Schrödinger's Killer App: Race to Build the World's First Quantum Computer
"This is a beautifully written book that presents the carefully researched facts in an engaging style. The historical narrative, everywhere, is spiced up with entertaining anecdotes and sprinkled with references. The math and physics are presented through simple examples illustrated by drawing on analogies, while avoiding the use of any equations."—Contemporary Physics, 2014"… explains the difficult concepts of quantum mechanics to laypersons, using analogies that require no background in physics or advanced mathematics. These concepts include quantum entanglement, Schrodinger's cat, and quantum computational complexity. Dowling (Louisiana State) has worked with the US Department of Defense (DoD) in their development of quantum information sciences for the last 20 years. The book's title refers to the fact that all the encrypted communication of the Internet could easily be unveiled by a quantum computer, thus leading to competition to develop such a machine. The work begins with a discussion of Einstein, who fought against many notions of quantum physics, such as quantum entanglement and quantum computational complexity. The second chapter explains Bell's theorem, proving that the entanglement 'action at a distance' idea actually takes place. Later chapters address how the public-key encryption system used by the Internet can be broken by a quantum computer; one-time pad encryption together with the unbreakable quantum key distribution technique and the DoD's efforts to build a quantum computer; and the idea of building a quantum computer using entangled particles as the underlying building blocks. Recommended."—C. Tappert, Pace University,CHOICE Magazine