Experiments in Quantum Computing

Quantum Computing is widely perceived to be one of the ways forward in the future of computation as the end of Moore’s law is almost here. Instead of using bits in classical computers, quantum computers manipulate qubits which are governed by the phenomena of superposition and entanglement. In this paper, we demonstrate the relevance of quantum computing in game theory and database search applications. Through a simple example of coin tossing, we show how it is possible to organise a game where one player adopting a quantum strategy is guaranteed to win. It is also shown that the other player, using a second coin (qubit), can subvert this action to award the wins to themselves without the first player’s knowledge. In another application, a modified Grover’s database search algorithm is applied to clone an arbitrary quantum state of a qubit to a duplicate qubit. In both cases, the comparison of simulated and actual results emphasises on the hardware limitations of the current error-prone quantum computers. The quantum computer programs are designed using quantum gates and simulated in the Quantum Information Software Kit before testing on the IBM Q 5.1 (ibmqx4) quantum computer.