1.2 The basics of the quantum circuit model
We have mentioned that quantum computing relies on quantum phenomena such as superposition, entanglement, and interference to perform computations. But what does this really mean? To make this explicit, we need to define a particular computational model that allow us to describe mathematically how to take advantage of all these properties.
There are many such models, including quantum Turing machines, measurement-based quantum computing (also known as one-way quantum computing), or adiabatic quantum computing, and all of them are equivalent in power. However, the most popular one — and the one that we will be using for the most part in the book — is the quantum circuit model.
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In addition to the quantum circuit model, sometimes we will also use the adiabatic model. All the necessary concepts will be introduced in Chapter 4, Quantum Adiabatic Computing and Quantum Annealing.
Every computation has three...
