2025 Spring: Quantum Information and Computation

Instructor: Hao-Chung Cheng

[email protected]

Course Description
This course presents the subject of quantum information processing, which lies at the intersection of
mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering. We will explore the mathematical founda-
tion of quantum information processing; namely, the mathematical formalism of quantum systems,
how to manipulate, store, transmit, and compute quantum information, that are fundamental to a
broad range of studies including quantum computing, quantum communications, quantum cryptog-
raphy, and quantum learning. Most of these studies have demonstrated striking and transformative
features, which hence facilitate the rapid developments of current quantum information technologies.
This is a theory course. We will not address quantum hardware. Hence no prerequisites of
quantum physics are required. Our ultimate goal is to explore the mathematical principles of
quantum information, and to investigate its potential applications and capabilities provided that
we already have a universal quantum computer. In other words, if we have a universal quantum
computer, what can we do about it? How well can we do with it? How to analyze the performance
of a quantum information-processing task? This course aims to answer these questions.
The course is intended for graduate students, however undergraduate students are highly
welcome. The prerequisites are linear algebra and basic knowledge of probability and statistics.
No previous background in quantum mechanics is required. This course is taught in English.

Course Venue and Time

The course is regularly on every Monday 9:10 AM – 12:10 PM of the spring term, at EE-II Room
143.

Course Objectives
(1) Introduce fundamental concepts and mathematical framework of quantum information (the
so-called quantum bits)—how to model it, process it, and measure it.
(2) Present core quantum computing topics including quantum circuit models and basic quan-
tum algorithms, and how to harness quantum computing power to speed-up classical com-
putational tasks.
(3) Learn compressing quantum information and communicating classical/quantum information
through a quantum channel, and various quantum information-processing protocols.
(4) Develop necessary abilities for students to independently study advanced topics in quantum
information sciences and to innovate applications in quantum information technology.
(5) Perform a term project on studying advanced topics of the latest research, experiment
development, technologies of quantum information processing.
(6) Equip students with sufficient backgrounds to self-study academic papers and self-learn in
this field after taking this course.

Date: January 8, 2025.

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Lecture Schedule
Part I - Closed Quantum Systems
(1) Foundations and Postulates for Closed Quantum Systems: Quantum States, Evolution, and
Projective Measurements.
(2) The Quantum No-Go Theorem: No-Cloning Theorem, No-Signaling Theorem, and No-
Perfect Discrimination.
(3) Basic Quantum Protocols: Teleportation, Dense Coding, Quantum Key Distribution.
(4) Quantum Computation I: Quantum Circuit Model and Algorithms.
(5) Quantum Computation II: Algorithms Based on Amplitude Amplification.
(6) Quantum Computation III: Algorithms Based on Phase Estimation.
(7) Quantum Computation IV: Integer Factorization Algorithm.
(8) Quantum Non-Local Games
Mid-Term Exam
Part II - Open Quantum Systems
(9) Foundations and Postulates for Open Quantum Systems: Density Operators, Quantum
Channels, and Quantum Measurements.
(10) Distance Measures: Quantum Fidelity, Trace Distance, and Quantum Entropies.
(11) Quantum Shannon Theory I: Quantum Compression.
(12) Quantum Shannon Theory II: Hypothesis Testing and Classical Communication over Quan-
tum Channels.
(13) Quantum Shannon Theory III: Quantum Communication over Quantum Channels.
(14) Quantum Error Correction.
(15) Advanced Topics: Quantum Machine Learning (as time permits).

Reference Materials
The course materials are slides. There are no designated textbooks. The following are recommended
and quite useful references for study. The primary reference materials are marked in blue color.
(i) General Overview:
• Michael Nielsen and Issac Chuang. Quantum Computation and Quantum Information,
Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Benjamin Schumacher and Michael Westmoreland. Quantum Processes Systems, and
Information, Cambridge Press, 2010.
(ii) Quantum Computing:
• P. Kaye, R. Laflamme, M. Mosca. An Introduction to Quantum Computing, Oxford
University Press, 2007.
• N. David Mermin. Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction, Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 2007.
• A. Yu. Kitaev, A. H. Shen and M. N. Vyalyi. Classical and Quantum Computation
(Graduate Studies in Mathematics), AMS, 2002.
(iii) Quantum Information Theory:
• Mark M. Wilde. Quantum Information Theory, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• Marco Tomamichel. Quantum Information Processing with Finite Resources: Mathe-
matical Foundations, Springer, 2015.
• M. Hayashi. Quantum Information: An Introduction, Springer, 2006.
• Alexander S. Holevo. Quantum Systems, Channels, Information, de Gruyter, 2013.
• Joseph M. Renes. Quantum Information Theory: Concepts and Methods, de Gruyter,
2022.
(iv) Quantum Statistics:
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 • Alexander S. Holevo. Probabilistic and Statistical Aspects of Quantum Theory, Springer,
2011.
• Alexander S. Holevo. Statistical Structure of Quantum Theory, Springer, 2001.
• Denés Petz. Quantum Information Theory and Quantum Statistics, Springer, 2008.
(v) Mathematical Perspective:
• John Watrous. The Theory of Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press,
2018.
• Mário Ziman and Teiko Heinosaari. The Mathematical Language of Quantum Theory:
From Uncertainty to Entanglement, Cambridge University Press, 2011.
(vi) Quantum Error Correction Codes:
• Daniel Gottesman. Surviving as a Quantum Computer in a Classical World, (In prepa-
ration).
• Daniel A. Lidar and Todd A. Brun. Quantum Error Correction, Cambridge University
Press, 2013.
(vii) Continuous Variables:
• Nicolas J. Cerf, Gerd Leuchs, Eugene S. Polzik. Quantum Information with Continuous
Variables of Atoms and Light, World Scientific, 2007.
• Alessio Serafini. Quantum Continuous Variables: A Primer of Theoretical Methods,
CRC Press, 2017.
(viii) Matrix Analysis:
• Fumio Hiai and Denés Petz. Introduction to Matrix Analysis and Applications, Springer
International Publishing, 2014.
• Rajendra Bhatia. Matrix Analysis, Springer, 1997.
• Nicholas J. Higham. Functions of Matrices: Theory and Computation, Society for
Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2008.
(ix) Classical Cryptography:
• Yehuda Lindell Ed. Tutorials on the Foundations of Cryptography (Dedicated to Oded
Goldreich), Springer, 2017.
• Jonathan Katz and Yehuda Lindell. Introduction to Modern Cryptography (2nd Edi-
tion), Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2014.
(x) Classical Complexity Theory:
• Robert A. Meyers. Computational Complexity: Theory, Techniques, and Applications,
Springer, 2011.
Students may also find the following lecture notes to be helpful:
• John Preskill. Quantum Computation at California Institute of Technology:
http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/preskill/ph229/.
• John Watrous. Theory of Quantum Information at University of Waterloo:
https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/ watrous/CS766/.
• Michael M. Wolf. Quantum Channels & Operations Guided Tour at Technische Universität
München:
https://www-m5.ma.tum.de/foswiki/pub/M5/Allgemeines/MichaelWolf/QChannelLecture.pdf.
• Ronald de Wolf. Quantum Computing: Lecture Notes at University of Amsterdam:
https://homepages.cwi.nl/ rdewolf/qcnotes.pdf.
• Andrew Childs. Quantum Algorithms at University of Waterloo (2008):
http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/ amchilds/teaching/w08/co781.html
http://www.cs.umd.edu/ amchilds/qa/.
• Mark M. Wilde. Introduction to Quantum Information Theory at Louisiana State Univer-
sity: http://www.markwilde.com/teaching/2017-spring-qit/.
• Mark M. Wilde. Gaussian Quantum Information at Louisiana State University:
http://www.markwilde.com/teaching/2019-spring-gqi/.
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• Michael Walter. Symmetry and Quantum Information at University of Amsterdam:
https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/m.walter/qit18/.
• Richard Jozsa. Quantum Computation at University of Cambridge:
http://www.qi.damtp.cam.ac.uk/part-iii-quantum-computation.
• Nilanjana Datta and Sergii Strelchuk. Quantum Information Theory at University of Cam-
bridge:
http://www.qi.damtp.cam.ac.uk/part-iii-quantum-information-theory.
• Stephane Attal. Lectures in QUANTUM NOISE THEORY at Institut Camille Jordan:
http://math.univ-lyon1.fr/ attal/chapters.html.
• Fernando G.S.L. Brandao, Matthias Christandl, Aram W. Harrow, Michael Walter. The
Mathematics of Entanglement. Lecture notes for the 5th Summer School on Mathemati-
cal Physics at the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (2013): arXiv:1604.01790
[quant-ph].
• Scott Aaronson. Quantum Computing Since Democritus at University of Waterloo (2006):
https://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/.

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Review Papers (To be continued...)
(i) Quantum Hypothesis Testing:
• K. M. R. Audenaert, M. Nussbaum, A. Szkola, F. Verstraete, “Asymptotic Error
Rates in Quantum Hypothesis Testing,” Commun. Math. Phys. 279, 251–283, 2008.
10.1007/s00220-008-0417-5
(ii) Quantum Entanglement:
• Ryszard Horodecki, Pawel Horodecki, Michal Horodecki, Karol Horodecki, “Quantum
entanglement,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 81:865-942, 2009. DOI:10.1103/RevModPhys.81.865
(iii) Quantum Error Correction Codes:
• Daniel Gottesman, “An Introduction to Quantum Error Correction and Fault-Tolerant
Quantum Computation,” arXiv:0904.2557
(iv) Continuous Variables:
• Alessandro Ferraro, Stefano Olivares, Matteo G. A. Paris, “Gaussian states in contin-
uous variable quantum information,” arXiv:quant-ph/0503237
• Gerardo Adesso, Sammy Ragy, Antony R. Lee, “Continuous variable quantum in-
formation: Gaussian states and beyond,” Open Syst. Inf. Dyn. 21, 1440001, 2014.
DOI:10.1142/S1230161214400010
• Christian Weedbrook, Stefano Pirandola, Raul Garcia-Patron, Nicolas J. Cerf, Timothy
C. Ralph, Jeffrey H. Shapiro, Seth Lloyd, “Gaussian Quantum Information,” Reviews
of Modern Physics 84, 621, 2012. DOI:10.1103/RevModPhys.84.621
• Samuel L. Braunstein and Peter van Loock, “Quantum information with continuous
variables,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 77, 513, 2005. DOI:10.1103/RevModPhys.77.513
(v) Quantum Cryptography:
• S. Pirandola et al., “Advances in Quantum Cryptography,” arXiv:1906.01645
(vi) Quantum Sensing:
• C. L. Degen, F. Reinhard, P. Cappellaro, “Quantum sensing,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 89,
035002, 2017. 10.1103/RevModPhys.89.035002
(vii) Quantum Tomography:
• M. Mohseni, A. T. Rezakhani, D. A. Lidar, “Quantum Process Tomography: Re-
source Analysis of Different Strategies,” Phys. Rev. A 77, 032322, 2008 10.1103/Phys-
RevA.77.032322