How Quantum Computers Break Encryption | Shor’s Algorithm Explained

Go to to download Dashlane for free, and use offer code minutephysics for 10% off Dashlane Premium! Support MinutePhysics on Patreon! This video explains Shor’s Algorithm, a way to efficiently factor large pseudoprime integers into their prime factors using a quantum computer. The quantum computation relies on the number-theoretic analysis of the factoring problem via modular arithmetic mod N (where N is the number to be factored), and finding the order or period of a random coprime number mod N. The exponential speedup comes in part from the use of the quantum fast fourier transform which achieves interference among frequencies that are not related to the period (period-finding is the goal of the QFT FFT). REFERENCES RSA Numbers (sample large numbers to try factoring) IBM on RSA