Practical Quantum Computing for Developers: Programming Quantum Rigs in the Cloud using Python, Quantum Assembly Language and IBM QExperience

by Vladimir Silva

Write algorithms and program in the new field of quantum computing. This book covers major topics such as the physical components of a quantum qubits, entanglement, logic gates, circuits, and how they differ from a traditional computer. Also, Practical Quantum Computing for Developers discusses quantum computing in the cloud using IBM Q Experience the composer, quantum scores, experiments, circuits, simulators, real quantum devices, and more. You’ll be able to run experiments in the cloud on a real quantum device.Furthermore, this book shows you how to do quantum programming using the QISKit (Quantum Information Software Kit), Python SDK, and other APIs such as QASM (Quantum Assembly). You’ll learn to write code using these languages and execute it against simulators (local or remote) or a real quantum computer provided by IBM’s Q Experience. Finally, you’ll learn the current quantum algorithms for entanglement, random number generation, linear search, integer factorization, and others. You’ll peak inside the inner workings of the Bell states for entanglement, Grover’s algorithm for linear search, Shor’s algorithm for integer factorization, and other algorithms in the fields of optimization, and more.Along the way you’ll also cover game theory with the Magic Square, an example of quantum pseudo-telepathy where parties sharing entangled states can be observed to have some kind of communication between them. In this game Alice and Bob play against a referee. Quantum mechanics allows Alice and Bob to always win!By the end of this book, you will understand how this emerging technology provides massive parallelism and significant computational speedups over classical computers, and will be prepared to program quantum computers which are expected to replace traditional computers in the data center.What You Will LearnUse the Q Experience Composer, the first-of-its-kind web console to create visual programs/experiments and submit them to a quantum simulator or real device on the cloudRun programs remotely using the Q Experience REST API Write algorithms that provide superior performance over their classical counterpartsBuild a Node.js REST client for authenticating, listing remote devices, querying information about quantum processors, and listing or running experiments remotely in the cloudCreate a quantum number The quintessential coin flip with a quantum twistDiscover quantum This algorithm demonstrates how the exact state of a qubit (quantum information) can be transmitted from one location to another, with the help of classical communication and quantum entanglement between the sender and receiverPeek into single qubit operations with the classic game of Battleships with a quantum twistHandle the counterfeit coin a classic puzzle that consists of finding a counterfeit coin in a beam balance among eight coins in only two turnsWho This Book Is ForDevelopers and programmers interested in this new field of computing.  

Genres: Programming, Physics

366 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 12, 2018

Reviews

[Anthony O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed

Very elementary but worth a read. A bit of quantum mechanics. But I’ve never heard of Bernard Heisenberg! Maybe he was Werner’s unknown cousin. The Basics of gates and quantum computation. Well described. And then reams of technical detail on how to use IBM’s toy quantum computers available over the internet. The technical/programming material is poorly formatted and hard to read. Author Should consider PDF/book format when there is substantial technical content. And all of this will only be of interest if you want to write and run such programs. Python! Ugh.
The battleship stuff is tedious. But the chapters on the two games are intriguing. The final chapter describing Grover’s algorithm and Shor’s algorithm is excellent.
So, a solid intro for beginners, but probably only really useful if you want/need reams of classical programming and configuring details and intend to use the IBM online quantum computers. Simulated and real!!