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.

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.