Introduction
to Quantum Computation
Winter 2002
Raymond Laflamme laflamme@iqc.ca
888-4567 x2430 PHY 368
Michele Mosca mmosca@iqc.ca
888-4567 x2673 MC4035 884-8110 x211 STJ 105
Phillip
Kaye prkaye@iqc.ca
888-4567
x6653 MC5050
Description:
Information is stored in a physical medium and manipulated by physical
processes. A quantum computer can exploit the quantum features of Nature to
provide a qualitatively different and more powerful way of processing information
than "classical" physics seems to allow.
Outline:
General Introduction.
Postulates of Quantum Mechanics. Church-Turing thesis. Quantum Bits, Gates and
Registers. Quantum Circuits. Quantum Teleportation. Quantum Fourier Transform
and Applications (including integer factorization). Physical Realizations.
Fault Tolerant Quantum Error Correction.
Prerequisites:
EITHER
Phys364&365 OR Math235 (you need to be comfortable with basic linear
algebra) and maturity.
Recommended:
No one will be expected to
already be familiar with both theoretical computer science and quantum physics,
though having experience with one of the two will be helpful.
Textbook:
Recommended:
Quantum Computation and
Quantum Information, by Nielsen and
Chuang.
Other good references:
Preskill’s notes: http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/preskill/ph229/
Vazirani’s notes: http://http.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/qc.html#hw
Asher Peres’ book: Quantum
Theory: Concepts and Methods
Mosca’s thesis: http://cacr.math.uwaterloo.ca/~mmosca/moscathesis.ps
Evaluation: 3
assignments (15% each)
1 mid-term exam (20%)
1 project (35%)*
*Project requirements will
be heavier for those taking it for graduate credit.
Check out www.qubit.org for some tutorials and links to
other web pages. The FAQ section has some recommended reading as well.
Much of the current research is
available at http://xxx.lanl.gov under
quant-ph. Please feel free to ask the instructors about a paper before you read
it.