English

Factoring numbers with a single interferogram

Quantum Physics 2015-06-10 v1

Abstract

We construct an analog computer based on light interference to encode the hyperbolic function f({\zeta}) = 1/{\zeta} into a sequence of skewed curlicue functions. The resulting interferogram when scaled appropriately allows us to find the prime number decompositions of integers. We implement this idea exploiting polychromatic optical interference in a multipath interferometer and factor seven-digit numbers. We give an estimate for the largest number that can be factored by this scheme.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1506.02907,
  title  = {Factoring numbers with a single interferogram},
  author = {Vincenzo Tamma and Heyi Zhang and Xuehua He and Augusto Garuccio and Wolfgang P. Schleich and Yanhua Shih},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.02907},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:50:08.327Z