Quantum Computing

Lecture 1

Bits and Qubits

Maris Ozols

What is Quantum Computing?

Aim: use quantum mechanical phenomena that have no counterpart in
classical physics for computational purposes.

(Classical = not quantum)

Two central research directions:

• Experimental
• building devices with a specified quantum behaviour
• Theoretical
• quantum algorithms: designing algorithms that use quantum
mechanical phenomena for computation
• quantum information: designing protocols for transmitting and
processing quantum information

Mediating experiments and theory is a mathematical model of quantum

computation.
 Why look at Quantum Computing?

• The physical world is quantum

• information is physical
• classical computation provides only a crude level of abstraction

Nature isn’t classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of

nature, you’d better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly it’s a
wonderful problem, because it doesn’t look so easy.
– Richard Feynman (1982)
• Devices are getting smaller
• Moore’s law
• on very small scale, the classical laws of physics break down
• Exploit quantum phenomena
• using quantum phenomena may allow to perform computational and
cryptographic tasks that are otherwise not efficient or even possible
• understand the world and discover new physics

Course Outline

A total of eight lecturers:

1. Bits and Qubits (this lecture)
2. Linear Algebra
3. Quantum Mechanics
4. Model of Quantum Computation
5. Quantum Information Protocols
6. Search Algorithm
7. Factoring
8. Complexity
 Useful Resources
Bookzz.org:
Each of these books covers the basic material very well:
• Kaye P., Laflamme R., Mosca M., An Introduction to Quantum Computing
• Hirvensalo M., Quantum Computing
• Mermin N.D., Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction
This is a comprehensive reference (covers the basics too):
• Nielsen M.A., Chuang I.L., Quantum Computation and Quantum Information
Papers:
• Braunstein S.L., Quantum computation [link]
• Aharonov D., Quantum computation [arXiv:quant-ph/9812037]
• Steane A., Quantum computing [arXiv:quant-ph/9708022]
Other lecture notes:
• Umesh Vazirani (UC Berkeley) [link] – basics and beyond
• John Preskill (Caltech) [link] – basics and beyond
• Andrew Childs (U of Maryland) [link] – quantum algorithms
• John Watrous (U of Waterloo) [link] – quantum information
Course website: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1617/QuantComp/

Bits

A building block of classical computational devices is a two-state system

or a classical bit:

0 1

Indeed, any system with a finite set of discrete and stable states, with
controlled transitions between them, will do:
 Probabilistic bits
When you don’t know the state of a system exactly but only have partial
information, you can use probabilities to describe it:
1/2
0 1

It is convenient to represent system’s state using vectors:

   
1 0
= =
0 1

Then a uniformly random bit is represented by

     
1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1
= + = + =
2 2 2 0 2 1 2 1

Using probabilities to represent information (or lack of it. . . ) is more

useful than you might think!

Weather forecast

Source: Google / Weather.com

 Party planning

Name Coming? Chances?

John Y 0.1
Sarah N 0.1
Peter - 0.8
Anna - 0.5
Tom N 0.0
Rebecca Y 1.0
Andy - 0.6
Kathy - 0.3
Richard - 0.7

Total: 2-7 4.1

Probability as a stock price

 Quantum superposition. . .
In nature, the state of an actual physical system is more uncertain than
we are used to in our daily lives. . .

c Charles Addams, The New York Times

That’s why complex amplitudes rather than probabilities are used in

quantum mechanics!

Complex numbers (i2 = −1)

Representations:
• algebraic: z = a + ib
• exponential: z = reiϕ = r(cos ϕ + i sin ϕ) Im
Operations:
z
• addition and subtraction:
(a + ib) ± (c + id) = (a ± c) + i(b ± d) r
b
• multiplication:
ϕ
(a + ib) · (c + id) = (ac − bd) + i(ad + bc) a Re
0 0
reiϕ · r0 eiϕ = rr0 ei(ϕ+ϕ )
• complex conjugate: z ∗ = z̄ = a − ib = re−iϕ
• absolute
√ value: z̄
|z| = a2 + b2 = r, |z1 · z2 | = |z1 | · |z2 |
2
• absolute value squared: |z| = a2 + b2 = r 2
2
important: |z| = z z̄
2
• inverse: 1/z = z̄/|z|
 Classical vs quantum bits
Classical
Recall that a random bit can be described by a probability vector:
     
1 0 p
p +q =p +q =
0 1 q

where p, q ∈ R such that p, q ≥ 0 and p + q = 1.

Quantum
A quantum bit (or qubit for short) is described by a quantum state:
     
1 0 α
α|0i + β|1i = α +β =
0 1 β
2 2
where α, β ∈ C are called amplitudes and satisfy |α| + |β| = 1. Here
|0i, |1i are used as place-holders for the two discernible states of a coin
(or any other physical system for that matter).
Any system that can exist in states |0i and |1i can also exist in a
superposition α|0i + β|1i, according to quantum mechanics!

Can I buy 4.1 + 2.8i bottles of wine?

 Measurement
Classical
Observing a random coin

p +q

results in heads with probability p and tails with probability q.

Quantum
Measuring the quantum state
α|0i + β|1i
2 2
results in |0i with probability |α| and |1i with probability |β| .

Important:
• After the measurement, the system is in the measured state, so
repeating the measurement will always yield the same value!
• We can only extract one bit of information from a single copy of a
random bit or a qubit!

Global and relative phases

Phase
If reiϕ is a complex number, eiϕ is called phase.

Global phase
The following states differ only by a global phase:
|ψi = α|0i + β|1i eiϕ |ψi = eiϕ α|0i + eiϕ β|1i
2 2
These states are indistinguishable! Why? Because |α| = |eiϕ α| and
2 2
|β| = |eiϕ β| so it makes no difference during measurements.

Relative phase
These states differ by a relative phase:
|+i := √1 (|0i + |1i) |−i := √1 (|0i − |1i)
2 2

Are they also indistinguishable? No! (Measure in a different basis.)

Remember: global phase does not matter, relative phase matters!
 Qubit states: the Bloch sphere
Any qubit state can be written as
|ψi = cos θ2 |0i + eiϕ sin θ2 |1i
| {z } | {z }
α β

for some angles θ ∈ [0, π] and ϕ ∈ [0, 2π).

There is a one-to-one correspondence between qubit states and points on
a unit sphere (also called Bloch sphere):
z
Bloch vector of |ψi in
spherical coordinates: |ψi

x = sin θ cos ϕ

y = sin θ sin ϕ θ


z = cos θ ϕ y

Measurement probabilities: x
2
|α| = (cos θ2 )2 = 1
2 + 1
2 cos θ
2
|β| = (sin θ2 )2 = 1
2 − 1
2 cos θ

Summary

• Quantum computing = quantum physics + computers + math

• Complex numbers: i2 = −1, if z = a + ib then z̄ = a − ib and
2
|z| = z z̄ = a2 + b2 , Euler’s identity: eiϕ = cos ϕ + i sin ϕ
• Classical probabilities: p, q ≥ 0 and p + q = 1
2 2
• Quantum amplitudes: α, β ∈ C and |α| + |β| = 1
α

• Qubit state: β = α|0i + β|1i where α, β are as above
2 2
• Measurement: get 0 with probability |α| and 1 with prob. |β|
• Phases: global phase eiϕ |ψi does not matter, relative phase matters
• Bloch sphere: |ψi = cos θ2 |0i + eiϕ sin θ2 |1i