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posts about quantum computer.

last week i was in leiden, attending a workshop on post-quantum crytpography and quantum algorithms at the lorentz center. it was a collection of talks and working in smaller groups, where we discussed certain topics, such as quantum attacks on ideal lattices in more detail, trying to find a way to use quantum computers to speed up attacks against primitives of post-quantum cryptography. as this is somewhat close to my research – i work on analyzing a quantum algorithm with pawel wocjan and am working on lattices and lattice reductions – i was very happy to attend this meeting. especially since there were not just some mathematicians, but also a lot of experts on various aspect of quantum computers and quantum algorithms. now i also know a lot more about quantum computing, both from the theoretical side – like having been explained grover’s algorithm, which is another of the fundamental quantum algorithms next to the period-finding algorithm family starting with shor’s algorithm – and the practical side – what the current technology with regard to building quantum computers is, and how people writing compilers for quantum computers can suffer and how complicated it can be to turn a “simple” algorithm into a circuit. i think this was one of the most productive workshops i’ve ever attended.
unfortunately, i neither took my camera with me (the little one i had with me last week, since it is somewhat broken (the sd card slot won’t keep the card anymore, similar to what is described here), nor did i really had time to take any pictures, as i spend most awake hours doing mathematics. i took a few shots with my mobile phone on the excursion/conference dinner on wednesday, which happend to be on a boat going through grachten around leiden and the city and also happened to be a very decicious and very spicy asian food buffet. and later, there was a great dessert buffet. one of the best and original conference dinners i had for quite some time :)