Welcome to Qunet
Preface
These are notes to accompany the course on quantum computing taught at Southern Illinois University. Until otherwise noted these notes are a work in progress. Therefore, if there are any suggestions, questions, comments, errors, etc. please let me know so that appropriate modifications can be made.
There are several good books on quantum computing. This is not an attempt to displace them or replace them. The concentration on error prevention and noise is likely different than what has been done before and the desire is to have them rather self-contained so that few, if any, other resources are absolutely required. However, it is strongly recommended that other resources are consulted along with these notes since they are unlikely to be a complete resource any time soon. Furthermore, the are not likely to be a better resource for many topics which are better and more thoroughly treated elsewhere.
The objective to provide course material which will be introductory enough to enable an undergraduate science major with some background in linear algebra to follow the course. This includes physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering majors. A good place to start is N. David Mermin's book [11].
N. David Mermin's book [11], David J. Giffiths's book [8], and (of course) Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang's book [13] have all greatly influenced these notes. They have influenced many parts even if they are not explicitly cited. In the case of Griffiths's book, I taught an undergraduate quantum mechanics course the semester before I taught this course. Therefore many of the examples, pedagogy, and exposition were influenced by his book, which I very much appreciate.
Qunet is intended to be a network for quantum physicists, particularly those working in the fields of quantum information and quantum computation. One of the main features of Qunet is a set of lecture notes using Mediawiki. This means it has wiki features. However, unlike Wikipedia which virtually anyone can edit, only registered users can edit this book and the administrators will determine who can register. click here to request an account.
Here are some features of the wiki book that we find appealing
- clickable table of contents,
- clickable terms,
- clickable index,
- clickable citations and other references. This was the intent of the wikibook format - an easily navigated document.
- This is a living document. If you don't like a section or some other aspect of the book, let one of the registered users know, or ask to become a registered user, and CHANGE IT!
- ITS FREE TO READ!
The original content of the book is based on a very introductory course at Southern Illinois University. The only requirement for the course was some knowledge of linear algebra. However, an appendix provides an introduction to linear algebra. It is therefore perhaps only calculus and vector algebra which really must be prerequisites. The idea of an introductory course is that quantum technology is not just for physicists any more. Quantum Physics is creeping into many different aspects of our everyday lives through technologies which depend on the control of quantum systems. Therefore people from all areas of science should be able to learn from these notes and if they can't, they should reread the list above.
Qunet is run on a dedicated server purchased though a grant from the National Science Foundation. If you have other ideas of what to put on this web site, please let us know. We would particularly like to have a very thorough set of links to other resources on the web. It could be a link, a blog, comment, a link to your work, or even one of your papers can be uploaded under certain circumstances.
Finally, the success of such an open document will, of course, depend on participation from people in the field and those who want to learn more about the field.
Much of this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0545798. However, any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. By now there seem to be quite a few books on quantum computing. However, there are only a few which were recommended for the course. (These are in no particular order.)
- Visit http://www.qubit.org and click on "What is QIP?" There are several introductory articles there about quantum mechanics and quantum computing. There are other interesting articles as well.
- N. David Mermin's book.
- Paraphrasing from the book: This book was written as an
introduction to quantum computation which does not assume any
background in physics. It evolved from his course on quantum
computing for undergraduate and graduate students at Cornell
and is for students from computer science, mathematics,
engineering, and physics.
I have heard him speak and read another book of his. His explanations are great. - Shankar's book: Principles of Quantum Mechanics
- The book contains topics which are more advanced, but starts fairly simply and the primary reason I list it here is that the first chapter has a lot of the mathematics that we will be using (and probably more) written at a fairly basic level, although it is somewhat abstract.
- Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang's book.
- This book has a little bit about many different subjects. Its easy to read (for the most part) and contains very important and fairly basic information. This has been THE textbook and reference book since about 2001.
- John Preskill's Course notes.
- Amazing! These notes were essentially THE textbook treatment before the book of Neilsen and Chuang book and are still very good for a variety of introductory topics as well as a good reference for a variety of topics. Some of them quite advanced. It’s available on the web!
- Frank Gaitan's book.
- To my knowledge this is the first book on quantum error correction. Approximately the second half of the course will cover quantum error prevention methods.