Aug-Dec 2023

ECS417/617: Introduction to Quantum Computer Science

Pre-requisites: Linear Algebra 

Course syllabus:

Module 1: Review of Linear Algebra for Quantum mechanics, Quantum bits, Postulates of quantum mechanics, Pure and mixed states, Bloch sphere, Rotation gates, Density matrices, Pauli matrices, Entanglement, Single and two-qubit quantum gates, Superdense coding, Teleportation and No-go theorems.

Module 2: Quantum circuits, Reversible computation, Universal family of quantum gates, quantum communication, quantum channels, Kraus operators,  Capacity and Quantum key distribution

Module 3: Fundamental quantum algorithms:  Oracles, Deutsch-Jozsa, Bernstein-Vazirani, Simon, Grover, Shor’s algorithm and estimation of resources for quantum computing and algorithms.

Module 4: Fundamentals of Quantum error correction: Review of classical error correction, Error models for classical and quantum computing, Examples of quantum error correcting codes, Knill-Laflamme conditions and Stabilizer formalism.

Textbook: 

M. Nielsen and I. Chuang. Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Reference Books:

1. N. D. Mermin. Quantum computer science. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

2. P. Kaye, R. Laflamme and M. Mosca. An Introduction to Quantum Computing. Oxford University Press, New York, 2007.

3. M. Wilde. Quantum Information theory. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Note: Background in quantum mechanics is not necessary.

Class time: 

TBA

Grading policy: 

10%: Participation

30%: 2 Quizzes

30%: Mid-sem 

30%: End-sem

Homeworks: Homeworks will be posted regularly on the Classroom portal