Quantum computation is a completely new and different paradigm for how to store and process information. It offers the possibility of exponential computational advantage for certain types of hard problems, but the hardware for implementing quantum algorithms is still at an early stage. The basic idea of quantum computing is to replace the ordinary binary bits of conventional computing with their quantum equivalent, or qubit. A qubit can be any quantum system whose states can be prepared and controlled, provided that we can then fabricate them in large quantities and then couple them to one another in prescribed ways. While there are several candidate technologies for building a quantum computer, one of the most promising is superconducting quantum circuits, operated at cryogenic temperatures approaching 0.01 K.
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