Quantum computation

For computer
scientists

Prof. Dorit Aharonov

School of computer science and engineering
Hebrew university, Jerusalem, Israel
1
 What is a computation

La Segrada Familia
(Barcelona)
Architect: Gaudi
 What is a computation?
Input Computation Output
0111001 (Algorithm) 011000

Universal computation models:

A B CA
≈
Q
Turing machine, 1936
Uniform
≈ Circuits
≈
 Game of life
Rules:

A living site:
stays alive if it has
2 or 3 live neighbors
Otherwise dies

A dead site:
comes to life
if it has exctly 3
living neighbors
 The Extended Church-Turing thesis (ECTT)

A corner stone thesis in computer science:

The Extended Church Turing thesis:

“Any physically realizable computational model can be simulated
efficiently by a randomized Turing machine”

≈ ≈

Quantum computation is the only computational model which

credibly challenges the Extended Church Turing thesis
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 Bird’s view on Quantum computation
Inherently different from standard
“classical” computers. We believe that
it will be exponentially more powerful
for certain tasks.

Polynomial time
Quantum
algorithm for
factoring
Deutsch Bernstein Simon
Shor[’94]
Josza [‘92] Vazirani[‘93] [‘94]

Physics of many particles

(non universal computations) Philosophy
Algorithms of Science
Cryptography technology
 About this school
Goal: Intro to quantum computation & complexity
Some important notions, results, open questions

Note: We will not cover many important things…

(A partial list will be provided & updated )

Two remarks:
1) The lectures are intertwined, not independent!
2) The TA sessions are mainly exercises.
Do them! We rely on them in the next lecture.
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 Intro Lecture:
Qubits

Part 1: The principles of quantum Physics

Part2: The qubit
Part 3: Measurements
Part 4: Dynamics
Part 5: Two qubits 8
 Part I:
The principles of Quantum Physics

9
The two slit experiment
Part A: bullets

10
Two slit experiments
Part B: Water waves

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 Two slit experiment
Part C: electrons

Interference pattern for particles!12

 Explanation: superpositions and
measurements

The particle passes through both

paths simultaneously!
If measured,
it collapses to one of the options

1) The superposition principle 13

2) Measurement gives one option & changes the state
 Part II:
The Qubit

14
 1st quantum principle:
Superposition
a +b A quantum particle
can be in a
a +b Superposition
of all its possible
a +b “classical” states
 The elementary quantum
information unit:
Qubit = Quantum bit

The qubit can be in either one of the

States:0,1
As well as in any linear combination!
 a vector in a 2 dim Hilbert space
|0
On the board:
We can also a0
Dirac notation
talk about qudits, +b 1 Vector notation
Transpose
Of higher dim. Inner products
|1 density matrix
 Part III:
Measurements

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 The quantum measurement

a 0 +b 1

|a|2 |b|2
0 1
When a quantum particle is measured
the answer is Probabilistic

The Superposition collapses

to one of its possible classical states

2nd principle Those (weird!) aspects have been

tested in thousands of experiments
measurement 18
 Projective measurements
A projective measurement is described
by a Hermitian matrix M.
M has eigenvectors (eigenspaces) with
associated real eigenvalues
The classical outcome is eigenvalue 𝛌 with probability =
norm squared of projection on the corresponsing eigenspace
& the state collapses to this projection and renormlized
0 On the board:
Measure with respect to Z
Prob=inner product squared
a0 +b 1 Measure X: The +/- basis
Probablity for 𝛱 a projection
Expected value of measurement:
1 Direct expression and as Tr(Mρ)
Uncertainty principle
 Part IV:
Dynamics

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 Dynamics

Schrodinger’s equation:

The Hamiltonian
(A Hermitian operator)

Discrete time evolution:

On the board:
From the differential equation to unitary evolution
(eigenvalues which are primitive roots of unity)
Unitary as preserving inner product 21
 Quantum Gates

On the board:
Applying X,Z on computational basis states of a qubit
Linearity
Applying Hadamard on basis states and measuring (“coin flip”) 22
 Interference & path integrals

|0 |0 |0

|1 |1

H H
On the board:
compute weights,
repeat with measurement in the middle
 Part V:
Two qubits

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 The superposition principle for
more qubits
one two three

The state of n quantum bits is a superposition of

all 2n possible configurations,
each with its own weight!
 The space of two qubits

The computational Basis

for the two qubits space

The EPR state:

1
2
| 0 ,1   | 1 , 0  
1st ex. of entanglement:
The CHSH game
1
2
| 0 ,1   | 1 , 0  
X A  { 0 ,1 } X B  { 0 ,1 }
a ba  b  1
0 0
They win if:
a 0  b1  1
X A , X B  {(0,0), (0,1), (1,0)} : a  b
a1  b 0  1
X A , X B  {(1,1)} :a  b
a1  b1  0
> 0.85! Pr(success) with EPR 27
Pr(Win)  0.75