Master Seminar WS2019

Seminar Quantum Computation

Contact

Peter Rossmanith
Henri Lotze (tcs-teaching@cs.rwth-aachen.de)
Jan Dreier (tcs-teaching@cs.rwth-aachen.de)

Content

Quantum Computing offers great potential in many fields of computer science such as cryptography or quantum simulation. Quantum computers are very different from classical computers and are believed to be able to efficiently solve some problems considered hard for classical computers. For an introduction see here.

We put less emphasis on the physical foundations of quantum mechanics. Instead, we focus on quantum computing models such as the quantum circuit model. These models offer a powerful abstraction of quantum computing and can be studied without knowledge of quantum mechanics. We will discuss models of quantum computation, quantum algorithms, as well as quantum complexity theory. This is a hard topic as we will go deep down into the gritty details of quantum computing.

Selected topics include: quantum teleportation, superdense coding, quantum search algorithms, quantum Fourier transform and its applications such as Shor's algorithm.

Structure

Participants are required to independently read the first few chapters of the book Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang. In order to make sure that everyone understands the topic we offer one or two question sessions where participants can ask about material they did not understand themselves. Afterwards, we assign each participant one topic. The participants will have some time to prepare and in the beginning of 2020 all topics will be presented in block seminar form. Some time later, each participant has to hand in a written report on their topic.

Requirements

Participants are not expected to have any prior knowledge of quantum mechanics or quantum computing whatsoever. However, all topics in this seminar are very mathematical and require strong knowledge in linear algebra and combinatorics. If you enjoyed discrete structures and linear algebra you will be fine.

Schedule

We plan 35 minutes of talk and 15 minutes of discussion per person.

Monday, January 6 at UMIC 24 (Mies-van-der-Rohe-Str. 15)

Time Topic Student
09:30 – 10:20 Measurements Roman Vuskov
10:20 – 11:10 Universal Quantum Gates Julius Pörzgen
11:10 – 11:20 short break
11:20 – 12:10 ZX-Calculus Gonzalo Martin
12:10 – 13:10 lunch break
13:10 – 14:00 Quantum Error Correction Anna Maiworm
14:00 – 14:10 short break
14:10 – 15:00 Quantum Computational Complexity Philip Whittington

Tuesday, January 7 at UMIC 25 (Mies-van-der-Rohe-Str. 15)

Time Topic Student
09:30 – 11:10 Physical Fundamentals Tim Andres, Patrick Wienholt
11:10 – 11:20 short break
11:20 – 12:10 Quantum Interactive Proofs Fabian Bloemers
12:10 – 13:10 lunch break
13:10 – 14:00 Quantum Cryptography Jérôme Lenßen
14:00 – 14:10 short break
14:10 – 15:00 Random Oracles Sebastian Issel

Wednesday, January 8 at UMIC 24 (Mies-van-der-Rohe-Str. 15)

Time Topic Student
09:30 – 11:10 Quantum Fourier Transformation Adrian Gallus, Linus Heck
11:10 – 11:20 short break
11:20 – 12:10 Phase Estimation Phil Pützstück
12:10 – 13:10 lunch break
13:10 – 14:00 Factoring & Order Finding Daniel Mann
14:00 – 14:10 short break
14:10 – 15:00 Google's Quantum Supremacy Moritz Rösgen

Friday, January 10 at UMIC 24 (Mies-van-der-Rohe-Str. 15)

Time Topic Student
09:30 – 11:10 Quantum Search Leander Behr, Marvin Gazibaric
11:10 – 11:20 short break
11:20 – 12:10 Limitations of Quantum Search Daniel Pimentel
12:10 – 13:10 lunch break
13:10 – 14:10 Applications of Quantum Search Jakob Gehlhard
14:00 – 14:10 short break
14:10 – 15:00 How to Use Real Quantum Computers Alina Troglio

Dates

Material

Essay

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