Physics of Quantum Information

SPRING 2020

Course Number: PHYS 6190

(3 CREDITS, 3 CONTACT HOURS/WEEK)

Instructor: ARCHANA KAMAL

Meeting Times: Tuesday/Thursday, 5:00 - 6:15 p.m.; Location: Olney 115

Meeting Times*: Thursday, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.; Location: Online Meetings on Zoom

Office Hours: Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.; Location: Olney 132

Prerequisites: Graduate Quantum Mechanics OR Undergraduate Quantum Mechanics I and II** OR special permission from the instructor.

Grading Scheme*:

  • Homeworks - 60% 40%

  • Final presentation - 30%

  • Term paper - 10% 30%

  • Extra Credit for class participation - up to 10%

*In view of movement to online instruction, starting 03/18/2020, due to covid-19.

**To aid the conceptual groundwork, hour-long extra tutorials will be arranged for the students during the first few weeks of the semester.

PHYS 6190 Tutorials

Tutor: EMERY DOUCET (Office: OG 29)

Meeting Times: Friday, 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.; Location: Olney 136D

Schedule:

  • 01/24/2020: Interaction Picture

  • 01/31/2020: Dyson series

Course Description: This course aims to introduce the physical concepts behind the rapidly evolving field of quantum information processing, from a physicist's perspective. In the process, the course also conveys a modern information-theoretic view of physical quantum systems.

Course Policy:

  • Since this is an advanced graduate course with no exams, the students are expected to keep up with the homeworks and reading. Homework exercises are designed to both supplement and extend the details covered in the lecture through (i) demonstrating the applications of general concepts to specific research problems, and/or (ii) elucidating a new dimension of a given concept in question (not covered in the lecture explicitly). To facilitate this mode of learning, the students are strongly encouraged to complete the assigned reading as part of the homework, although no grade will be assigned for reading problems.

  • Homeworks: All problem sets (~ 6 5 in total) will be posted in the shared course folder located on UML one drive (http://onedrive.uml.edu/). The students will typically get 2 weeks to submit their solutions. No late homeworks will be accepted.

  • Final presentation and term paper: A list of contemporary journal articles will be made available to students. Each student should choose one of the research papers for in-depth study, and based on his/her review, prepare a 10-15 minutes presentation (+5 minutes for questions) and submit a critique written in standard APS journal format (please see: https://journals.aps.org/revtex ).

  • Cell Phones and Other Devices: Use of cell phones is strictly prohibited during lecture hours, except in verifiable cases of emergencies. Use of laptops and electronic tablets is limited to the instances when required for in-class exercises or running simulations explicitly provided during the course of the lectures. Students who prefer to take notes on electronic writing pads or tablets, should contact the professor and seek prior permission to do so.

  • Food and Drinks: No eatables are allowed during the lecture hours. If you have a compulsive need to eat, please excuse yourself and leave the classroom to finish your meal. The exception to this rule is only permitted in case of a medical requirement. The only drink allowed during the lectures is water (feel free to keep yourself hydrated!). No soft or alcoholic drinks are allowed in the class.

Academic Integrity: Collaborating with other students on homeworks is encouraged. However, the collective wisdom developed in the process should not preclude individual comprehension. Each student should hand in separate homeworks, (ideally) written independently of other group members.

Any suspected cheating or other instance of academic dishonesty will be dealt with as per the university policy (please read: https://www.uml.edu/Catalog/Graduate/Policies/AcademicIntegrity.aspx ).

Student Mental Health and Well-being: We are a campus that cares about the mental health and well-being of all individuals in our campus community. Your personal health and well-being can impact your success in this course. Students sometimes experience mental health concerns or stressful experiences that interfere with academics and have a negative impact on everyday life. If you or someone you know are experiencing mental health challenges at UMass Lowell, please contact Counseling (information below). Their services are free and confidential, and same day appointments are available.

You can also reach out to any one of a wide range of campus resources, including:

  • Counseling Services provides crisis intervention, assessment, referrals, short-term individual counseling, group therapy, and on-call clinicians outside of business hours. They are located at University Crossing Suite 300 and their 24/7 phone number is 978-934-6800.

  • UMatter2 is a university-wide initiative to support students and promote mental health. The office may be reached at 978-934-6671.

Consider also reaching out to a friend, faculty or family member you trust for help getting connected to the support that can help.

List of Topics

  • Dirac notation and Hilbert spaces (finite and infinite dimensional)

  • Quantum electrodynamics: Jaynes-Cummings model, vacuum Rabi oscillations and collapse and revival, dispersive readout in cavity/circuit QED.

  • Qubits: Bloch sphere representation, classical driving and single-qubit unitaries

  • Open quantum systems: density matrix formalism, Kraus representation (quantum channel description)

  • Quantum measurements: projective measurements, POVMs

  • Quantum master equation description: damped quantum oscillator and quantum regression theorem, qubit decoherence (relaxation and dephasing), resonance fluoroscence

  • Coupled qubits: Entanglement in 2- and 3-qubit systems, loophole-free Bell tests, no-go theorems

  • Quantum teleportation and super-dense coding

  • Quantum information theory: data compression and channel capacity theorems, entropy and information.

  • Quantum error correction (QEC): Quantum circuits, single-and multi-qubit unitaries, universal quantum gates, classical vs quantum coding, Shor's 9-qubit code.

  • Advanced QEC: Stabilizer formalism, fault tolerance, holographic codes

  • Recent advances: different quantum information platforms, topological quantum computing, analog quantum computing and quantum annealing etc. Specific topics will be chosen as per the availability of time.

Reference Texts

This is only a representative, not exhaustive, list of books. Given the broad span of topics covered in the course, the instructor will indicate specific texts during respective lectures.

  • Quantum Noise: C. W. Gardiner and P. Zoller

  • Quantum Statistical Properties of Radiation: W. H. Louisell

  • Quantum Optics: D. F. Walls and G. J. Milburn

  • The Theory of Open Quantum Systems: H. -P. Breuer and F. Petruccione

  • Quantum Computation and Quantum Information: M. A. Nielsen and I. L. Chuang

Selected Online Resources

Quantum Information and Computation:

Open Quantum Systems:

Quantum Information Theory: