CS571, Introduction to Quantum Computation

Room

We will be in Humanities 216.

Prerequisites

To take this course you need to be confident in 1) and 2) below, and have some understanding of 3). In the CS department some of these things are taught in CS530; if you took that course you should have done well in it if you want to take this one.

1. Linear algebra: what are the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of a matrix? What is its inverse and transpose? What is the inner product between two vectors? What is an orthonormal basis? What does it mean to diagonalize a matrix by changing basis? Why do we change basis (transform) a matrix by conjugating it by another? What does it mean to project a vector into a subspace?

2. Complex numbers: what is the complex conjugate of a complex number? What it its phase? What is its magnitude? What is e^(i theta)?

3. Fourier analysis: what is the Fourier transform? Why do the basis functions e^(i omega x) form an orthonormal basis? The Fourier transform is a linear transformation; what matrix carries it out? What is its inverse? Why does the Fourier transform change convolution into multiplication and vice versa?

Books and notes

Our book is Nielsen and Chuang, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information.

We may also use lecture notes by John Preskill and David Mermin.

My office hours

My office is in Farris Engineering Center, FEC335. My office hours are Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 and Wednesdays from 2:00 to 3:00. You should also feel free to email me, which is often the quickest way to get help.

Mailing list

To get on the mailing list, click on the CS dept listserv page.

Draft Chapter

You can download the current version of my chapter on quantum computing here. Please do problems 2, 3, 4, 13, 27, 31, 32, 45, and 46. You can form groups in any way you desire (feel free to use the email list) and I will grade each group's work collectively.