Semiclassical Shor's Algorithm

Abstract

We propose a semiclassical version of Shor's quantum algorithm to factorize integer numbers, based on spin-1/2 SU(2) generalized coherent states. Surprisingly, we find evidences that the algorithm's success probability is not too severely modified by our semiclassical approximation. This suggests that it is worth pursuing practical implementations of the algorithm on semiclassical devices.

19 pages (RevTex) + 10 Figures (in a separate ps file). Widened version: analytical discussion of the impact on the period-finding power added; scaling behaviour of the semiclassical probability addressed; two new appendices; other minor changes. Accepted for publication in Physical Review A