IS THIS a record for a quantum computer? A process called adiabatic computing has been used to find the prime factors of the number 143, beating the previous record for a quantum computer of 21.
Adiabatic quantum computing does away with the components found in other quantum and classical computers, which are based on switches and logic gates. Instead, a pool of quantum bits, or qubits, is encouraged to find the answer collectively.
The pool of qubits always seeks its lowest overall energy state; the trick is to adjust the system so that the lowest energy state gives the answer. Jiangfeng Du at the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, China, and colleagues used an algorithm running on a computer with four qubits to factorise the number 143. It's 13 × 11, in case you were wondering (Physical Review Letters, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.130501).
Du says that the algorithm could be used in other quantum-computing architectures, although some physicists doubt whether this approach is a truly quantum calculation.
- New Scientist
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