This is the second semester of a two-semester sequence. The first semester focused on quantum information theory, covering the following topics: classical information, the Hilbert-space formulation of quantum mechanics, quantum states, quantum dynamics and measurements, quantum information, and quantum entanglement. It should be possible to take this course without having taken the first semester of the sequence.

The course syllabus details the topics to be covered and provides a complete schedule for the course. It is also your gateway to the web-based material: lecture notes, special handouts, homework assignments, and solution sets, which are available as pdf (sometimes ps) files linked to the syllabus.

The course assumes that you have a good background in linear algebra and some familiarity with the Hilbert-space formulation of quantum mechanics, including the description of quantum states as vectors in Hilbert space, observables as Hermitian operators, and time evolutions as unitary operators. The course is structured so that you could come up to speed on these things as the course progresses, but that would involve a bit of scrambling to keep up. It will certainly be to your advantage if you have some familiarity with Dirac's bra-ket notation for manipulating the linear-algebraic mathematical objects of quantum mechanics, and you are familiar with the Pauli-matrix algebra for two-state quantum systems (qubits) and with the associated Bloch-sphere description of qubit quantum states.

The course will be taught as a graduate specialty course; i.e., you are expected to be taking the course because you are interested in and want to learn the material. You can register either for a letter grade or for the credit/no-credit (CR/NC) option. The only requirement in the course is that you do the homework. If you are registered for a letter grade, the grade will be determined by your total homework score: 70%-100%, A; 40%-70%, B; below 40%, C. To receive a CR under the CR/NC option, your homework score must be 40% or above.