In contrast to finding and multiplying of large prime numbers, no efficient classical algorithm for the factorization of large number is known. An algorithm is called efficient if its execution time i.e. the number of elementary operations is assymtotically polynomial in the length of its input measured in bits. The best known (or at least published) classical algorithm (the quadratic sieve) needs operations for factoring a binary number of bits [12] i.e. scales exponentially with the input size.
The multiplication of large prime numbers is therefore a one-way function i.e. a function which can easily be evaluated in one direction, while its inversion is practically impossible. One-way functions play a major roll in cryptography and are essential to public key crypto-systems where the key for encoding is public and only the key for decoding remains secret.
In 1978, Rivest, Shamir and Adleman developed a cryptographic algorithm based on the one-way character of multiplying two large (typically above 100 decimal digits) prime numbers. The RSA method (named after the initials of their inventors) became the most popular public key system and is implemented in many communication programs.
While it is generally believed (although not formally proved) that efficient prime factorization on a classical computer is impossible, an efficient algorithm for quantum computers has been proposed in 1994 by P.W. Shor [11].
This section describes Shor's algorithm from a functional point of view which means that it doesn't deal with the implementation for a specific hardware architecture. A detailed implementation for the Cirac-Zoller gate can be found in [13], for a more rigid mathematical description, please refer to [15] and for a more detailed dicussion of the QCL implementation, look at [25].
Let with the greatest common divisor
be the number to be factorized, a
randomly selected number relatively prime to (i.e.
and the
modular exponentiation function with the
period :
(4.19) |
(4.20) | |||
If is even and with and ,
then or must have a common divisor with because
which means that with
and therefore
.
A factor of can then be found by using Euclid's algorithm
to determine and which is
defined as
(4.21) |
Let be quantum function of the integer function with the unknown period .
To determine , we need two registers, with the sizes of and qubits, which should be reset to .
As a first step we produce a homogenous superposition of all
base-vectors in the first register by applying an operator
with
(4.22) |
This can e.g. be achieved by the Hadamard transform .
Applying to the resulting state gives
(4.23) |
A measurement of the second register with the result
with reduces the state to
(4.24) |
The post-measurement state of the first register consists only of base-vectors of the form since for all . It therefore has a discrete, homogenous spectrum.
It is not possible to directly extract the period or a
multiple of it by measurement of the first register because
of the random offset .
This problem can be solved by performing a discrete Fourier
transform (see 4.2.3)
(4.25) |
(4.26) |
(4.27) |
(4.28) |
If we now measure the first register, we will get a value close to with . This can be written as . We can think of this as finding a rational approximation with for the fixed point binary number . An efficient classical algorithm for solving this problem using continued fractions is described in [16] and is implemented in the denominator function (appendix B.2).
Since the form of a rational number is not unique, and are only determined by if . The probability that and are coprime is greater then , so only tries are necessary for a constant probability of success as close at 1 as desired.4.1
For a dimensional vector
, the discrete
Fourier transform is defined as
(4.29) |
As suggested by Coppersmith [7],
the same principle could adapted be to quantum computers
by using a combination of Hadamard transformations
(see 3.4.4.3) and conditional phase gates
(see 3.4.4.4).
The indices below indicate the qubits operated on:
(4.30) |
The base-vectors of the transformed state are given in reverse bit order, so to get the actual , the bits have to be flipped.
operator dft(qureg q) { // main operator const n=#q; // set n to length of input int i; int j; // declare loop counters for i=0 to n-1 { for j=0 to i-1 { // apply conditional phase gates CPhase(2*pi/2^(i-j+1),q[n-i-1] & q[n-j-1]); } Mix(q[n-i-1]); // qubit rotation } flip(q); // swap bit order of the output } |
The most difficult part in implementing Shor's algorithm is
the construction of an efficient quantum function for
modular exponentiation.
(4.31) |
Assuming we already have an implementation for modular
addition, we could use it to construct modular
multiplication and finally exponentiation since
(4.32) | |||
(4.33) |
The addition modulo of a classic integer and a quantum register can result in either or , depending on the particular base-vector .
While for the operation is revertible, this is not
the case for , so, if doesn't happen
to be a power of , besides the target resister
for the sum, we need an additional flag-qubit
to allow for a quantum function addn
which is both, unitary and invariant to :
(4.34) |
Since
is a quantum function for
modular subtraction and thus implements the inverse function
to
,
we can construct an overwriting version oaddn
of modular addition, by using the method introduced
in 3.5.2.3:
(4.35) |
(4.36) |
qufunct oaddn(int a,int n,qureg sum,quconst e) { qureg j[#sum]; qureg f[1]; addn(a,n,sum,f,j,e); // junk -> a+b mod n Swap(sum,j); // swap junk and sum CNot(f,e); // toggle flag !addn(n-a,n,sum,f,j,e); // uncompute b to zero } |
Modular multiplication is merely a composition of conditional additions for each qubit of . The first summand can be slightly optimized, since the accumulator (prod) is still empty.
qufunct muln(int a,int n,quconst b,qureg prod,quconst e) { int i; for i=0 to #prod-1 { if bit(a,i) { CNot(prod[i],b[0] & e); } } for i=1 to #b-1 { oaddn(2^i*a mod n,n,prod,b[i] & e); } } |
By using two conditional XOR gates defined as
(4.37) |
(4.38) |
qufunct omuln(int a,int n,qureg b,quconst e) { qureg j[#b]; muln(a,n,b,j,e); !muln(invmod(a,n),n,j,b,e); cxor(j,b,e); cxor(b,j,e); } |
As with muln, we can construct modular exponentiation by conditionally applying omuln with the qubits of the exponents as enable string. Before we can start the iteration, the accumulator (ex) has to be initialized by 1.
qufunct expn(int a,int n,quconst b,quvoid ex) { int i; Not(ex[0]); // start with 1 for i=0 to #b-1 { omuln(powmod(a,2^i,n),n,ex,b[i]); // ex -> ex*a^2^i mod n } } |
The implementation of the Shor algorithm uses the following functions:
The procedure shor checks whether the integer number is suitable for quantum factorization, and then repeats Shor's algorithm until a factor has been found.
procedure shor(int number) { int width=ceil(log(number,2)); // size of number in bits qureg reg1[2*width]; // first register qureg reg2[width]; // second register int qmax=2^width; int factor; // found factor int m; real c; // measured value int x; // base of exponentiation int p; int q; // rational approximation p/q int a; int b; // possible factors of number int e; // e=x^(q/2) mod number |
if number mod 2 == 0 { exit "number must be odd"; } if testprime(number) { exit "prime number"; } if testprimepower(number) { exit "prime power"; }; |
{ { // generate random base x=floor(random()*(number-3))+2; } until gcd(x,number)==1; print "chosen random x =",x; Mix(reg1); // Hadamard transform expn(x,number,reg1,reg2); // modular exponentiation measure reg2; // measure 2nd register dft(reg1); // Fourier transform measure reg1,m; // measure 1st register reset; // clear local registers |
if m==0 { // failed if measured 0 print "measured zero in 1st register. trying again ..."; } else { c=m*0.5^(2*width); // fixed point form of m q=denominator(c,qmax); // find rational approximation p=floor(q*m*c+0.5); print "measured",m,", approximation for",c,"is",p,"/",q; if q mod 2==1 and 2*q<qmax { // odd q ? try expanding p/q print "odd denominator, expanding by 2"; p=2*p; q=2*q; } if q mod 2==1 { // failed if odd q print "odd period. trying again ..."; } else { print "possible period is",q; e=powmod(x,q/2,number); // calculate candidates for a=(e+1) mod number; // possible common factors b=(e+number-1) mod number; // with number print x,"^",q/2,"+ 1 mod",number,"=",a,",", x,"^",q/2,"- 1 mod",number,"=",b; factor=max(gcd(number,a),gcd(number,b)); } } } until factor>1 and factor<number; print number,"=",factor,"*",number/factor; } |
15 is the smallest number that can be factorized with Shor's algorithm, as it's the product of the smallest odd prime numbers and . Our implementation of the modular exponentiation needs qubits scratch space with . The algorithm itself needs qubits, so a total of 21 qubits must be provided.
$ qcl -b21 -i shor.qcl qcl> shor(15) : chosen random x = 4 : measured zero in 1st register. trying again ... : chosen random x = 11 : measured 128 , approximation for 0.500000 is 1 / 2 : possible period is 2 : 11 ^ 1 + 1 mod 15 = 12 , 11 ^ 1 - 1 mod 15 = 10 : 15 = 5 * 3 |
One might argue that this is not likely to happen, since the first register has 8 qubits and possible base-vectors, however, if a number is to be factored, one might expect a period about assuming that the prime factors of are of the same order of magnitude. This would lead to a period after the and the probability to accidentally pick the basevector , would be .
In the special case of a start value the period of the modular exponentiation is 2 since , consequently the Fourier spectrum shows 2 peaks at and and .
The second try also had the same probability of failure since , but this time, the measurement picked the second peak in the spectrum at . With , the period was correctly identified and the factors to 15 have been found.