Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction

by Eleanor Rieffel, Wolfgang H. Polak

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

Genres: Science, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Nonfiction, Technology, Reference

372 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2011

Reviews

[Oren Mizrahi · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh. simple, accessible, but some of the explanations are a bit messy - makes some of the content more difficult than it needs to be.

second half of the book is on algorithms. suck it up and read nielsen and chuang (aka. mike&ike, aka the OG).

[Anthony O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not that gentle an introduction.

But very smooth and more abstract/mathematical than most introductory texts - and I mean this in a good way. The important results are highlighted and interrelated and the overall organization is clear. The proofs and algorithms are a little terse and compact for what is meant to be an introduction. And yet some of the detailed examples get a bit messy and hard to follow. There is much more material on error correction and fault tolerance than is usually found in an introductory text. But its all pretty good and understandable and of course fundamental to the subject.
Probably not the first text to go to. But once you have the basics a good next book to go through.

[Antoine Savine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating subject well explained but the introduction is not that "gentle". The exercises are extremely interesting, and definitely part of the learning process, unfortunately the authors did not publish solutions.

[Scott Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid introduction.

[NumberLord · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good (and in-depth) introduction to the theory behind quantum computing. A good source if you've got the background (quantum physics and linear algebra) to study it.

[Kenneth Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very concise yet thorough