This course is an introduction to quantum computation, with a focus in the last third on quantum error correction. It is suitable for students with a physics, nanoscience, computer science or mathematical background. Theologians and philosophers have also been known to try it out!

The language of instruction is English.

Course Text

The course will be based on the Qiskit textbook. Links to specific pages will be given for each lecture. Note that this textbook is no longer maintained, and so does not reflect the most recent version of Qiskit.

Lectures

The course consists of the following set of lectures. We will aim to do slightly more than one per week. All lectures will be given in person (14:15, Physik, Alter Hörsaal 2, 1.22), but video versions of many lectures are available also. For those, links to the pertinent parts of the Qiskit textbook can be found in the video descriptions. Let me know if any link doesn't work!

16/09: The Atoms of Computation and What is Quantum
23/09: Representing Single Qubit States and Gates
30/09: Multi qubit States and Circuit Identities
07/10: Fun with matrices
14/10: Circuits and Universality - Notes available here
21/10: Basic Algorithms and Protocols - Notes available here
28/10: From the Fourier Transform to Shor's Algorithm
04/11: Grover's Algorithm and why we can't yet run it - Notes available here
11/11: Notion of entanglement theory: checking that what we are doing is indeed quantum - Notes available here, application notebooks available
18/11: The main obstacle to fault-tolance: noise in Quantum computers - Notes available here
25/11: Mitigating noise: being right at a cost [May change]
02/12: Introduction to QEC 1: The repetition code and Introduction to QEC 2: The surface code
09/12: NISQ-compatible algorithms [May change]
16/12: Final Project brainstorming (1 hour only)

Extra Topics

For some lectures there is also some extra content. We'll cover it if there is time. Otherwise, you can expect to see it in the exercises.

The Unique Properties of Qubits
Python, Qiskit and Hello Qiskit
Density matrices, partial trace and Schmidt decomposition. (Largely included in the "Notion of Entanglement" lecture)
Proof that Clifford + t is universal
Relative Entropy and Entanglement Sharing (Largely included in the "Notion of Entanglement" lecture)
Quantum key distribution
Quantum noise (Largely included in the "noise in Quantum Computer" lecture) and Stabilizer formalism

Exercises

Take-Home Exercises

Four sets of take-home exercises set throughout the course. There will be hints sessions at 16:15 on the dates that these are set. Solutions will be presented after the exercises have been graded.

Exercise 1: Set 30/09, due 14/10.
Exercise 2: Set 21/10, due 4/11.
Exercise 3: Set 11/11, due 25/11.
Exercise 4: Set 02/12, due 16/12.

Note: These exercises form the final grade for the 2 practical credit points

Practice Exercises

We will also have practice exercises that are not handed in and not graded. The TA will take you through hints and solutions.

Practice Exercises 1: set 7/10, solutions 14/10.
Practice Exercises 2: set 14/10, solutions 21/10.
Practice Exercises 3: set 28/10, solutions 04/10.
Practice Exercises 4: set 04/11, solutions 11/11.

Final Project

The grade of the QC lecture is exclusively determined by your grade of the final project. The main aim of such a project is for you to demonstrate understanding of the topics in the course. The format is fairly free to allow you to do this in a way that suits you best. Collaboration is allowed, and encouraged. But everyone needs something unique to submit. There will be an oral prosentation for each project. You may present together or separated (we would prefer together). If together, everybody must talk about the same amount of time.

As you submit your individual report, you must also choose a grading scheme with which you want to be evaluated with. You may only choose one grading scheme per project (if you work in group). We advise that first you choose a project, then you explore it a bit, and only then should you choose a grading scheme. This choice will orient what part of the project you will focus on most when going in depth. The three grading scheme are:

Balanced: what you would most expect from the grading of a project for a bachelor/master lecture. Expect 15 mins presentation + 5 mins questions per person.
Research: a scheme focused on your effort in researching a topic and coming with an original idea with original results, even if those are negative. Expect 20 mins presentation + 10 mins questions pper person.
Industry: a scheme focused on your abilities to come up with a product (or at least the prototype of one) to put directly in the hands of consumers. Expect 10 mins questions + 5 mins questions per person.

Note: These project forms the final grade for the 4 lecture credit points

Important dates

You have until the 9th of January to hand-in your final projects (to me, by email). You are expected to put a similar amount of time and effort in to the final project as you would put into two sets of exercises.

You have until the 19th of December to email me and ask for feedback on project ideas, and to give guidelines for what would be expected for them. We will also use the lecture on 16th December as a brainstorming session.

The oral presentation would occur the Tuesday 13th, 20th, and 27th of January.

Project ideas

Below are examples of the different kinds of project you can choose from. Examples of existing work are given to give you and idea of what you can produce. A list of specific projects that you can do (for those of you that don't want to come up with your own) can be found at the end.

Write an explanation of a topic of your choice

You can write about one of the topics covered in the lectures, or about something that wasn't covered. You can include relevant example code in Qiskit, or you can avoid the programming and just have text and images

Examples

Make a game using quantum programming

Throughout the history of computing, people have been making simple games to help understand the new technology. Now we can do the same thing with quantum computing. I wrote a whole article on this idea, which you can find here.

Basically, reasons why we might make a quantum game are:

To provide a simple and accessible example of a quantum program in action.
To educate people about quantum computing.
To start looking for ways in which quantum computing might actually be useful for games.

Remember: don't just use quantum for a random number generator!

Examples

Hello Qiskit: a game that teaches quantum computing.
Quantum Awesomeness: a game that gives insight into real devices (and featured in the NZZ).
QPong: A game that implements the core game mechanic with a (simulation of).
Q Avrai: using quantum computing for map generation.

Run benchmarks on prototype devices

You can access real quantum hardware at IBM Quantum, Quantum Inspire and other places. But how well do they actually work? Many people have run various different types of quantum circuit and analyzed the results to give some insight into this.

You can come up with your own method for benchmarking, or reproduce something that has already been done on a different device. The easiest way is to implement repetition codes using Qiskit-QEC. But since this package (hopefully) makes it easy, you'll need to try out more than just a single code on a single device

Examples

Quantum Awesomeness: a game that gives insight into real devices (and featured in the NZZ).
Decoherence of entangled states: A paper looking at decoherence in GHZ states.
Repetition Codes: This uses Qiskit's old topological_codes module, now available in Qiskit QEC.

Specific project ideas

Write a decoder for the qudit or non-Abelian decoding problems shown in Decoding 4: Programming HDRG Decoders.
- Explain your method
- Provide your code
- Provide threshold graphs for different values of k
A recent scheme for benchmarking known as the layer fidelity has some similarities to my old game-based benchmark, Quantum Awesomeness.
- Explain the two approaches and discuss their similarties and differences.
- Propose a new 'Quantum Awesomeness', that uses some ideas from the layer fidelity.
- Produce and explain some of the basic circuits required for your idea.