Quantum computing is the exploitation of collective properties of quantum states, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform computation. The devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers.[1]:I-5 They are believed to be able to solve certain computational problems, such as integer factorization (which underlies RSA encryption), substantially faster than classical computers. The study of quantum computing is a subfield of quantum information science. It is likely to expand in the next few years as the field shifts toward real-world use in pharmaceutical, data security and other applications.[2]
Quantum computing began in the early 1980s when physicist Paul Benioff proposed a quantum mechanical model of the Turing machine.[3] Richard Feynman and Yuri Manin later suggested that a quantum computer had the potential to simulate things a classical computer could not feasibly do.[4][5] In 1994, Peter Shor developed a quantum algorithm for factoring integers with the potential to decrypt RSA-encrypted communications.[6] Despite ongoing experimental progress since the late 1990s, most researchers believe that "fault-tolerant quantum computing [is] still a rather distant dream."[7] In recent years, investment in quantum computing research has increased in the public and private sectors.[8][9] On 23 October 2019, Google AI, in partnership with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), claimed to have performed a quantum computation that was infeasible on any classical computer.[10]
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