Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction (Scientific and Engineering Computation) by Eleanor G. Rieffel | (PDF) Free Download

Description

A thorough exposition of quantum computing and the underlying concepts of quantum physics, with explanations of the relevant mathematics and numerous examples. The combination of two of the twentieth century’s most influential and revolutionary scientific theories, information theory and quantum mechanics, gave rise to a radically new view of computing and information. Quantum information processing explores the implications of using quantum mechanics instead of classical mechanics to model information and its processing. Quantum computing is not about changing the physical substrate on which computation is done from classical to quantum but about changing the notion of computation itself, at the most basic level. The fundamental unit of computation is no longer the bit but the quantum bit or qubit. This comprehensive introduction to the field offers a thorough exposition of quantum computing and the underlying concepts of quantum physics, explaining all the relevant mathematics and offering numerous examples. With its careful development of concepts and thorough explanations, the book makes quantum computing accessible to students and professionals in mathematics, computer science, and engineering. A reader with no prior knowledge of quantum physics (but with sufficient knowledge of linear algebra) will be able to gain a fluent understanding by working through the book.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I used this book as a companion in my 4th year college nanoelectronics class, and it proved quite useful. The material is presented fairly well and has good examples and exercises. On the whole, it is a reliable introduction to the field; however the book has a few obvious shortcomings as a text, and for that I deduct some stars. Specifically,(1) There is almost no discussion, within the text, of actual experimental work. There is a *mountain* of very interesting work in QC, including even commercial applications. I found myself scrambling to breathe some life into this very theoretical text by mentioning experimental examples. There are some helpful footnotes, but…goodness gracious, why not acknowledge where we actually are in the field, right now?(2) As nice as the exercises are, most answers aren’t provided! That’s going to prevent a lot of teachers from adopting the book. However, the examples are nice and much appreciated.(3) I found the comparisons to classical computing and other alternatives e.g. adiabatic QC rather lacking. That’s a shame because QC research is a lot more than simple theoretical two-state manipulations.On the whole, I didn’t find this book as “gentle” for my students as I’d hoped! Without my PhD-level understanding of QM, I honestly would not have caught the most important points, myself. My students were completely lost at sea in several sections. That said, there are so few good texts on QC, this did provide a nice theoretical framework.

⭐excellent

⭐I’m a software engineer who has had a life-long interest in physics and have been trying to teach myself quantum mechanics for a couple years. I’m only 50 pages into this book so far, but I’m very impressed with it. The authors not only explain the concepts clearly, but they go out of their way to anticipate the questions and confusion that the student may have, and address them directly. For example, their discussion that neither the magnitude or the overall phase of a quantum state vector are physically significant cleared up some confusion for me. Also, their explicit statement that while an observable is represented as a linear operator, that operator is never used to multiply a state vector confirmed my observation. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject. An understanding of quantum mechanics is not required (although helpful), but a solid background in linear algebra is probably necessary.

⭐This is a good introduction to quantum computing, modulo a few things. I’m a mathematician, and I often found the calculations and concepts explained in a needlessly complicated way. For example, the definition and derivation of the density operator material was very opaque. A density operator is a positive operator with unit trace, so why not say that before getting into rather complicated calculations to illustrate its connections to the quantum state? The formalism invoked really muddied the waters. The same could be said about the material on measurement, and in a few other places. Otherwise, the book is excellent. The exercises are useful, and explanations are well thought out and written. Recommended.

⭐This is my first introduction to this subject and I cannot compare it to other books on quantum computers. For a subject this complicated and often counter-intuitive, this book is very readable. It contains enough examples to understand each topic before moving on. There are also a lot of useful warnings about incorrect assumptions that the readers might carry over from vector spaces and linear algebra. The authors seem very in-tune to common misconceptions that the reader might have and they take time to correct them. The authors are not stingy about repeating definitions, facts and expanding notations where it is helpful. Still, don’t expect to casually browse through this book unless you already know a lot about the subject. It takes work.

⭐I wouldn’t call this a ‘gentle’ introduction but I guess that would be relative. The material is presented fairly straight forward and cuts out a lot of unnecessary math. Don’t misunderstand, you’ll have to have some concepts of Linear Algebra to make it through the book. These are graduate level concepts so expect graduate level effort to understand these concepts. I purchased this book without adequate preparation in mathematics but I was able to follow the concepts. I’m now gaining the math knowledge needed and I’ll go through the book a 2nd time.

⭐A very good book, but its “gentle introduction” isnt so gentle.

⭐Good non-technical introduction, the first book I could understand. OK, a little technical, freshman physics. I was hoping for some inside dope on the D-wave, the only seriously sounding company that claims to be building such a thing, but didn’t get any. So took one star off.

⭐BEWARE: prior knowledge of basic vector geometry is required to understand the mathematics in this book. This can be learned quickly here: http://www.math.wisc.edu/~waleffe/M321/vectors.pdfFor an introduction onto the maths and principals of quantum computing, as well as potential applications, this is an amazing text. What it lacks is the technological and engineering applications such as the physical realisation of qubits; much of it occurs in hypothetical situations rather than through real world applications. However, it is still a stunning and thorough introduction into an incredibly complex area that is expertly explained so that anyone could understand it.

⭐Kindle vision is a buggy pdf which is not searchable and not properly indexed in the table of context. This is a dense (if rigorous and ultra formal) reference work for fluent academics and mathematicians. By no means gentle, totally uninviting. With each chapter I found free, much simpler and better explained worked examples online, from basic definitions through to the simple Deutsch and Simon algorithms and beyond. Shame my refund window expired before I figured this out.

⭐This book is pitched at the level of a pretty competent undergraduate in Maths or Physics, with plenty of experience of quantum mechanics. Don’t expect a pop science tour of quantum computing. There are lots of questions for the student, and it would form the basis for maybe a third-year module on the subject.That said, it injects a level of reality that is sadly lacking from much of the popular discussion of quantum computing. You start to see that, even if manufacturers solve the problems of many-qubit machines, quantum computing will not be a panacea. There are a couple of very useful looking algorithms, which solve rather specialised problems. Most of computing will not be affected very much.

⭐The book might be excellent but I have no way of knowing. It’s queued up on my Kindle but it won’t load as it’s stated as being incompatible with my device. Be warned. I’ll have to buy the paperback edition instead. How about doing some testing, guys. I’ll change the rating when I have chance to read the physical book. Until then it’s getting one star.ETA: Changed rating to 4 stars based on the paperback edition. Amazon customer support have said they will look into the problem with the Kindle edition but it’s not clear when a fix will be available.

⭐This is a good theory book, but has nothing to do with computing. It starts off very basic and builds up to some good quantum theory, but sadly lacks any form of computing.

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