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PHY682 Special Topics in Solid-State Physics: Quantum Information Science--an Introduction (Fall 2020)

Website address: http://insti.physics.sunysb.edu/~twei/Courses/Fall2020/PHY682/
Lecture time: 2:40-4:00PM Monday & Wednesday, Lectures will be online (Zoom link will be sent to registered students)
Instructor:  Tzu-Chieh Wei  <tzu-chieh.wei[at]stonybrook[dot]edu>  Office Phone: 631-632-7966
Office hour: 3-3:50pm Friday (online via Zoom; link will be sent to registered students)

[Update Dec 2020: All the 25 lectures are now available to watch online on YouTube]

Technical and Software Requirement: Zoom meeting will be used. Internet is needed. Microphone needed to participate verbally. Typing questions in Zoom's chat during lectures if no microphone is available. However, for final presentation, microphone is required.

Qualification of the instructor: He has ample research experience in Quantum Information Science since when he was a PhD student, and has supervised a few PhD students, master students, and undergraduate students on related research projects. See the publication list here.

Course description:
This is a survey of the fast evolving field of quantum information, ranging from Bell inequality, quantum teleportation to quantum algorithms and quantum programming frameworks. It aims to cover the essential knowledge of quantum information science and helps to bridge the gap to the current research activities of the field. Some emphasis will be placed on solid-state platforms of quantum computers, topological error correction codes, and applications. Other systems will be introduced when necessary. Some illustration of quantum programming will be done on IBM's transmon-type cloud quantum computers.

Course level: senior undergraduates and beginning graduate students (Master/PhD); students from other departments such as Chemistry, Math, CS and Engineering who have learned linear algebra should find the course accessible. The materials covered in this course are interdisciplinary anyway. The required knowledge of quantum mechanics is also minimal, e.g. superposition, unitary evolution, and measurement described in the first chapter of a standard quantum mechanics textbook. But these will be reviewed as well.

For undergraduates: This course may be taken by upper-level undergraduates with Prerequisite: PHY 251 or Corequisite: PHY 308  (No requirement of any prior solid-state course). It needs the permission and the signature of the instructor in order to register for this course; form can be downloaded here.

Breadth course or not (for Physics PhD students): this can count as a breadth course, provided it is the only 680 or 690 course the student has taken and is the only solid state physics course they have taken.

Learning outcomes:
Students who have completed this course
  • Should be able to understand the physical principles of quantum computation and how quantum algorithms work such as Shor's factoring and Grover's searching
  • Should be able to understand various frameworks of quantum computation, such as the standard circuit model, topological quantum computation, adiabatic quantum computation and measurement-based quantum computation.
  • Should be able to understand the basics of information theory and their relation to statistical mechanics and quantum entanglement
  • Should be able to understand the working principles of sold-state qubits and be able to perform simple programming on publicly available quantum computers such as IBM Q
Required Textbooks:
 There is no required textbook. Notes or slides will be provided when available.

Recommended Textbooks :
Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, M. Nielsen and I. Chuang (Cambridge University Press)
An Introduction to Quantum Computing, P. Kaye, R. Laflamme and M. Mosca (Oxford)
J. Preskill lecture notes (http://www.theory.caltech.edu/~preskill/ph229/#lecture)
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 3 (which can be read online here)
Learn Quantum Computation using Qiskit (free digital textbook)
Cirq tutorial (from Cirq documentation)
Quantum Computing: An Applied Approach, Jack D. Hidary (Springer)
Online book by Andy Matuschak and Michael Nielsen on "Quantum computing for the very curious"

Math needed in this course:
e.g. The Mathematics of Quantum Mechanics by Dr. Martin Laforest (University of Waterloo)

Grades: (tentative)
(1) Homework 50% [main purpose is to enhance understanding of lecture materials]
(2) Participation 10%  [attendance is required; more importantly, this is to encourage active participation and learning; asking questions helps the instructor to clarify and in turn helps you and others to understand; sharing with others how you understand a particular concept is useful; you can ask questions verbally or in Zoom's chat; report technical internet problem to the instructor]
(3) Mid-semester report (2-3 pages) 15% [to gauge how you are doing]
(4) Final presentation  (for suggested topics/papers, see below) & end-of-semester report 25%  (15%+10%) [to have an in-depth understanding of a subject of your choice and a retrospect of your learning in this course]

Homework policy: no late homework (must be turned in on the due day by submitting it in Blackboard or email); exception must be requested two days or earlier before deadline

Topics to be covered and tentative syllabus
(This is a tentative syllabus. Due dates may change. Check later for update.)

For basic linear algebra: see Laforest's online book, Chapter 2 of Kaye, Laflamme & Mosca (KLM), or  Chapter 2 (2.1 to 2.2.3) of Nielsen and Chuang (N&C) including review of quantum mechanics needed in this course.

(week 1) [8/24,8/26] Unit 1 The history of Q: Overview of this course and review of linear algebra, basics of quantum mechanics, quantum bits and mixed states, taste of quantum algorithms.

suggested reading: N&C 1.2-1.4, 2.2, 2.4;  KLM 1.4, 1.6, chapter 3, 6.2-6.4; Qiskit book (Qb) chapter 1, 2.1-2.3;  
 
Homework 1 (distributed on 8/24, due 11:59pm 9/6); Overview Slides of 8/24; recording 1; Slides for 8/26; recording 2  (materials are also accessible in Blackboard)

 (week 2) [8/31,9/2] Unit 2 From foundation to science-fiction teleportation: Bell inequality, teleportation of states and gates, entanglement swapping, remote state preparation, superdense coding, and superdense teleportation.  Slides for 8/31; recording 3; Jupyter notebook (to run it, you need to install qiskit python package; see documentation here) ; Slides for 9/2; recording 4

suggested reading:  N&C 2.3, 2.6; KLM chapter 5; Qb 3.1-3.5
further reading: Nonlocality beyond quantum mechanics, Sandu Popescu, http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nphys2916
Genuine Quantum Nonlocality in the Triangle Network by Marc-Olivier Renou, Elisa Bäumer, Sadra Boreiri, Nicolas Brunner, Nicolas Gisin, and Salman Beigi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 140401 (2019)

Homework 2 (distributed on 9/2, due 11:59pm 9/20)

 (week 3) [Labor Day no class on 9/7, class on 9/9] Unit 3 Information is physical---Physical systems for quantum information processing:
Superconducting qubits, solid-state spin qubits, photons, trapped ions, and topological qubits (p-wave superconductors, fractional quantum Hall systems, topological insulators, etc.)   Slides for 9/9; recording 5

suggested reading: N&C chap 7

Some refs for further reading:
Majorana zero mode and topological quantum computing, Das Sarma, Friedman and Nayak, npj Quantum 1, 15001 (2015)
Diamond NV centers for quantum computing and quantum networks, Childress and Hanson, MRS Bulletin 38, 134 (2013)
Quantum Control over Single Spins in Diamond, V.V. Dobrovitski,  G.D. Fuchs,  A.L. Falk, C. Santori, and D.D. Awschalom, Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics 4, 23 (2013)
Quantum computing with neutral atoms, David S. Weiss, and Mark Saffman, Physics Today 70, 7, 44 (2017); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.3626
A quantum engineer's guide to superconducting qubits, P. Krantz , M. Kjaergaard , F. Yan, T. P. Orlando, S. Gustavsson, and W. D. Oliver, Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 021318 (2019)
Superconducting Qubits and the Physics of Josephson Junctions, J. Martinis and K. Osborne, Les Houches Lecture Notes
Photonic quantum information processing: A concise review, Sergei Slussarenko and Geoff J. Pryde, Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 041303 (2019)

Building logical qubits in a superconducting quantum computing system, Jay M. Gambetta, Jerry M. Chow & Matthias Steffen, npj Quantum Information volume 3, Article number: 2 (2017)
Co-designing a scalable quantum computer with trapped atomic ions, Kenneth R Brown, Jungsang Kim & Christopher Monroe, npj Quantum Information volume 2, Article number: 16034 (2016)
Engineering the quantum-classical interface of solid-state qubits, David J Reilly, npj Quantum Information volume 1, Article number: 15011 (2015)
A quantum engineer's guide to superconducting qubits, Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 021318 (2019), P. Krantz, M. Kjaergaard, F. Yan, T. P. Orlando, S. Gustavsson, and W. D. Oliver

Single-qubit quantum memory exceeding ten-minute coherence time, Wang et al. Nature Photonics volume 11, pages646–650(2017)

 (week 4) [9/14,9/16] Unit 4 Grinding gates in quantum computers: Quantum gates and circuit model of quantum computation, introduction to IBM's Qiskit, Grover's quantum search algorithm, amplitude amplification. Slides for 9/14; recording 6; Slides for 9/16; recording 7; Qiskit gate summary note book can be obtained from the github page or download the Jupyter Notebook here

For Python and Qiskit; see below for more information and resource link.

Other circuit-model based quantum computers and their programming frameworks: Rigetti and Forest, Google and Cirq
(We focus on using Qiskit in this course)

suggested reading: N&C chap 4; KLM  chap 4; Qb 1.4; 2.4, 2.5

Homework 3 (distributed on 9/21 due 11:59pm 10/4)

 (week 5) [9/21,9/23] Unit 5 Programming through quantum clouds: Computational complexity, Quantum programming on IBM's superconducting quantum computers, including the use of the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) on quantum chemistry of molecules, quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) for optimization, hybrid classical-quantum neural network.

Slides for 9/21; recording 8; Qiskit  notebook on simple VQE can be obtained here
notebook on MaxCut and TSP,  notebook on QAOA, notebook on hybrid quantum-classical neural network, and notebook on quantum chemistry are here; Slides for 9/23; recording 9
 
suggested reading: Qb chap 4;

Homework 4 (available on 9/25, due 11:59pm 10/18) is on using Qiskit to simulate teleportation in the guided Jupyter notebook.

 (week 6) [9/28,9/30] Unit 6 Dealing with errors: Error models, Quantum error correction, topological stabilizer codes and topological phases (including fractons), error mitigations
Slides for 9/28; recording 10; Slides for 9/30; recording 11

suggested reading: N&C chap 10; KLM chapter 10; Qb chap 5.1-5.2

[Mid-semester report format]

Useful references:
"Quantum Error Correction" by Todd Brun in Oxford Research Encyclopedia in Physics

 (week 7) [10/5,10/7] Unit 7 Quantum computing by braiding: Anyons and topological quantum computation, Fibonacci anyons, Majorana fermions, Kitaev's chain,
Slides for 10/5; recording 12; Slides for 10/7; recording 13

Useful references:
Majorana zero modes and topological quantum computation, Sankar Das Sarma, Michael Freedman & Chetan Nayak, npj Quantum Information volume 1, Article number: 15001 (2015)
Kitaev & Laumann, arXiv:0904.2771
Lahtinen & Pachos, arxiv:1705.04103
Nayak et al. Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1083 (2008)


 (week 8) [10/12,10/14]  Unit 8 More topological please: Topological quantum computation continued, surface code and magic state distillation
Mid-semester report (on your learning experience) due 11:59pm 10/11

Slides for 10/12; recording 14; Slides for 10/14; recording 15

Useful references: Fujii, arXiv:arXiv:1504.01444

 (week 9) [10/19,10/21] Unit 9 Quantum computing by evolution and by measurement: Other frameworks of quantum computation: adiabatic and measurement-based; D-Wave’s quantum annealers

Homework 5 (available on 10/15, due 11:59pm 11/1)

Slides for 10/19; recording 16; Slides for 10/21; recording 17;

Refs:
"Adiabatic Quantum Computing and Quantum Annealing" by Erica K. Grant and Travis S. Humble in Oxford Research Encyclopedia in Physics
"Measurement-Based Quantum Computation", my manuscript under review for Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Physics
D-Wave tutorials: https://www.dwavesys.com/resources/tutorials
For Blind quantum computation and related subjects, see a review by J. Fitzsimons

A series of recorded lectures by Prof. Robert Raussendorf on MBQC are here.

(week 10) [10/26,10/28] Unit 10 Quantum entangles: Entanglement of quantum states, entanglement of formation and distillation, entanglement entropy, Schmidt decomposition, majorization, quantum Shannon theory

Slides for 10/26; recording 18; Mathematica file for Concurrence and Schmidt decomposition; Slides for 10/28; recording 19;

suggested reading: N&C 12.2, 12.5
additional reading:
Quantum Data Compression of a Qubit Ensemble, Lee A. Rozema, Dylan H. Mahler, Alex Hayat, Peter S. Turner, and Aephraim M. Steinberg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 160504 – Published 17 October 2014

 (week 11) [11/2,11/4] Unit 11 No clones in quantum: No cloning of quantum states, non-orthogonal state discrimination, quantum tomographic tools, quantum cryptography: quantum key distribution from transmitting qubits and from shared entanglement

Slides for 11/2; recording 20; Slides for 11/4; recording 21

Choice of presentation topics due

suggested reading: N&C 12.1, 12.6; Qb chap 3.12

Refs:
Barnett & Croke, Quantum state discrimination, arXiv:0810.1970
Bae & Kwek, Quantum state discrimination and its applications, arXiv: 1707.02571

Homework 6 (available on 11/2, due 11:59pm 11/15)

Refs:
Progress in satellite quantum key distribution, Robert Bedington, Juan Miguel Arrazola & Alexander Ling, npj Quantum Information volume 3, Article number: 30 (2017)
Practical challenges in quantum key distribution, Eleni Diamanti, Hoi-Kwong Lo, Bing Qi & Zhiliang Yuan, npj Quantum Information volume 2, Article number: 16025 (2016)

 (week 12) [11/9,11/11] Unit 12 Show me your 'phase', Mr. Unitary: Quantum Fourier Transform, quantum phase estimation, Shor’s factoring algorithm, and quantum linear system (such as the HHL algorithm) and programming with IBM Qiskit again

Slides for 11/9; recording 22; Slides for 11/11; recording 23;

Jupyter Notebooks for Quantum Fourier Transform, Quantum Phase Estimation and HHL algorithm are here.

suggested reading: N&C chap 5, 6.3; KLM chapter 7, 8.4; Qb chap 3.8, 3.9, 3.11

Refs:
Quantum algorithms: an overview, Ashley Montanaro, npj Quantum Information volume 2, Article number: 15023 (2016)
Quantum sampling problems, BosonSampling and quantum supremacy, A. P. Lund, Michael J. Bremner & T. C. Ralph, npj Quantum Information volume 3, Article number: 15 (2017)
 

 (week 13) [11/16,11/18] Unit 13 The quantum 'Matrix': Quantum simulations and quantum sensing and metrology

Homework 7 (optional, no due date)

Slides for 11/16; recording 24; Slides for 11/18; recording 25

additional reading:
"Entropic uncertainty relations and their applications", Patrick J. Coles, Mario Berta, Marco Tomamichel, and Stephanie Wehner, Rev. Mod. Phys. 89, 015002 – Published 6 February 2017
"Cross-Platform Verification of Intermediate Scale Quantum Devices", by Andreas Elben, Benoît Vermersch, Rick van Bijnen, Christian Kokail, Tiff Brydges, Christine Maier, Manoj K. Joshi, Rainer Blatt, Christian F. Roos, and Peter Zoller, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 010504 (2020)
See also the article by Steve Flammia on "Quantum Computer Crosscheck"
Physics article on "The Certainty of Uncertainty" by David Voss
"Violation of Heisenberg's Measurement-Disturbance Relationship by Weak Measurements" by L.A. Rozema, A. Darabi, D. H. Mahler, A. Haya, Y. Soudagar, and A. M. Steinberg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 100404 (2012)
"Quantum Optical Metrology -- The Lowdown on High-N00N States", J. P. Dowling, arXiv:0904.1063
"Nonclassical Light and Metrological Power: An Introductory Review", K.C. Tan, H. Jeong, arXiv:1909.00942
"Minimizing back-action through entangled measurements", K.D. Wu et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 210401 (2020)
Presentation preparation (preview of presentation outline)

Other refs:
Richard Feynman's paper "Simulating Physics with Computers", Int. J. Theor. Physics, vol 21, no.6/7, p467-488 (1982). Some quotes from Feynman on quantum physics and computer simulation.
Review article on "Tools for quantum simulation with ultracold atoms in optical lattices" by Florian Schäfer, Takeshi Fukuhara, Seiji Sugawa, Yosuke Takasu & Yoshiro Takahashi, Nature Reviews Physics volume 2, pages411–425(2020)  [link to arXiv version]
Collection of review papers in Nature Physics on quantum simulations in 2012

(week 14) [No classes; Thanksgiving break begins on 11/23]

There will be seven groups each having 3 student members.  Each group will collectively choose one topic. Each presentation will be 20mins (presentation) + 5 mins (Q&A).

(week 15) [11/30, 12/2] (Student presentation)  
[11/30] Group 1: Bak, Gokhale, Nghiem Vu; Group 2: Bashir, Gordon, Yu; Group 7: Wallace, Wu, Zhao;
[12/2] Group 4: Gregory, Lee, Xu; Group 5: Chheta, Sukeno, Zou; Group 6: Thotakura, Zhang, Zhu

[End-of-semester report format] Due 11:59pm Sun 12/13

(week 16) [12/7 (last day of class)] (Student presentation)  Group 3: Farno, Guo, Singletary 
End-of-course remarks and outlook.

Final grades posted, which were based on the accumulated total
86-100: A
80-85: A-
76-79: B+
70-75: B
66-69: B-
60-65: C+

Additional topics if time permits:
The quantum outlook: Additional topics time permitting (Quantum Information beyond condensed matter and AMO phsysics, holographic codes, Black hole entropy paradox, etc.) 

PHY680 Quantum computing course Spring 2021 by Prof. Vladimir Korepin.

Python and Qiskit
Qiskit requires Python 3 and you can install Qiskit according to the instruction  here at the documentation.  Python (in particular Python 3) can be installed in Mac, Windows and Linux (Mac and Linux may come with it). We need at least Python 3.6. It is recommended to install on your own PC or laptop.

However, if you are comfortable with using online softwares and do not want to install these packages, you can sign up for a  "CoCalc" account at here: https://cocalc.com/. It has the software  you need for this course.

Note that Qiskit is evolving fast. It is likely that by the end of this course, the Qiskit version may have changed quite a bit.

March 2021:
Amazon Braket is another option:
See videos on YouTube
Suggested topics and papers for presentation (click to see the incomplete list, to be updated)

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Announcement, Update and Additional Information

PHY680 Quantum computing course Spring 2021 by Prof. Vladimir Korepin.

Interesting papers to read:
arXiv:2006.16444 Preparing for the quantum revolution -- what is the role of higher education?
Michael F. J. Fox, Benjamin M. Zwickl, H. J. Lewandowski

Useful resources:
Youtube lectures by Umesh Vazirani

Leonard Susskind's lecture series on Modern Physics: Quantum Mechanics
 Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4, Lecture 5, Lecture 6, Lecture 7, Lecture 8, Lecture 9, Lecture 10

Minicourse on quantum-information thermodynamics: link is here

More will be posted to Blackboard.stonybrook.edu

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For your information:

Student Accessibility Support Services (SASC): 
If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Student Accessibility Support Center, ECC (Educational Communications Center) Building, Room 128, (631)632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations, if any, are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential. https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/studentaffairs/sasc/facstaff/syllabus.php

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Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of University Community Standards any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn. Faculty in the HSC Schools and the School of Medicine are required to follow their school-specific procedures. Further information about most academic matters can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin, the Undergraduate Class Schedule, and the Faculty-Employee Handbook.

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