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Does anybody know of any good links / blog posts that explain the actual inner workings of a quantum computer in more detail?

dsacco 9y ago
Sure. Here are a few resources; they vary in technical complexity and depth of coverage, but they're all rigorous: Scott Aaronson has a good introductory article in Scientific American[1], and he also wrote a short, accessible article aimed at high school students in 2002[2]. Then there's Berkeley's CS 191 Qubits, Quantum Mechanics and Computers syllabus and lectures[3]. Tel Aviv University has lecture notes for the 1997 Quantum Information Processing course online[4]. These are old, but the information is still fundamentally accurate if what you're looking for is a breadth-wise introduction to the topic. There's the paper, From Cbits to Qbits: Teaching Computer Scientists Quantum Mechanics on arXiv[5]. I assume you have a computer science background; if that's the case, you might want to start with for light reading on the meta between classical and quantum computing, then dive into one of the lecture notes series. The first two resources are much more digestible; if you're looking for something to read in 10 minutes or so and come away with a basic understanding of the field, those are what you want to read. _________ 1. http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/The_Limits_of_Quantum_Computers.pdf http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/The_Limits_of_Quantum_Com... 2. http://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/highschool.html http://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/highschool.html 3. http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs191/sp05/ http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs191/sp05/ 4. http://www.tau.ac.il/~tsirel/Courses/QuantInf/syllabus.html http://www.tau.ac.il/~tsirel/Courses/QuantInf/syllabus.html 5. https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0207118 https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0207118
- mrhektor 9y ago
  Thanks, they're on my reading list!
- jessriedel 9y ago
  Note that all of these links appear to concentrate on abstract computation principles analogous to learning about computation in a CS course. I don't think they actually describe the physical inner workings of a quantum computer.
  - dsacco 9y ago
    That's a good point, I wasn't thinking of physical systems details. In that case, better resources would be ACM Communications' A Blueprint for Building a Quantum Computer[1] or D-Wave's Introduction to D-Wave Quantum Hardware article[2]. (I don't have a stance on D-Wave's legitimacy, but the article is illustrative either way). _______ 1. https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168172-a-blueprint-for-building-a-quantum-computer/fulltext https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168172-a-blueprint-fo... 2. https://www.dwavesys.com/tutorials/background-reading-series/introduction-d-wave-quantum-hardware https://www.dwavesys.com/tutorials/background-reading-series...
    - comicjk 9y ago
      I don't think the D-Wave article is very good. To pick one choice line, "The term 'Interference' refers to the electrons - which behave as waves inside a quantum waves, interference patterns which give rise to the quantum effects." If someone didn't know what interference was, that sentence certainly wouldn't help them! D-Wave's article also doesn't give a sense of how unsettled this field is, and how many plausible options there are for every element of a quantum computer. I detect the influence of marketing. The ACM article is much better.
- selimthegrim 9y ago
  Preskill's course notes from Caltech are also very good.
danenania 9y ago
For some great beginner/advanced beginner level stuff, check out the Veritaseum channel on youtube (search 'quantum computing' within the videos list). The interviews with Andrea Morello of UNSW are especially good. And PBS Infinite Series, also on youtube, has some good mathematical explanations of quantum computation and relevant algorithms.

dsacco 9y ago

Sure. Here are a few resources; they vary in technical complexity and depth of coverage, but they're all rigorous: Scott Aaronson has a good introductory article in Scientific American[1], and he also wrote a short, accessible article aimed at high school students in 2002[2]. Then there's Berkeley's CS 191 Qubits, Quantum Mechanics and Computers syllabus and lectures[3]. Tel Aviv University has lecture notes for the 1997 Quantum Information Processing course online[4]. These are old, but the information is still fundamentally accurate if what you're looking for is a breadth-wise introduction to the topic. There's the paper, From Cbits to Qbits: Teaching Computer Scientists Quantum Mechanics on arXiv[5]. I assume you have a computer science background; if that's the case, you might want to start with for light reading on the meta between classical and quantum computing, then dive into one of the lecture notes series. The first two resources are much more digestible; if you're looking for something to read in 10 minutes or so and come away with a basic understanding of the field, those are what you want to read. _________ 1. http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/The_Limits_of_Quantum_Computers.pdf http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/The_Limits_of_Quantum_Com... 2. http://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/highschool.html http://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/highschool.html 3. http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs191/sp05/ http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs191/sp05/ 4. http://www.tau.ac.il/~tsirel/Courses/QuantInf/syllabus.html http://www.tau.ac.il/~tsirel/Courses/QuantInf/syllabus.html 5. https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0207118 https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0207118

mrhektor 9y ago
Thanks, they're on my reading list!
jessriedel 9y ago
Note that all of these links appear to concentrate on abstract computation principles analogous to learning about computation in a CS course. I don't think they actually describe the physical inner workings of a quantum computer.
- dsacco 9y ago
  That's a good point, I wasn't thinking of physical systems details. In that case, better resources would be ACM Communications' A Blueprint for Building a Quantum Computer[1] or D-Wave's Introduction to D-Wave Quantum Hardware article[2]. (I don't have a stance on D-Wave's legitimacy, but the article is illustrative either way). _______ 1. https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168172-a-blueprint-for-building-a-quantum-computer/fulltext https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168172-a-blueprint-fo... 2. https://www.dwavesys.com/tutorials/background-reading-series/introduction-d-wave-quantum-hardware https://www.dwavesys.com/tutorials/background-reading-series...
  - comicjk 9y ago
    I don't think the D-Wave article is very good. To pick one choice line, "The term 'Interference' refers to the electrons - which behave as waves inside a quantum waves, interference patterns which give rise to the quantum effects." If someone didn't know what interference was, that sentence certainly wouldn't help them! D-Wave's article also doesn't give a sense of how unsettled this field is, and how many plausible options there are for every element of a quantum computer. I detect the influence of marketing. The ACM article is much better.
selimthegrim 9y ago
Preskill's course notes from Caltech are also very good.

danenania 9y ago

For some great beginner/advanced beginner level stuff, check out the Veritaseum channel on youtube (search 'quantum computing' within the videos list). The interviews with Andrea Morello of UNSW are especially good. And PBS Infinite Series, also on youtube, has some good mathematical explanations of quantum computation and relevant algorithms.