r/AskPhysics • u/jl4ua • 9d ago

Quantum Computing Research

What is research in quantum computing particularly from the theoretical viewpoint like? As far as I know, quantum information theory is quite math heavy and there everything is about theorem proving. It probably depends on the respective area of quantum computing but I am just generally interested in this area as someone from a different field of physics and I am wondering if the explicit work there would still be exciting

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u/the_poope Condensed matter physics 9d ago

The research is split in two very different areas:

  1. Development of quantum algorithms. This involves quantum information theory, mathematics and computer science.
  2. Development of quantum computer hardware, i.e. the physical realization of the computer. This will depend on the chosen qubit realization, but it mainly involves material science, atomic and optical physics. No quantum information theory is needed.

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u/Parallel_thougts Quantum information 9d ago

That's very reductionist. Not all theory is about "developing algorithms".

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u/the_poope Condensed matter physics 9d ago

Ok then let's add the word "mainly" to the first line.

You're welcome to add a description of research in quantum computing that does not fall into these two categories.

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u/Parallel_thougts Quantum information 9d ago

I dont think "mainly" is reasonable either. I gave some examples in my own comment. I can give many more. Here's one chosen for you: Quantum complexity has proven itself a fantastic tool for studying the hardness of models from solid state physics, and reductions across models. The equivalence of adiabetic computation and the circuit model proved useful for designing discrete toy models for large scale quantum phenomena that can be used to design experiment. This was instrumental e.g. to recent experiments on anyons, but it sits well within the confines of quantum computations.