Information, physics, and computation

Ivan S. Oliveira, Tito José Bonagamba, Roberto S. Sarthour +2 more

John P. Preskill

Information is something that can be encoded in the state of a physical system, and a computation is a task that can be performed with a physically realizable device. Therefore, since the physical world is fundamentally quantum mechanical, the foundations of information theory and computer science should be sought in quantum physics. In fact, quantum information has weird properties that contrast sharply with the familiar properties of classical information. A quantum computer -- a new type of machine that exploits the quantum properties of infomation -- could perform certain typ$s of calculations far more efficiently than any foreseeable classical computer. To build a functional quantum computer will be an enormous technical challenge. New methods for quantum error correction are being developed that can help to prevent a quantum computer from crashing.

F. De Martini, Christopher R. Monroe

This Fermi Summer School of Physics on Experimental Quantum Information and Computing represents a primer in an expanding area in physics. In this part, the interest in quantum information (QI) science is due to the discovery that a computer operating on quantum mechanical principles can solve certain important computational problems exponentially faster than any conceivable classical computer. But this interest is also due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field: the rapid growth is attributable, in part, to the stimulating confluence of researchers and ideas from physics, chemistry, mathematics, information theory, and computer science. The lectures cover Quantum Information (QI) processing, spanning quantum optics and laser physics, atomic and molecular physics, physical chemistry, and condensed-matter physics.

Michael J. Dinneen, Nies, André, Khoussainov, Bakhadyr

Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano

John P. Preskill

Information is something that can be encoded in the state of a physical system, and a computation is a task that can be performed with a physically realizable device. Therefore, since the physical world is fundamentally quantum mechanical, the foundations of information theory and computer science should be sought in quantum physics. In fact, quantum information has weird properties that contrast sharply with the familiar properties of classical information. A quantum computer-a new type of machine that exploits the quantum properties of information-could perform certain types of calculations far more efficiently than any foreseeable classical computer. To build a functional quantum computer will be an enormous technical challenge. New methods for quantum error correction are being developed that can help to prevent a quantum computer from crashing.