Quantum complexity theory

In this paper we study quantum computation from a complexity theoretic viewpoint. Our first result is the existence of an efficient universal quantum Turing machine in Deutsch’s model of a quantum Turing machine (QTM) [Proc. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A, 400 (1985), pp. 97–117]. This construction is substantially more complicated than the corresponding construction for classical Turing machines (TMs); in fact, even simple primitives such as looping, branching, and composition are not straightforward in the context of quantum Turing machines. We establish how these familiar primitives can be implemented and introduce some new, purely quantum mechanical primitives, such as changing the computational basis and carrying out an arbitrary unitary transformation of polynomially bounded dimension. We also consider the precision to which the transition amplitudes of a quantum Turing machine need to be specified. We prove that O(log T) bits of precision suffice to support a T step computation. ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1993
• Where: STOC
• Authors: Ethan Bernstein, Umesh V. Vazirani
• Keywords: Algorithms, Probabilistic Turing Machines, Quantum Computation, Quantum Turing Machines, STOC 1993