The Quantum Sieve of Eratosthenes

Abstract

We introduce and examine quantum states of a special kind, referred to as E-states, whose properties are both structurally and functionally analogous to the sieve of Eratosthenes. More broadly, the concept of an E-state is related to a certain noncommutative extension of the Dirichlet ring, also discussed here for the first time. Furthermore, we demonstrate that E-states can be implemented on a universal quantum computer and, as a particular application, we construct an algorithm which implements the Dirichlet multiplication of sequences on a quantum computer. We also discuss the potential applicability of E-states to the problem of integer factorization although, we haste to add, we are not aware at present of the possibility of using this approach to obtain algorithms of sub-exponential complexity.