Quantum Information

Quantum information- the subject- is a new and exciting area of science, which brings together physics, information theory, computer science and mathematics. Quantum Information- the book- is based on two successful lecture courses given to advanced undergraduate and beginning postgraduate students in physics. The intention is to introduce readers at this level to the fundamental, but offer rather simple, ideas behind ground-breaking developments including quantum cryptography, teleportation and quantum computing. The text is necessarily rather mathematical in style, but the mathematics nowhere allowed priority over the key physical ideas. My aim throughout was to be as complete and self- contained but to avoid, as far as possible, lengthy and formal mathematical proofs. Each of the eight chapters is followed by about forty exercise problems with which the reader can test their understanding and hone their skills. These will also provide a valuable resource to tutors and lectures.

Stephen Barnett graduated with a BSc in physics from Imperial College London in 1982 and stayed at IC to study for his PhD under the supervision of Peter Knight, graduating in 1985. He held personal Research Fellowships at Imperial College, Harwell and Wolfson College Oxford and at Somerville College Oxford, where he taught Engineering Science. After a year as a Lecturer at Kings College London he moved to Strathclyde in 1991 as a Royal Society of Edinburgh/Scottish Office Education Department research Fellow. He was appointed as a Senior Lecturer and then Reader in 1994 before being promoted to Professor in 1996. He is best known for his work, with David Pegg, on the quantum phase operator, work for which he was awarded the Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 1994. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1996 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006. He is currently a recipient of a Royal Society-Wolfson Merit Award and was awarded the James Scott Prize.