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I have a computer science degree but whenever I start reading about quantum computing I'm lost within minutes. Is there a good way to start studying the basics

by xrd 2y ago

I have a computer science degree but whenever I start reading about quantum computing I'm lost within minutes. Is there a good way to start studying the basics of quantum computing? I inevitably land on IBM's website, and it always feels like it is pure marketing material.

codethief 2y ago
I'd suggest starting with the basics of quantum mechanics. You'll need a bit of linear algebra but not much more, fortunately.
- xrd 2y ago
  Ok, thank you. What is a good starting place? Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics? Or, asking Claude to tell me about quantum mechanics? </facepalm>
  - grepLeigh 2y ago
    I'd recommend starting with Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Isaac Chuang and Michael Nielsen ("Mike and Ike"). It's the text used in most intro courses. There's an "Intro to Quantum Mechanics" section that covers what's strictly necessary to understand quantum algorithms. For lectures, John Preskill's lectures from the Quantum Computation course at CalTech: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0ojjrEqIyPy-1RRD8cTD_lF1hflo89Iu&si=_5t5XcEiJH9akFvH https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0ojjrEqIyPy-1RRD8cTD_lF1...
    - gauge_field 2y ago
      You also need some foundation in Linear Algebra if you want to have better formal understanding of its underlying framework( which is Hilbert Space).
  - shalg 2y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Computation_and_Quantum_Information https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Computation_and_Quan... ^^ The best resource there is to start with.
  - samstave 2y ago
    You always do well at the plank -- And a HEALTHY understating of ETYMOLOGY --- Meaning: we are realizing the fabric of the reality a we speak it Speak is an interesting WERD Understanding druidics and etymology will bring you close.. this is how you fabricate youre reality
  - sampo 2y ago
    I think the best, and also most popular, textbook for a Quantum Mechanics 1 course is "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by David J. Griffiths. This is also what Claude says. But you also need some math: Complex numbers, linear algebra, some basics of partial differential equations. But a traditional university course in quantum mechanics aims at doing quantum mechanics in 3-dimensional space, to solve electron orbitals and energy levels of hydrogen atom. But all this 3-dimensional mathematics, you don't necessarily need if you just want to read about quantum computers. Maybe some quantum computers textbook has a presentation of the basics of quantum mechanics that leaves out the topics that traditional physics needs, because traditionally physics was interested in how atoms are build.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
ur-whale 2y ago
> Is there a good way to start studying the basics of quantum computing? Most quantum mechanics theory out there is taught by physicists. You'll discover that their brain works in a way that's fundamentally different than that of a computer scientist, making it really hard. Very specifically, you'll find that they are basically incapable to reason without physical support and/or experiments and sticking to a theoretical presentation of the subject from first principles is not something they can materially do. Even Scott Aaronson, who claims to try to explay QM and QC using only math falls back to talking about particles and spin and shit after the fourth paragraph. My recommendation: if you want to learn QM from first mathematical principles, avoid like the plague anything written by a physicist: they're all parroting each other tracing all the way back to Dirac and Bohr. If you find a book that can talk about QM without using the following words "double slit experiment", "hydrogen atom", "spectrum", "spin", "wave", and only use terms taken from linear algebra in infinite dimensions then you stand a chance to understand.
- amelius 2y ago
  How will you build your quantum machine with only pure math?
  - PhilipRoman 2y ago
    I guess the same way I built my AMD Ryzen from a pile of sand...
    - amelius 2y ago
      Well, at least you're starting from something physical.
- aqme28 2y ago
  Why is this post so vitriolic towards physicists? What did they do to you??
  - 331c8c71 2y ago
sgt101 2y ago
When I was asked to work on this stuff (I didn't want to because I knew very little about it, but it was a "do you like eating hot food and sleeping inside" kind of moment) I got this book: https://amzn.eu/d/chnBwVy https://amzn.eu/d/chnBwVy I think it provides very useful abstractions for thinking about QC.
thrance 2y ago
This talk [1] helped me at the start. The only prerequisite is knowing basic linear algebra. Now, if you're interested in how quantum computers operate, well good luck. That's a whole other beast. [1] https://youtu.be/F_Riqjdh2oM https://youtu.be/F_Riqjdh2oM
billti 2y ago
I work on the quantum developer tools team at Microsoft. We put a lot of work into what we call the Quantum Katas to learn the basics via coding - https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/tools/quantum-katas https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/tools/quantum-katas Our VS Code extension is trivial to install (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quantum/install-overview-qdk https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quantum/install-over...) or just try it entirely in the browser with Visual Studio Code online (https://vscode.dev/quantum/playground/ https://vscode.dev/quantum/playground/) To support that last scenario, where the language service, debugger, simulator, even package references, can run entirely in the browser, we built the whole thing using Rust compiled to WebAssembly, and our VS Code extension runs as pure JavaScript and Wasm. If interested you can dig into the implementation at https://github.com/microsoft/qsharp https://github.com/microsoft/qsharp . Happy to answer any questions!
- xrd 2y ago
  This is amazing and exactly the right thing for my brain! Thanks so much.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- jas- 2y ago
  Thanks for providing this!
emigre 2y ago
You need to understand some mathematics before learning quantum computing. I can recommend 'Essential Mathematics from Quantum Computing' by Leonard S. Woody III, which is short, easy to understand and covers the basics. If you want to go more in-depth into the mathematics involved, then you have 'Linear Algebra and its Applications', by Gilbert Strang, but this book is exclusively about linear algebra, the mathematics that you use with quantum computing, not about quantum computing itself. There are a couple of popular books about quantum computing in a general sense that could be interesting to read to get an idea about the subject, for example Scott Aaronon's 'Quantum Computing Since Democritus' and Michael A. Nielsen and Isaac L Chuang's 'Quantum Computation an Quantum Information'. I do have the feeling, though, that these will be too deep for a general audience. Interesting and appealing, for sure, but perhaps difficult to understand for most people without a background in the matter. Some lectures can be really interesting as well, but, again, probably at a level that is not approachable wihout some degree of academic knowledge on the matter. for example, Ronald de Wolf's quantum computing lecture notes from the University of Amsterdam, John Preskill's quantum information lecture notes from the California Institute of Technology, and Scott Aaronson's introduction to quantum science lecture notes. Probably all these lectures are available online. Probably the best book to learn everything from the maths to the actual physical systems is 'Quantum Computing: From Linear Algebra to Physical Realizaitons', by Mikio Nakahara and Tetsuo Ohmi. This is a really complete book but also... a very expensive book! It's an academic book so not that approachable for the general public, but a great complement for those studying the subject as part of an academic course. If you want to learn rudiments of how to program with Quiskit, and other topics, vendors like IBM provide excellent resources to get the basic ideas without the need to go too deep. If you want to know more, I would recommend perhaps to do a Masters or something like that. It's not a simple topic, it requires actual study to learn physics, mathematics, and other aspects of the technology.

by xrd 2y ago

codethief 2y ago

I'd suggest starting with the basics of quantum mechanics. You'll need a bit of linear algebra but not much more, fortunately.

xrd 2y ago
Ok, thank you. What is a good starting place? Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics? Or, asking Claude to tell me about quantum mechanics? </facepalm>
- grepLeigh 2y ago
  I'd recommend starting with Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Isaac Chuang and Michael Nielsen ("Mike and Ike"). It's the text used in most intro courses. There's an "Intro to Quantum Mechanics" section that covers what's strictly necessary to understand quantum algorithms. For lectures, John Preskill's lectures from the Quantum Computation course at CalTech: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0ojjrEqIyPy-1RRD8cTD_lF1hflo89Iu&si=_5t5XcEiJH9akFvH https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0ojjrEqIyPy-1RRD8cTD_lF1...
  - gauge_field 2y ago
    You also need some foundation in Linear Algebra if you want to have better formal understanding of its underlying framework( which is Hilbert Space).
- shalg 2y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Computation_and_Quantum_Information https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Computation_and_Quan... ^^ The best resource there is to start with.
- samstave 2y ago
  You always do well at the plank -- And a HEALTHY understating of ETYMOLOGY --- Meaning: we are realizing the fabric of the reality a we speak it Speak is an interesting WERD Understanding druidics and etymology will bring you close.. this is how you fabricate youre reality
- sampo 2y ago
  I think the best, and also most popular, textbook for a Quantum Mechanics 1 course is "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by David J. Griffiths. This is also what Claude says. But you also need some math: Complex numbers, linear algebra, some basics of partial differential equations. But a traditional university course in quantum mechanics aims at doing quantum mechanics in 3-dimensional space, to solve electron orbitals and energy levels of hydrogen atom. But all this 3-dimensional mathematics, you don't necessarily need if you just want to read about quantum computers. Maybe some quantum computers textbook has a presentation of the basics of quantum mechanics that leaves out the topics that traditional physics needs, because traditionally physics was interested in how atoms are build.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

ur-whale 2y ago

> Is there a good way to start studying the basics of quantum computing? Most quantum mechanics theory out there is taught by physicists. You'll discover that their brain works in a way that's fundamentally different than that of a computer scientist, making it really hard. Very specifically, you'll find that they are basically incapable to reason without physical support and/or experiments and sticking to a theoretical presentation of the subject from first principles is not something they can materially do. Even Scott Aaronson, who claims to try to explay QM and QC using only math falls back to talking about particles and spin and shit after the fourth paragraph. My recommendation: if you want to learn QM from first mathematical principles, avoid like the plague anything written by a physicist: they're all parroting each other tracing all the way back to Dirac and Bohr. If you find a book that can talk about QM without using the following words "double slit experiment", "hydrogen atom", "spectrum", "spin", "wave", and only use terms taken from linear algebra in infinite dimensions then you stand a chance to understand.

amelius 2y ago
How will you build your quantum machine with only pure math?
- PhilipRoman 2y ago
  I guess the same way I built my AMD Ryzen from a pile of sand...
  - amelius 2y ago
    Well, at least you're starting from something physical.
aqme28 2y ago
Why is this post so vitriolic towards physicists? What did they do to you??
- 331c8c71 2y ago

sgt101 2y ago

When I was asked to work on this stuff (I didn't want to because I knew very little about it, but it was a "do you like eating hot food and sleeping inside" kind of moment) I got this book: https://amzn.eu/d/chnBwVy https://amzn.eu/d/chnBwVy I think it provides very useful abstractions for thinking about QC.

thrance 2y ago

This talk [1] helped me at the start. The only prerequisite is knowing basic linear algebra. Now, if you're interested in how quantum computers operate, well good luck. That's a whole other beast. [1] https://youtu.be/F_Riqjdh2oM https://youtu.be/F_Riqjdh2oM

billti 2y ago

I work on the quantum developer tools team at Microsoft. We put a lot of work into what we call the Quantum Katas to learn the basics via coding - https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/tools/quantum-katas https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/tools/quantum-katas Our VS Code extension is trivial to install (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quantum/install-overview-qdk https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quantum/install-over...) or just try it entirely in the browser with Visual Studio Code online (https://vscode.dev/quantum/playground/ https://vscode.dev/quantum/playground/) To support that last scenario, where the language service, debugger, simulator, even package references, can run entirely in the browser, we built the whole thing using Rust compiled to WebAssembly, and our VS Code extension runs as pure JavaScript and Wasm. If interested you can dig into the implementation at https://github.com/microsoft/qsharp https://github.com/microsoft/qsharp . Happy to answer any questions!

xrd 2y ago
This is amazing and exactly the right thing for my brain! Thanks so much.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
jas- 2y ago
Thanks for providing this!

emigre 2y ago

You need to understand some mathematics before learning quantum computing. I can recommend 'Essential Mathematics from Quantum Computing' by Leonard S. Woody III, which is short, easy to understand and covers the basics. If you want to go more in-depth into the mathematics involved, then you have 'Linear Algebra and its Applications', by Gilbert Strang, but this book is exclusively about linear algebra, the mathematics that you use with quantum computing, not about quantum computing itself. There are a couple of popular books about quantum computing in a general sense that could be interesting to read to get an idea about the subject, for example Scott Aaronon's 'Quantum Computing Since Democritus' and Michael A. Nielsen and Isaac L Chuang's 'Quantum Computation an Quantum Information'. I do have the feeling, though, that these will be too deep for a general audience. Interesting and appealing, for sure, but perhaps difficult to understand for most people without a background in the matter. Some lectures can be really interesting as well, but, again, probably at a level that is not approachable wihout some degree of academic knowledge on the matter. for example, Ronald de Wolf's quantum computing lecture notes from the University of Amsterdam, John Preskill's quantum information lecture notes from the California Institute of Technology, and Scott Aaronson's introduction to quantum science lecture notes. Probably all these lectures are available online. Probably the best book to learn everything from the maths to the actual physical systems is 'Quantum Computing: From Linear Algebra to Physical Realizaitons', by Mikio Nakahara and Tetsuo Ohmi. This is a really complete book but also... a very expensive book! It's an academic book so not that approachable for the general public, but a great complement for those studying the subject as part of an academic course. If you want to learn rudiments of how to program with Quiskit, and other topics, vendors like IBM provide excellent resources to get the basic ideas without the need to go too deep. If you want to know more, I would recommend perhaps to do a Masters or something like that. It's not a simple topic, it requires actual study to learn physics, mathematics, and other aspects of the technology.