physicists bits qubits Paul Benioff quantum Turing machine exponential simulating quantum dynamics Yuri Manin Richard Feynman Charles Bennett Gilles Brassard cryptography computer science computer ion digital computers qubit quantum mechanics quantum mechanical bit
As physicists applied quantum mechanical models to computational problems and swapped digital bits for qubits, the fields of quantum mechanics and computer science began to converge.
In 1980, Paul Benioff introduced the quantum Turing machine, which uses quantum theory to describe a simplified computer.
When digital computers became faster, physicists faced an exponential increase in overhead when simulating quantum dynamics, prompting Yuri Manin and Richard Feynman to independently suggest that hardware based on quantum phenomena might be more efficient for computer simulation.
In a 1984 paper, Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard applied quantum theory to cryptography protocols and demonstrated that quantum key distribution could enhance information security.
