Introduction to Quantum Information Science

Knowledge

After the course, the student will have knowledge about the physical concept of quantum bits and quntum gates and examples of their implementation. The student will know the formalism needed to describe quantum states subject to perfect and imperfect dynamical evolution, and how the formalism relates to experiments. The student will also have a basic knowledge of classical information science concepts and the most prominent changes incurred by the application of quantum systems.

Skills

After the course the students should be able to explain qualitatively and quantitatively how quantum bits differ from classical bits. The students should be able to account for the formal representation of quantum states of qubits and how they transform under simple operations, and they should be able to account for the implementation of quantum bits by polarization states of light, Furthermore the students should be able to compare to classical information theory and computing.

More specifically the students should be able to:

• describe how state amplitudes evolve in time by the Schrödinger equation.
• specify the effect of projective measurement, determine  their possible outcomes and outcome probabilities 
• explain how damping and noise modifies the state description and measurement outcome probabilities
• describe optics experiments, including preparation, manipulation and detection of optical qubits
• discuss whether quantum information science offers an improvement over classical information science in a given setting

Competences
The student will get familiar with the basic axioms of quantum mechanics and be able to make quantitative predictions for the outcome of measurements on a simple two-level system. Thereby the course will introduce the most significant element of quantum mechanics to students with little or no background in physics, and for students who have already studied quantum mechanics, it will extract the essential elements and provide the formalism that we shall use for quantum bits. Together with elements of computer and information science, the course will prepare the students for further studies within quantum information science.