What Has Quantum Mechanics to do with Factoring?

Prof. N. David Mermin, the Horace White Professor of Physics (Emeritus) of Conrell University, will give the Applied Physics/Physics colloquium on April 5, 2011.  The colloquium is entitled, "What Has Quantum Mechanics to do with Factoring?" and the abstract reads, "Quantum computer science will be introduced in the context of its most sensational algorithm:  the highly efficient factoring routine discovered by Peter Shor.  I will emphasize those features of Shor's procedure that puzzled, surprised and charmed me in the course of my own efforts to better understand how it does its magic.  The subject offers some offbeat glimpses of both quantum mecahnics and computation."