Quantum Information Processing Program

A typical computer processor expends at least a billion times more energy than is necessary to carry out an operation. Most of this energy is spent suppressing the unpredictable behaviour of quantum particles. Computers are designed to be predictable, and the world of quantum mechanics is anything but.

Quantum mechanics deals with matter at the smallest possible level. And in the subatomic world, the rules are strange and different. At the quantum level, it is possible to be in two places at once. Particles behave randomly. The mere act of observing an object changes its nature.

These properties hinder traditional computing, but CIFAR’s Quantum Information Processing program members are working to harness quantum behavior, rather than subdue it.

For example the unpredictability of quantum mechanics can be used to create unbreakable encryptions. Research has also shown that certain quantum behaviour of electrons can actually make computation far more efficient.
 
For decades, researchers found that aspects of the subatomic world seemed to present insurmountable obstacles to building a quantum computer. But new and unexpected advances have removed many of these obstacles. Quantum information processing is suddenly within the realm of realistic possibility.

This has created an explosion of interest in quantum information processing from both theorists and experimentalists, and it is the potential for far-reaching new discoveries that has motivated CIFAR to support Canadian efforts in this field.