Quantum Information I (SS2011)

Thursdays April 7-July 14. No sessions on June 2, June 16, June 23 and in the week of April 25-29.

Lecture at 13.30-15.00 in Room 28 B 110, Physikzentrum. Exercise session in Room B 110 from 15.00-16.00.

Overview

• Lecture 1. History. Basic review of quantum mechanics of finite-dimensional systems: states, density matrices, measurement, entanglement. Problem Set 1.
• Lecture 2+3. What is different in quantum mechanics than in classical physics? Nonlocality, Bell inequalities, quantum teleportation, no-cloning theorem, quantum cryptography. Problem Set 2. Problem Set 3.
  
• Lecture 4. Introduction to the computational perspective and theory of computation. Problem Set 4.
  
• Lecture 5+6. Quantum gates and circuits. Universality, approximation of gates, quantum simulation. Problem Set 5. Problem Set 6.
  
• Lecture 7+8. Quantum Algorithmic Tools: Fourier Transform, Phase Estimation and applications in various algorithms. Problem Set 7. Problem Set 8.
  
• Lecture 9. Grover's search algorithm. Problem Set 9.
  
• Lecture 10+11. Decoherence, noise and error-correction. Problem Set 10.
  

Projects

The deadline for handing in the projects is Friday August 12. I will be traveling during the first weeks of August, so you can hand the projects to our secretary Helene Barton in Room 36A302 (since Mrs. Barton works part-time, consider checking in advance whether she is in).

Background reading material

NC stands for 'Quantum Computation and Quantum Information' by M.A. Nielsen and I.L. Chuang (Cambridge University Press).

Beyond NC, other good books or background sources of information are:

• Book Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction by David Mermin (Cambridge University Press 2007).

• Book Quantum Information by Stephen M. Barnett (Oxford University Press 2009).
  

• Lectures Notes of Quantum Computation Course by John Preskill at Caltech, see www.theory.caltech.edu/~preskill/ph219/index.html
  

Here are some recommendations concerning background material specific to the lectures:

• @Lecture 1. Chapter 2.1-2.5 in NC.
• @Lecture 2+3. Chapter 1.3.5, 1.3.6, 1.3.7, 2.6, 12.6.1, 12.6.3 in NC. Chapter 2 of review on Non-Locality and Communication Complexity.
  
• @Lecture 4. Chapter 3 in NC, Computational Complexity for Physicists by S. Mertens. Computational Complexity: Boulder lectures 1 and 2 by Ashwin Nayak.
• @Lecture 5+6. Chapter 4 in NC.
• @Lecture 7+8. Chapter 5 in NC. David Mermin's slides on Shor's factoring algorithm.
• @Lecture 9. Chapter 6 in NC.
• @Lecture 10+11. Chapters 8,9,10 in NC.