Course Overview

Information is something that can be encoded in the state of a physical system, and a computation is a task that can be performed with a physically realizable device. Therefore, since the physical world is fundamentally quantum mechanical, the foundations of information theory and computer science should be sought in quantum physics.

In fact, quantum information -- information stored in the quantum state of a physical system -- has weird properties that contrast sharply with the familiar properties of "classical" information. And a quantum computer -- a new type of machine that exploits the quantum properties of information -- could perform certain types of calculations far more efficiently than any foreseeable classical computer.

In this course, we will study the properties that distinguish quantum information from classical information. And we will see how these properties can be exploited in the design of quantum algorithms that solve certain problems faster than classical algorithms can.

A quantum computer will be much more vulnerable than a conventional digital computer to the effects of noise and of imperfections in the machine. Unavoidable interactions of the device with its surroundings will damage the quantum information that it encodes, a process known as decoherence. Schemes must be developed to overcome this difficulty if quantum computers are ever to become practical devices.

In this course, we will study quantum error-correcting codes that can be exploited to protect quantum information from decoherence and other potential sources of error. And we will see how coding can enable a quantum computer to perform reliably despite the inevitable effects of noise.

Building a quantum computer that really works will not be easy. Experimental physicists are now just beginning to build and operate hardware that can coherently process quantum information.

In this course, we will learn about the pioneering efforts to operate quantum computing hardware, using ion traps, cavity quantum electrodynamics, and nuclear magnetic resonance.

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