PHYS 4852 / MATH 4252 Quantum Information and Computing covers postulates of quantum mechanics, matrix theory, density matrices, qubits, qubit registers, entanglement, quantum gates, superdense coding, quantum teleportation, quantum algorithms, open systems, decoherence, physical realization of quantum computers.

PR: PHYS 3820 or MATH 2051

The course is a basic introduction to this rapidly evolving field of science. The beginning of the course is dedicated to the basic formulation of quantum theory, tailored to the needs of quantum information and computing. No prior knowledge of quantum mechanics is necessary. We will learn the postulates of quantum theory, which say exactly what a state of a qubit (register) is, how a state evolves in the course of time and what it means to make measurements of a quantum register (readout). The mathematical formulation is built on basic linear algebra (vectors, matrices, eigenvalues). The postulates of quantum theory are essentially a dictionary telling us how to interpret facts and equations of linear algebra as physical properties of qubits. We will then discuss the notions of density matrix, entanglement, quantum gates, superdense coding, quantum teleportation, quantum algorithms, open systems, decoherence.

Potential Texts:

• There are many excellent introductory books on the topic. A standard reference is: M.A. Nielsen & I.L. Chuang: Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press.