Customer Reviews

Classical and Quantum Computation (Graduate Studies in Mathematics)

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The book covers classical and quantum algorithms;-- of the 250 or so, pages of text, roughly the first 50 pages are "classical", the rest quantum;-- and indeed the aim of the book is to teach the wonders of the qubit-algorithms. While other books, such as Nielsen-Chuang, serve as (more or less)comprehensive references, the present book (by Kitaev et al) is focussed on complexity. The mathematical prerequisits are minimal, but a reader with some understanding of basic ideas from CS, and from quantum theory (at the level of ch 1 in Nielsen-Chuang), will get more out of Kitaev et al. The book is a translation of a Russian 1999 original, but it is really well done, and nicely updated;-- for example, a handy appendix was added, covering elementary math terms that are used.
The book does a great job in explaining the fundamentals, both at the level of the *intuitive ideas*, as well as the mathematical proofs. The big question is why some qubit-algorithms (such as P Shor's factoring algorithm), are a lot better than classical counterparts(for example polynomial vs exponential), and a reader comes away with a good understanding of this in the end.

I started off learning Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by reading Nielsen and Chuang's book in order to do research in my junior year on quantum cyptography. Despite the completeness and popularity of that book, it did not exhibit enough explanation and insights for me to be truly satisfied that quantum computation will truly take flight one day to be implementable in place of classical computation.

Recently, in my preparation for my qualifying exam in Quantum information at MIT, I commenced reading this book. The feeling was like drinking a long cool sip of water after a 10 mile run. In particular, I really like the mathematical rigor of the writers. I have known Kitaev as a clear and careful presentator while I was at CalTech as an undergrad, and this is clearly reflected in his book. I definitely would recommend this book to anyone interested in Quantum computing and quantum information, professionally or amateurishly to buy this book (and no, I was not bribed to give this review in order to pass my quals!).