The course consists of six modules, which are arranged in two parts. The first part (Modules 1-2) focuses on the mathematical apparatus and the foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Physical laws and processes which underlay quantum computations are extensively described. In the second part of the course (Modules 3-6), we show how quantum computations, quantum logic algorithms and protocols of quantum information transfer could be implemented using the laws of quantum physics and phenomena discussed in the first part.

Module 1 focuses on the postulates of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information Theory. We introduce the important concept of a qubit and consider variants of its physical implementation. Certain statistical aspects of quantum theory are discussed. The concept of density matrix and separability, the notion of pure and mixed quantum states are introduced. In Module 2 we focus on the phenomenon of quantum entanglement and the mathematical description of entangled physical systems. We also describe an experiment aimed to test Bell inequalities and consider the well-known EPR paradox. In Module 3 we compare classical and quantum computations. Particularly, elementary logical elements (gates) and the simplest commutation schemes are described. The distinctive features of quantum computations are explained in Module 4. In particular, the No-Cloning theorem is proved, which forbids one to copy a qubit, quantum parallelism and superdense coding are discussed. We also describe in detail the protocol of quantum teleportation and give an example of its physical implementation. The well-known quantum logic algorithms are described in Module 5, these are Deutsch and Deutsch-Jozsa algorithms, Quantum Fourier Transform and Shor’s algorithms for integer factorization. In Module 6 we discuss quantum and classical error correction theory: we highlight their differences and similarities, classify the possible error types and describe protocols of their correction.

Module 1. Statistical aspects of quantum mechanics. Qubit. Physical implementation of a qubit. Qubits as a quantum unit of information. Bloch Sphere. Pure and mixed states of quantum systems. Density matrix and its properties. Qubit systems. Inseparability of quantum systems. The reduced density matrix.

Module 6. Basics of error correction theory. Distinctive features of classical error correction theory. Classical three-bit code. Distinctive features of quantum error correction theory. Three-qubit code.