83.1 Package quantum_computing

The quantum_computing package provides several functions to simulate quantum computing circuits. The state of a system of n qubits is represented by a list of 2^n complex numbers and an operator acting on m qubits is represented by a 2^m by 2^m matrix. A hash array qmatrix is defined with 6 common one-qubit matrices: the identity, the Pauli matrices, the Hadamard matrix and the phase matrix.

The major disadvantage compared to a real quantum computer is very slow computing times even with a few qubits. An advantage is that, unlike a quantum computer, in this simulator a quantum state can be cloned using copylist.

This is an additional package that must be loaded with load("quantum_computing") in order to use it.