Quantum Computation and Communication

Over the past half century wires and logic gates in computers have halved in size every year and a half, creating a phenomenon known as the Moore¿s law. As the size of computer components reduces towards the atomic scale, however, the classical laws of thermodynamics are no longer able to predict the real behavior of electronic devices. In this context, the theory of quantum mechanics becomes increasingly important to characterize how circuits operate. Quantum information is the theory of communication and computation born to study the potential arising from information encoded in elementary particles, such as photons. The essential goal of quantum information is to determine how the quantum laws ruling the peculiar phenomena happening at an atomic scale can be used to enhance the capabilities of computers and communication systems.