Daily Current Affairs Quiz: August 30, 2025

Statement 1 is correct: Quantum computing harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform computations.

Statement 2 is correct: Qubits, unlike classical bits, can exist in a superposition of states, meaning they can be both 0 and 1 simultaneously. This allows quantum computers to explore multiple possibilities concurrently.

Statement 3 is correct: Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon where two or more qubits become correlated, even when physically separated. A change in the state of one entangled qubit instantly affects the state of the others.

Statement 4 is correct: Quantum computers excel at solving specific types of problems that are intractable for classical computers, such as optimization problems, cryptography, and materials science simulations.

Statement 1 is correct: Verifying the issuer and validity of a digital certificate is crucial for ensuring its authenticity and preventing man-in-the-middle attacks.

Statement 2 is correct: Private keys are the cornerstone of PKI security. Storing them securely in an HSM or smart card protects them from unauthorized access and compromise.

Statement 3 is correct: CRLs and OCSP provide mechanisms to check if a certificate has been revoked due to compromise or other reasons. Regularly updating CRLs or using OCSP helps maintain the integrity of PKI.

Statement 4 is incorrect: Private keys should never be shared with anyone. Sharing a private key compromises the entire security infrastructure.

Statement 5 is correct: Strong passwords and multi-factor authentication add extra layers of security to protect private keys and certificate management systems from unauthorized access.

a: (Correct Option) Decoherence arises from unwanted interactions between qubits and their environment. This interaction disrupts the delicate superposition states of qubits, causing them to collapse into classical states. This process introduces errors into quantum computations as the qubits lose their quantum properties.  The spontaneous transitions between energy levels are a direct consequence of these interactions.

b: While qubit connectivity and long-range entanglement are important considerations in quantum computer design, they are not the direct result of decoherence.  Decoherence primarily affects the stability of quantum states rather than the physical connections between qubits.

c: Cryogenic cooling is necessary to mitigate the effects of thermal noise, which contributes to decoherence.  However, the need for cryogenic cooling itself isn’t the direct impact of decoherence on qubit behavior. It’s a measure taken to counteract it.

d: While decoherence can affect the fidelity of quantum gates, it doesn’t fundamentally restrict the types of gates that can be implemented.  The limitation comes from the difficulty in maintaining coherence long enough to execute complex gate sequences accurately.

Shor’s algorithm is indeed known for its potential to factor large integers efficiently, posing a threat to classical encryption methods. Grover’s algorithm is celebrated for its ability to search through unsorted databases much more quickly than classical counterparts. Statement 3 is incorrect as quantum algorithms have wide applications beyond physics, including computer science and mathematics. Statement 4 is also incorrect because the development of quantum algorithms, especially Shor’s algorithm, poses a significant threat to the security of current encryption methods, indicating a need for quantum-resistant encryption methods.

Statement 1 is correct: Shor’s algorithm, proposed by Peter Shor, can factorize integers in polynomial time, which is significantly faster than the best-known algorithms running on classical computers. This has important implications for cryptography, particularly RSA encryption.

Statement 2 is incorrect: Grover’s algorithm, devised by Lov Grover, offers a quadratic speedup for searching unsorted databases compared to classical algorithms. This speedup is significant because it demonstrates a clear advantage of quantum computing for certain types of problems. Both classical and quantum versions of Grover’s algorithm exist, but efficiency is key. Classical computers lack this parallelism and require checking elements one by one, resulting in linear time complexity.

Statement 3 is incorrect: The Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT) is primarily used in quantum algorithms that require the transformation of quantum states into their Fourier components, such as Shor’s algorithm for factorizing integers, not specifically for solving graph theory problems.