HiveBrain v1.2.0
Get Started
← Back to all entries
patternMinor

What difference does it make when universal classical gates in quantum computation are reversible but not unitary?

Submitted by: @import:stackexchange-cs··
0
Viewed 0 times
whatclassicalcomputationuniversalaremakereversiblegatesbutdifference

Problem

As I've come across Grovers algorithm I dont understand why when computing F(X), which is an oracle function people use classical reversible circuits(toffoli, fredkin) to evaluate the circuit. Why can't it just be done using classical logic gates(and, or, etc) when the function doesn't have any thing to do with changing the superposition of the bits.

Solution

Reversible gates are unitary, see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gate. The eigenvalues are $\pm 1$. The quantum computation model requires all gates to be unitary, so you can't just use classical gates.

Context

StackExchange Computer Science Q#28705, answer score: 3

Revisions (0)

No revisions yet.