Quantum information and computation

CSE 534^* | Autumn 2024

Course information

Instructor: Chinmay Nirkhe (OH: Tu 2:00 - 3:00pm, CSE2 217)
Teaching Assistant (TA): Lukshya Ganjoo (OH: Mon 3:30 - 4:30pm, CSE2 121)
Location: Guggenheim Hall Rm. 218
Times: Tu, Th 10:00am - 11:30am
Final: Dec 9, 2024 10:00am - 12:20pm

Course description

Introduction to quantum information and computation. Qubits, quantum gates, and measurements. Entanglement and non-locality. Density matrix formalism. Quantum algorithms: Simon's algorithm, Grover search, Shor's factoring, and Hamiltonian Simulation. Quantum error-correction. Recommended: either solid background in mathematics and/or theoretical computer science, or prior familiarity with quantum-computing fundamentals.

Prerequisites

The course material will be accessible to both computer scientists and physicists, provided they have a strong mathematical background. No explicit prerequisites are set for this course. We will review what is necessary but students with weaker math backgrounds may need to review material outside the course as necessary.

My expectation is that students have strong mathematical background in linear algebra (such as MATH 318, 340, or equiv.). They should have taken and done well in such courses. In terms of computer science prerequisites, exposure to the theory of computation (such as CSE 431, 531, or equiv.) and theory of algorithms (such as CSE 417, CSE 521-22, 525, or equiv.) is useful as we will be extending the results from classical computation to quantum computation. No physics knowledge is necessary but it doesn't hurt to have taken a previous course on quantum mechanics (such as PHYS 225, 324, or equiv.). It is also helpful (but not necessary) to have taken group theory (such as MATH 402-04, 411-12, or equiv.), and analysis (such as MATH 327, 424-28 or equiv.).

Undergraduate students or graduate students of non-traditional backgrounds for this course are encouraged to contact me to see if this course is right for them.

Literature and other material

There are no explicit textbooks for this course but the following is a pretty good library to have around. I will link related readings from these books or online lecture notes as appropriate:

Nielsen and Chuang. Quantum Computation and Quantum Information.
Kitaev, Shen, and Vyalyi. Classical and Quantum Computation.
Wong. Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing.

This video lecture series from Watrous at IBM may also be helpful.

The following are topics textbooks that might be helpful for further exploration outside the scope of this course.

Watrous. The Theory of Quantum Information.
Arora and Barak. Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach.
Vidick and Wehner. Introduction to Quantum Cryptography.

Course schedule and topics†

Lecture 00: Video Lecture on Perspective and Course Administration

This video lecture covers the broad perspective on what is quantum information and computation and how we will study it through this course. It also goes over all the administrative questions you may have.
Video is ~40 minutes in length but definitely watchable at 2x speed.
We will hit the ground running in Lecture 1 with some mathematics so don't skip out on this video.
Peruse Problem Set 0. Additionally, the following linear algebra notes (1 & 2) from previous course iterations are helpful if problem set 0 is challenging.
Supplementary reading for problem set 0: N&C 2.0.0 - 2.1.10

Lecture 01 (9/26): Axioms of quantum computation, Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm

Supplementary reading: N&C 1.0.0-1.3.2 and 1.4.4

Lecture 02 (10/1): Elitzur-Vaidman Bomb Tester, Generalized measurements
Lecture 03 (10/3): Quantum computation on multiple qubits, what is entanglement
Lecture 04 (10/8): Bell inequalities, CHSH game
Lecture 05 (10/10): TBD

UW Public Lecture by Peter Shor 10/10 7:30pm. Info link.

Lecture 06 (10/15): TBD
Lecture 07 (10/17): TBD
Lecture 08 (10/22): TBD
Lecture 09 (10/24): TBD
Lecture 10 (10/29): TBD
Lecture 11 (10/31): TBD
Lecture 12 (11/05): TBD
Lecture 13 (11/07): TBD
Lecture 14 (11/12): TBD
Lecture 15 (11/14): TBD
Lecture 16 (11/19): TBD
Lecture 17 (11/21): TBD
Lecture 18 (11/26): TBD
Lecture 19 (12/03): TBD
Lecture 20 (12/05): TBD
Final Exam (12/09)

Problem sets and grading

Problem Set 0: Optional and not graded. (Solutions)
Problem Set 1: Due Oct 2 10:00pm
Problem Set 2: Due Oct 16 10:00pm
Problem Set 3: Due Oct 30 10:00pm
Problem Set 4: Due Nov 13 10:00pm
Problem Set 5: Due Nov 27 10:00pm

Grades in this course are based 70% on problem sets and 30% on the final. As this is a graduate course, we will try to be lenient for reasonable extension requests on problem sets but all requests are up to the discretion of the TA and a reason for refusal or approval will not be given.

^{*. This course was previously known as CSE 599Q.↩}
^{†. Course schedule and contents subject to change and will be announced throughout the term.↩}