Overview

  • Lecturer: Dominique Unruh
  • Semester: Summer 2024
  • Level: Bachelor / Master
  • Time: Monday 12:30–14:00 (lecture) • Thursday 14:30–16:00 (practice) • Friday 14:30–16:00 (lecture) Not every time, see the “important information” in Moodle for details.
  • Further info: Moodle room, Module,
  • Rooms: AH III

Description

What are quantum computers? Are they magic computers that can compute everything faster? Or are they some science-fiction that has nothing to do with reality? How do they work? What can they do? In this lecture, we will introduce the basics of quantum computing from the computer science perspective. We will understand how quantum mechanics allows us to compute some problems faster (and some not), how to program a quantum computer, and what the challenges are. There will be a mix of mathematical foundations, and applied quantum computer programming.

Materials

Most materials and information are in the Moodle room. However, lecture videos and whiteboards can also be found in this shared folder. A script can be found here (work in progress).

Content

  • Mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics
  • How do quantum computers work?
  • How are quantum computers built? (Physical implementations.)
  • Why are quantum computers difficult (problems with noise)
  • Programming a quantum computer (Writing your own quantum programs.)
  • Quantum algorithms:
    • Simple basic algorithms
    • Grover’s algorithm (“database” search)
    • Shor’s algorithm (factoring, etc.)
    • Possibly more
  • Quantum simulation (simulating physical processes with a quantum computer)
  • The course comes with both theory and with programming exercises, to run on simulated (or real) quantum computers.

See also the learning objectives.