Abstract
Technologies differ in their explicit utilization of quantum mechanical behaviour. A transistor, despite its roots in energy band structure, does not invoke quantum mechanically coherent transmission between terminals. The impressive progress in the past decade in mesoscopic physics, when combined with studies that have analysed a totally quantum mechanical computational process, suggest that we may be ready to move toward more quantum mechanical procedures for information processing. This paper is a warning signal; this possibility is beset by problems. The case will be made via two separate but complementary arguments. First, by summarizing this author's published comments on computation via totally quantum mechanical coherent Hamiltonians. The computation is likely to suffer from localization , i.e. from reflection of the computational trajectory, causing the computation to turn around. Additionally, small errors will accumulate and cause the computation to go off track. This is supplemented by analysis of specific proposals that suggest more detailed machinery than invoked in the general literature on quantum mechanical Hamiltonian computation.
Keywords
ComputationMesoscopic physicsQuantumQuantum computerComputer sciencePhysicsTheoretical physicsStatistical physicsQuantum mechanicsAlgorithm
Related Publications
Quantum Computation
If the bits of computers are someday scaled down to the size of individual atoms, quantum mechanical effects may profoundly change the nature of computation itself. The wave fun...
A Potentially Realizable Quantum Computer
Arrays of weakly coupled quantum systems might compute if subjected to a sequence of electromagnetic pulses of well-defined frequency and length. Such pulsed arrays are true qua...
Coherent and Incoherent States of the Radiation Field
Methods are developed for discussing the photon statistics of arbitrary fields in fully quantum-mechanical terms. In order to keep the classical limit of quantum electrodynamics...
Hybrid multilevel power conversion system: a competitive solution for high-power applications
This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders...
Communication Through a Diffusive Medium: Coherence and Capacity
Coherent wave propagation in disordered media gives rise to many fascinating phenomena as diverse as universal conductance fluctuations in mesoscopic metals and speckle patterns...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1995
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 353
- Issue
- 1703
- Pages
- 367-376
- Citations
- 111
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
111
OpenAlex
Cite This
Rolf Landauer
(1995).
Is quantum mechanics useful?.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A Physical and Engineering Sciences
, 353
(1703)
, 367-376.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1995.0106
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1098/rsta.1995.0106