Quantum path computing: computing architecture with propagation paths in multiple plane diffraction of classical sources of fermion and boson particles

Abstract

Quantum computing (QC) architectures utilizing classical or coherent resources with Gaussian transformations are classically simulable as an indicator of the lack of QC power. Simple optical setups utilizing wave-particle duality and interferometers achieve QC speed-up with the cost of exponential complexity of resources in time, space or energy. However, linear optical networks composed of single-photon inputs and photon number measurements such as boson sampling achieve solving problems which are not efficiently solvable by classical computers while emphasizing the power of linear optics. In this article, quantum path computing (QPC) setup is introduced as the simplest optical QC satisfying five fundamental properties all-in-one: exploiting only the coherent sources being either fermion or boson, i.e., Gaussian wave packet of standard laser, simple setup of multiple plane diffraction (MPD) with multiple slits by creating distinct propagation paths, standard intensity measurement on the detector, energy-efficient design and practical problem solving capability. MPD is unique with non-Gaussian transformations by realizing an exponentially increasing number of highly interfering propagation paths while making classical simulation significantly hard. It does not require single-photon resources or number resolving detection mechanisms making the experimental implementation of QC significantly low complexity. QPC setup is utilized for the solutions of specific instances of two practical and hard number theoretical problems: partial sum of Riemann theta function and period finding to solve Diophantine approximation. Quantumness of MPD with negative volume of Wigner function is numerically analyzed, and open issues for the best utilization of QPC are discussed.