Quantum Computing From The Ground Up

Description

Quantum computing - the application of quantum mechanics to information - represents a fundamental break from classical information and promises to dramatically increase a computer's power. Many difficult problems, such as the factorization of large numbers, have so far resisted attack by classical computers yet are easily solved with quantum computers. If they become feasible, quantum computers will end standard practices such as Rsa encryption. Most of the books or papers on quantum computing require (or assume) prior knowledge of certain areas such as linear algebra or quantum mechanics. The majority of the currently-available literature is hard to understand for the average computer enthusiast or interested layman. This text attempts to teach quantum computing from the ground up in an easily readable way, providing a comprehensive tutorial that includes all the necessary mathematics, computer science and physics. Review: Truly starts from the ground up. - Personal information. Be sure you take time to understand the first few chapters. Without the minimal math, you'll get lost later on. If you never had matrices and functions in high school, you'll need to spend some time with understanding notation and representations. On the other hand, if you are really interested and are willing to spend the time learning new mathematical vocabulary and concepts then you will benefit greatly from this book. Review: Too quick to get from the ground up - I'm a little over half way through the math part. This barrels through the math very quickly. It is more a revision text than a learning text. I have learnt the basic stuff before, so I was ok with that. Until they got to Gram-Schmidt. I had no idea what that was and had to go to several online resources to learn it. This book does not explain it. Then many of the formulas have typos. Like the bras and the kets get mixed up. An extra parentheses in one formula. These are obvious ones I have seen, which makes me wonder about non-obvious typos. If there were an email address or website in the book to report typos, I would, but there isn't.