What is the controlled-CNOT gate?

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What is the controlled-CNOT gate?

The controlled-CNOT gate, also known as the controlled-X gate or the controlled-NOT gate, is a fundamental gate in quantum computing. It is a two-qubit gate that applies a Pauli-X gate (bit-flip) operation on the target qubit if and only if the control qubit is in the state |1⟩. If the control qubit is in the state |0⟩, the target qubit remains unchanged. This gate is commonly used in quantum algorithms and quantum error correction protocols.