Recently Quantum Computation has generated a lot of interest due to the
discovery of a quantum algorithm which can factor large numbers in polynomial
time. The usefulness of a quantum com puter is limited by the effect of errors.
Simulation is a useful tool for determining the feasibility of quantum
computers in the presence of errors. The size of a quantum computer that can be
simulat ed is small because faithfully modeling a quantum computer requires an
exponential amount of storage and number of operations. In this paper we define
simulation models to study the feasibility of quantum computers. The most
detailed of these models is based directly on a proposed imple mentation. We
also define less detailed models which are exponentially less complex but still
pro duce accurate results. Finally we show that the two different types of
errors, decoherence and inaccuracies, are uncorrelated. This decreases the
number of simulations which must be per formed.Comment: 25 page
