A Parallel Quantum Computer Simulator

A Quantum Computer is a new type of computer which can efficiently solve complex problems such as prime factorization. A quantum computer threatens the security of public key encryption systems because these systems rely on the fact that prime factorization is computationally difficult. Errors limit the effectiveness of quantum computers. Because of the exponential nature of quantum computers, simulating the effect of errors on them requires a vast amount of processing and memory resources. In this paper we describe a parallel simulator which accesses the feasibility of quantum computers. We also derive and validate an analytical model of execution time for the simulator, which shows that parallel quantum computer simulation is very scalable. # Submitted to High Performance Computing `98 September 19, 1997 1 1.0 Introduction A quantum computer consists of atomic particles which obey the laws of quantum mechanics. The complexity of a quantum system is exponential with respect to the..