Methods in Quantum Computing

(Spring 2021)

Class (lecture + tutorial): 11am-2pm on Zoom

Office hours: Mondays 4pm - 5pm using the same Zoom link

Assessment

Assessment will consist of 3 assignments - a problem set, a project about an exciting topic in quantum computing, and a group report analyzing quantum protocols. The relative weighting of the assignments is 30% - 30% - 40%.

Assessment #1 Individually graded exercises. Due on Sep 6th 2021.

Assessment #2 Choose a topic in quantum computing that excites you. Research, using relevant scholarly and/or popular resources, and/or imagine the application a future quantum technology might bring us. Discuss how the technology might serve or change society/business/personal lives/economy/health, engineering, etc and discuss the challenges and limitations of the quantum approach. Prepare and record a 5-10-minute presentation that discusses the technology and its application. Upload your video to Youtube/Vimeo/Dropbox and send your link to me and/or to our Slack channel. Exceptionally creative videos can earn bonus points. Provide feedback to at least 5 other videos within two weeks after the submission deadline. Due on Oct 11th 2021.

Assessment #3 This assessment includes a in-class presentation and a submitted written report. Each group (ideally pairs), will be given known quantum computing protocols. Groups will need to explain why the protocols are more advantageous than their classical counterparts. In order to determine this, students will need to research the classical and quantum literature in the appropriate protocol. Report due on 11.59pm Wednesday 3 November and presentations will be in class on November 1st. List of protocols to choose from. The presentation should be about 20 minutes including questions but the time is somewhat flexible. As for the report, anything between 2-10 pages would be acceptable as far as you're able to explain the result.

Recommended texts

Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang, "Quantum Computation and Quantum Information," Cambridge University Press.

Phillip Kaye, Raymond Laflamme and Michele Mosca, "An Introduction to Quantum Computing", Oxford University Press

Lecture notes from John Preskill and his video lectures

Very useful quantum computation prerequisite material from Richard Jozsa

Useful tools

IBM quantum experience

Lecture #1 (August 2nd, 11am)

We will focus on the motivation behind quantum computing and learn about models of computation and Church-Turing thesis, logic circuits and quantum circuits.

lecture notes (added more material about working with quantum circuits)

lecture

40 years of quantum computing (specifically 18:01 Charlie Bennett - 1981 49:20 Peter Shor - Development of Quantum Algorithms and Error Correction 01:26:53 Steve Girvin - A Brief History of Superconducting Qubits)

Richard P. Feynman, Simulating Physics with Computers

Lecture #2 (August 9th, 11am)

We will review and deepen our understanding of quantum mechanics - quantum states, operations and measurements.

lecture notes

linear algebra for quantum computing

solutions to exercises

Lecture #3 and # 4 (August 16th and 23th, 11am)

We will start studying quantum algorithms and cover notions such as oracles and gate and query complexity. We will learn about phase kickback, Hadamard transform and if we have time quantum Fourier transform. In the second lecture with more advanced algorithms - phase estimation, Shor, Grover and Hamiltonian simulations.

lecture notes (notes for both lectures)