Quantum Information and Entanglement

Winter term 2022/23

(2 hrs./week)

Dr. Dr. Regina Finsterhölzl
Dr. Joris Kattemölle

The seminar introduces the theory of quantum information and quantum entanglement and offers student projects to deepen the central concepts and issues of these research fields. After an introduction to the basics of quantum mechanics and classical information theory, the density matrix picture and entanglement of pure and mixed states will be covered. Building on this, topics such as Bell's inequalities, dense coding, and quantum mechanical generation of secure keys are available as in-depth topics. In the area of quantum information, topics such as classical Shannon theory, quantum entropy, the description and characterization of quantum channels, and the capacitance of a quantum channel are the subject of the seminar.

The seminar is intended for physics students as well as for students of computer science. In the first sessions, the necessary basics of both disciplines will be introduced. The only prerequisite is a basic knowledge of linear algebra. Students of last term's lecture Quantum Computing are also welcome and can extend their knowledge in the above-mentioned areas.

The seminar is open to non-German speaking students.

Possible Topics include:

  • Entropy and classical Shannon theory
  • Quantum channel capacity
  • Bell Inequalities
  • Mixed states and entanglement
  • Quantum Error Correction
  • Quantum Key Distribution
  • Channel representations
  • Quantum tensor network notation

References:

  • Nielsen & Chuang, Quantum computation and quantum information
    (The classic reference for the topic)
  • Preskill, Lecture notes on Quantum Information and Computation, theory.caltech.edu/~preskill/ph229/
    (Lecture notes by a theoretical physicist)
  • Biamonte, Lectures on Quantum Tensor Networks: a pathway to modern diagrammatic reasoning, arxiv.org/pdf/1912.10049.pdf
    (Lecture notes introducing a diagrammatic notation for quantum info, and treating some topics in this notation)
  • Watrous, The Theory of Quantum Information, cs.uwaterloo.ca/~watrous/TQI/
    (A rigorous and comprehensive treatment)

Seminar

tutor schedule room

Regina Finsterhölzl, Joris Kattemölle

 Thu, 13:30-15:00 PZ801

first seminar: Thursday, 27 October 2022, 13:30 h

seminar in ZEuS