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2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

awards.acm.org

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Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#21

Post by lkm0 »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #20

I don't want to take anything away from Bennett and Brassard, but I'd like someone to spare a word for poor Stephen Wiesner, who invented the earliest quantum information-distribution protocols as far back as the 1960s and published them before Bennett and Brassard. He also invented Oblivious Transfer (OT) which is required for multi-party computation -- although his was a quantum protocol that demonstrated some of t…

If you enjoy reading about undervalued scientists, check out the life of Ernst Stückelberg, who missed out on 4 to 5 Nobel prizes because he mostly published in unknown journals. https://blogg.perostborn.com/2023/03/22/hes-not-so-easily-st...

Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#22

Post by amemi »

dogtimeimmortal wrote: post #18
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I felt this was a much better layman explanation of what a quantum computer does than simply saying a quantum computer runs all possible paths in parallel. Relevant concerning your point: > "The Talk" > https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-3

Thanks for this! I guess i need to read up on Hilbert Space. ...and Shor's Algorithm

Don't let the terminology intimidate you. The interesting ideas in quantum computing are far more dependent upon a foundation in linear algebra rather than a foundation in mathematical analysis.

When I started out, I was under the assumption that I had to understand at least the undergraduate real analysis curriculum before I could grasp quantum algorithms. In reality, for the main QC algorithms you see discussed, you don't need to understand completeness; you can just treat a Hilbert space as a finite-dimensional vector space with a complex inner product.

For those unfamiliar with said concepts from linear algebra, there is a playlist [1] often recommended here which discusses them thoroughly.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2x...

Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#23

Post by rramadass »

DrNosferatu wrote: post #6

The math might be beautiful, but I'm very skeptical - practical - quantum computers will ever deliver their promise.

Not sure what is going on in QC world; With this ACM prize it has become even more murky.

As Sabine Hossenfelder (Theoretical Physicist) points out, companies to do with QC are seeing a surge in investments and marketing. It is as if somebody knows something that the "common public" doesn't - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBTS7JZTyZY

I don't know enough about the science/technology to form an opinion but have recently started down the path of trying to understand it - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46599807

Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#25

Post by abdullahkhalids »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #20

I don't want to take anything away from Bennett and Brassard, but I'd like someone to spare a word for poor Stephen Wiesner, who invented the earliest quantum information-distribution protocols as far back as the 1960s and published them before Bennett and Brassard. He also invented Oblivious Transfer (OT) which is required for multi-party computation -- although his was a quantum protocol that demonstrated some of t…

Don't forget about William Wootters, who also did significant work in the 1980s on quantum information. Most notably with Zurek, he proved the quantum no-cloning theorem in 1982. This result is at the same foundational level as energy conservation or constancy of light.

He was also on the Teleportation discovery in 1993.

Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#26

Post by hammock »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #11
spot5010 wrote: post #9

As a young grad student, I remember going to a talk by Bennett where he explained how a Quantum Computer allows manipulation in a 2^N dimensional hilbert space, while the outputs measurements give you only N bits of information. The trick is to somehow encode the result in the final N bits. I felt this was a much better layman explanation of what a quantum computer does than simply saying a quantum computer runs all…

> I felt this was a much better layman explanation of what a quantum computer does than simply saying a quantum computer runs all possible paths in parallel. Relevant concerning your point: > "The Talk" > https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-3

That comic is great I understand qubits a bit better now: it has 4 degrees of freedom but can be mapped onto the 2d surface of a sphere because of normalization (circle rule) and global phase symmetry which each take away one of the four DOF

I need a longer think on the interference/computation connection though

Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#27

Post by hammock »

amemi wrote: post #22
dogtimeimmortal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this! I guess i need to read up on Hilbert Space. ...and Shor's Algorithm

Don't let the terminology intimidate you. The interesting ideas in quantum computing are far more dependent upon a foundation in linear algebra rather than a foundation in mathematical analysis. When I started out, I was under the assumption that I had to understand at least the undergraduate real analysis curriculum before I could grasp quantum algorithms. In reality, for the main QC algorithms you see discussed, yo…

Yeah all the names and terminology really do make it seem harder than it is. Took me a long time and I’m still learning. 2d Hilbert space is same as 2d Euclidean space but each dimension has 2 degrees of freedom (real + imaginary). Might even think of it as 4d space, for vector imagining purposes, but that would probably be wrong and someone would call you out

Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#28

Post by hammock »

rramadass wrote: post #23
DrNosferatu wrote: post #6

The math might be beautiful, but I'm very skeptical - practical - quantum computers will ever deliver their promise.

Not sure what is going on in QC world; With this ACM prize it has become even more murky. As Sabine Hossenfelder (Theoretical Physicist) points out, companies to do with QC are seeing a surge in investments and marketing. It is as if somebody knows something that the "common public" doesn't - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBTS7JZTyZY I don't know enough about the science/technology to form an opinion but have recen…

Check out Eric weinsteins latest theory about how frontier physics has moved “dark” (with a grain of salt, some of the other things he says might tempt you to discount him completely)

Re: 2025 Turing award given for quantum information science

#30

Post by throwaway81523 »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #20

I don't want to take anything away from Bennett and Brassard, but I'd like someone to spare a word for poor Stephen Wiesner, who invented the earliest quantum information-distribution protocols as far back as the 1960s and published them before Bennett and Brassard. He also invented Oblivious Transfer (OT) which is required for multi-party computation -- although his was a quantum protocol that demonstrated some of t…

Wiesner was quite a character but he died a few years ago, so wouldn't have been eligible for this year's award.
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