Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/University of Waterloo/Recent Advances in Quantum Information (Fall 2013)/Course description

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In this course, we will get a taste of some of the exciting developments in quantum information and computation in the past few years. A couple of prominent themes among these are: applications of semi-definite optimization, and the use of ideas from quantum in classical computation. Most of the course will be devoted to these two themes. Tentative topics include:


 * Semi-definite programming and one-shot information theory
 * The adversary bound, span programs and quantum algorithms
 * Parallel algorithms for semi-definite programs and quantum interactive proofs
 * de Finetti-type theorems and polynomial optimization
 * Quantum communication, extended linear programming formulations, information complexity
 * Area law and algorithms for gapped one-dimensional Hamiltonians

If time permits, we will explore key developments not necessarily related to these themes.

Prerequisites for the course include an introductory course in quantum information processing. Familiarity with theoretical computer science will be helpful, but may be substituted by sufficient enthusiasm for the subject. The lectures will provide the context and background necessary to understand the central components of the results. The students are expected to have enough maturity (mathematical or otherwise) to fill in details through further reading, the assignments, and a project.

Evaluation will be based on three (simple) assignments and a project. The assignments are intended to supplement the lectures and help the students get a more complete appreciation of the topics covered. The project consists of reading one or more recent articles related to the course, making a presentation to the class, and developing a report in the form of an appropriate collection of Wikipedia pages.

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