Classical computing, quantum computing, and Shor's factoring algorithm

Abstract

This is an expository talk written for the Bourbaki Seminar. After a brief introduction, Section 1 discusses in the categorical language the structure of the classical deterministic computations. Basic notions of complexity icluding the P/NP problem are reviewed. Section 2 introduces the notion of quantum parallelism and explains the main issues of quantum computing. Section 3 is devoted to four quantum subroutines: initialization, quantum computing of classical Boolean functions, quantum Fourier transform, and Grover's search algorithm. The central Section 4 explains Shor's factoring algorithm. Section 5 relates Kolmogorov's complexity to the spectral properties of computable function. Appendix contributes to the prehistory of quantum computing.