Quantum computers are designed to outperform standard computers by running quantum algorithms. Areas in which quantum algorithms can be applied include cryptography, search and optimisation, simulation of quantum systems and solving large systems of linear equations. Here we briefly survey some known quantum algorithms, with an emphasis on a broad overview of their applications rather than their technical details. We include a discussion of recent developments and near-term applications of quantum algorithms.
INTRODUCTIONA quantum computer is a machine designed to use quantum mechanics to do things which cannot be done by any machine based only on the laws of classical physics. Eventual applications of quantum computing range from breaking cryptographic systems to the design of new medicines. These applications are based on quantum algorithms-algorithms that run on a quantum computer and achieve a speedup, or other efficiency improvement, over any possible classical algorithm. Although large-scale general-purpose quantum computers do not yet exist, the theory of quantum algorithms has been an active area of study for over 20 years. Here we aim to give a broad overview of quantum algorithmics, focusing on algorithms with clear applications and rigorous performance bounds, and including recent progress in the field.Contrary to a rather widespread popular belief that quantum computers have few applications, the field of quantum algorithms has developed into an area of study large enough that a brief survey such as this cannot hope to be remotely comprehensive. Indeed, at the time of writing the 'Quantum Algorithm Zoo' website cites 262 papers on quantum algorithms. 1 There are now a number of excellent surveys about quantum algorithms, 2-5 and we defer to these for details of the algorithms we cover here, and many more. In particular, we omit all discussion of how the quantum algorithms mentioned work. We will also not cover the important topics of how to actually build a quantum computer 6 (in theory or in practice) and quantum error-correction, 7 nor quantum communication complexity 8 or quantum Shannon theory. 9