An Introduction to Quantum Computing Algorithms

In 1994 Peter Shor [65] published a factoring algorithm for a quantum computer that finds the prime factors of a composite integer N more efficiently than is possible with the known algorithms for a classical computer. Since the difficulty of the factoring problem is crucial for the se­ curity of a public key encryption system, interest (and funding) in quan­ tum computing and quantum computation suddenly blossomed. Quan­ tum computing had arrived. The study of the role of quantum mechanics...