Brief historical survey and perspectives

Abstract

This chapter outlines the brief historical survey of quantum mechanics. The early development of this theory has attached to it a whole team of brilliant scientists, including Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, and Louis de Broglie. Quantum mechanics contains the rules of the way to approach and solve problems involving particles, such as electrons, protons, nuclei, atoms, molecules, and the interactions among these particles and radiation. Along the years, computers entered physics as a powerful ally for the analysis and development of physical models in particle and nuclear physics, condensed matter, gravitation, astrophysics, and biological and ecological systems. In particular, the development of condensed matter magnetism and semiconductor physics resulted in important feedback to computer technology. This symbiotic relationship between physics and computers deepened for decades, until the point where computers themselves started to be seen by the physicists as physical systems that subject to the laws of physics, just like everything else and not as auxiliary tool for the solution of complicated mathematical problems. This insight led to a novel and exciting area of research in physics: quantum computation and quantum information. Quantum information is the area of research in physics in which quantum resources are identified for the application in information processing, as well as the means to produce, store, send, and recover information traveling through communication channels.