framework of classical physics. Information is stored, processed and transmitted using the elements, sources, processes, laws and limitations of the classical physics.
A new dimension to information processing and communication has appeared recently and it is currently very vigorously explored. The basic aim is to find out how to make use of elements, phenomena, resources, processes, laws and limitations of the quantum microworld to store, process and transmit information in a more efficient and more secure way as currently. Various methods and tools have been already found how to utilize laws and limitations of quantum Nature, and of the information processing that is going on in the quantum world, to make quantum computations and communications more efficient, (quantum) channels to have larger capacity, and (quantum) cryptography to be more secure than the classical one.
The research in this area was curiosity-driven one for a couple of years. Nowadays it is increasingly believed that such a research can be a basis of an important new science and also new — quantum — information processing technology.
In the first part of the talk, the most basic properties of the classical and quantum information will be introduced and compared, and an introduction will be made into new concepts, principles and limitations on which quantum information processing and communication are based.
In the second, and the main part of the talk, several main outcomes and challenges of the quantum information processing research will shortly be presented and discussed in several basic areas: quantum algorithms, quantum cryptography, quantum entanglement, quantum communication, quantum decoherence fighting and quantum processors.
We will also discuss some very speculative directions of research that can be seen as the frontiers of the field.
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