"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." (R. Feynman)
"Those who are not shocked by quantum mechanics cannot possibly have understood it." (Attributed to Niels Bohr.)
I will teach this course in Spring Quarter 2024.
For whom is the course intended
The course will be of interest to juniors and seniors in the physical
sciences. A prior knowledge of quantum mechanices is not required since all
neccesary quantum mechanics will be taught in class. However, a good understanding of
linear algebra is needed.
Objective
In this course we will
learn that the strange, non-intuitive world of quantum
mechanics can be used to perform
certain computations more efficiently than the best algorithm
running on a traditional (classical)
computer. The course will build
up to the two key topics: (i) Shor's algorithm which could be used to break
encoded messages sent down the internet, and (ii) quantum error correction which
will be essential if we are ever going to build a quantum computer which
can outperform a classical computer on useful problems.
Unfortunately, there will not be time to describe the many experimental efforts to build
a quantum computer. This would deserve a separate course in itself.
The required text is a complete 220 page set of lecture material in book format that I have written up and is
available for free at
https://young.physics.ucsc.edu/150/phys_150_all.pdf.
A more detailed course desecription is available at
https://young.physics.ucsc.edu/150/course_description.pdf.
Peter Young's Home Page