Ph219/CS219
Quantum Computation
Spring 2023

Course description: Ph/CS 219C is the third term in a three-term course on quantum computation and quantum information science. Topics covered in 219A included density operators, quantum operations, quantum entanglement, quantum circuits, and quantum algorithms. Ph/CS 219B covered quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computing. Ph/CS 219C will cover quantum Shannon theory and other topics to be decided.

Course website: Here

Instructor:
John Preskill, 206 Annenberg, X-6691, email: preskill(at)caltech(dot)edu

Teaching assistant:

Jielun (Chris) Chen, email: jchen9(at)caltech(dot)edu
TA Office hours: Wednesday 4-5 pm (only on weeks when HW is due) on the 4th floor Lauritsen, common space
Students may also request meetings with the TA at other times. 

 

Canvas:
We will be using the Canvas Learning Management System. You can login to Canvas using your Caltech IMSS credentials.

Class meetings: Monday and Wednesday 2:30 – 3:55 pm in 269 Lauritsen, starting April 3.  The lectures are in-person only and will not be recorded.

Homework assignments and grading: The course is graded pass-fail. Homework will be submitted, and graded homework will be returned, using Canvas.

You may receive partial credit if you describe a thoughtful approach to the problem, even if you are unable to solve it completely.

Lectures and references:
The primary reference for most of the lectures will be these lecture notes (JP). Other useful books are Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Nielsen and Chuang (NC), Classical and Quantum Computation by Kitaev, Shen, and Vyalyi (KSV), Quantum Computing Since Democritus by Aaronson, The Theory of Quantum Information by Watrous, and Quantum Information Theory by Wilde.

Other recommended lecture notes: John Watrous, Umesh Vazirani, Andrew Childs, Scott Aaronson, Ronald de Wolf

The first half of the course will cover material in Chapter 10 of the lecture notes. Wilde’s book (available on the arXiv) is a good supplementary reference for this material.

Homework assignments: 
Problem Set 1. Von Neumann entropy, due Thursday 14 April.
Problem Set 2. Information gain, due Thursday 18 May.
Problem Set 3. Quantum channel capacities, due Thursday 1 June.