PRINCIPLES OF QUANTUM COMPUTATION AND INFORMATION - VOLUME I: BASIC CONCEPTS

by Giuliano Benenti, Giulio Casati, Giuliano Strini

Quantum computation and information is a new, rapidly developing interdisciplinary field. Therefore, it is not easy to understand its fundamental concepts and central results without facing numerous technical details. This book provides the reader a useful and not-too-heavy guide. It offers a simple and self-contained introduction; no previous knowledge of quantum mechanics or classical computation is required.Volume I may be used as a textbook for a one-semester introductory course in quantum information and computation, both for upper-level undergraduate students and for graduate students. It contains a large number of solved exercises, which are an essential complement to the text, as they will help the student to become familiar with the subject. The book may also be useful as general education for readers who want to know the fundamental principles of quantum information and computation and who have the basic background acquired from their undergraduate course in physics, mathematics, or computer science.

Genres: Computer Science, Textbooks, Mathematics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2004

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highlights:
- Nice concise overview of quantum mechanics and classical computing in the first two chapters
- Explanation of quantum entanglement as a way to quickly run certain algorithms in parallel
- Overview of basic quantum circuits
- Breaking RSA using Shor's Algorithm
- Quantum search can find an item in O(sqrt(N)) time - wow!
- Quantum entanglement DOESN'T result in faster-than-light information transfer - bummer!
- BB84 protocol

[Ushan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very concise and precise explanation of quantum computation and quantum communication; the second volume will cover quantum information theory. One of the authors is a specialist in the field of quantum chaos, and he includes some relevant material in this textbook. I was startled by the complexity theoretic characterization of chaotic dynamical systems in the classical preliminaries section; this is one of those things that you're supposed to learn as a child but don't realize you're missing it until well into adulthood. If you have a harmonic oscillator with period T and want to know its state after time t, a digital computer can produce an answer (calculate the sine and cosine) in time polylog(t/T). An analog computer has to run for O(t/T). If you have a chaotic system instead of a harmonic oscillator, a digital computer does no better than an analog one. A quantum digital computer apparently can do better.

[Shees Hassan]

A good review of Quantum Computation... really enjoyed it