Master thesis defense by Jakob D. Olsen

Study of the application of quantum algorithms to solve classical problems in life science

Quantum computing is an emerging tool that could help scientists in many fields solve previously computationally difficult or unsolvable problems. Currently, a lot of work has been put into solving problems with an inherent quantum property, because many of these are difficult to compute classically, but there have not been many quantum algorithms that attempt to solve the problems in classical natural sciences. If we want to solve a classical problem using quantum computing, we will therefore need a method whereupon we can map a classical problem to a quantum algorithm. Here we show several attempts at mapping classical life science problems to quantum algorithms, these being both new attempts at mappings, as well as improvements on previous work. From this, we found that one of the main restrictions currently is the encoding. This encoding problem did for example occur as the encoding being computationally costly or requiring a simplification or discretization of the classical problem. In the end, this would result in many quantum algorithms losing their advantage over their currently used classical counterpart. From this, we suggest that moving forward the search for ”proof of concept” mapping, which does not necessarily outperform its classical counterpart, is a relevant and integral part of the evolution of the field