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Questions tagged [nielsen-and-chuang]

For questions about exercises or passages from the popular quantum computing textbook Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang.

The textbook Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Michael A. Nielsen and Isaac L. Chuang (referred to as 'Nielsen and Chuang' or more informally as 'Mike and Ike') was first published in 2000, with the current edition being the second, published in 2010.

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Connection between stabilizer generators and parity check matrices in the Steane code

I'm working through Mike and Ike (Nielsen and Chuang) for self-study, and I'm reading about stabilizer codes in Chapter 10. I'm an electrical engineer with somewhat of a background in classical information theory, but I'm by no means an expert in…
Travis C Cuvelier
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Simulate hamiltonian evolution

I'm trying to figure out how to simulate the evolution of qubits under the interaction of Hamiltonians with terms written as a tensor product of Pauli matrices in a quantum computer. I have found the following trick in Nielsen and Chuang's book…
Apo
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What is the difference between "code space", "code word" and "stabilizer code"?

I keep reading (e.g. Nielsen and Chuang, 2010; pg. 456 and 465) the following three phases; "code space", "code word" and "stabilizer code" - but am having a difficult time finding definitions of them and more importantly how they differ from one…
Quantum spaghettification
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General parametrisation of an arbitrary $2 \times 2$ unitary matrix

From Nielsen & Chuang's Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (QCQI): Since $U$ is unitary, the rows and columns of $U$ are orthonormal, form which it follows that there exist real numbers $\alpha$, $\beta$, $\gamma$ and $\delta$ such that $$…
Tech Solver
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How to find the operator sum representation of the depolarizing channel?

In Nielsen and Chuang (page:379), it is shown that the operator sum representation of a depolarizing channel $\mathcal{E}(\rho) = \frac{pI}{2} + (1-p)\rho$ is easily seen by substituting the identity matrix with $$\frac{\mathbb{I}}{2} = \frac{\rho +…
user1936752
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What does it mean "less than identity" in the operator sum representation?

In Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Nielsen and Chuang, Section 8.2.3, $\mathcal{E}=\sum_{k}E_k\rho E_k^{\dagger}$ gives the operator-sum representation. In general, it requires $\sum_k E_k E_k^{\dagger}\leq I$. But, what does it mean…
czwang
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How can we be sure that for every $A$, $A^\dagger A$ has a positive square root?

In the Polar Decomposition section in Nielsen and Chuang (page 78 in the 2002 edition), there is a claim that any matrix $A$ will have a decomposition $UJ$ where $J$ is positive and is equal to $\sqrt{A^\dagger A}$. Firstly, how can we be sure that…
Mahathi Vempati
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How does the spectral decomposition of the Choi operator relate to Kraus operators?

In Nielsen and Chuang's QCQI, there is a proof states that Theorem 8.1: The map $\mathcal{E}$ satisfies axioms A1, A2 and A3 if and only if $$ \mathcal{E}(\rho)=\sum_{i} E_{i} \rho E_{i}^{\dagger} $$ for some set of operators…
Sherlock
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Procedures and intuition for designing simple quantum circuits?

I'm working my way through one of the quantum circuits sections in Nielsen and Chuang and I'm struggling to get a feel for the basics of circuit construction. For example, one of the exercises is as follows: This exercise seems really simple on the…
Arthur Allshire
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Why is Deutsch's gate universal?

(This is related to Exercise 4.44 in Nielsen and Chuang) Deutsch quantum gate is basically a $iR_x(\alpha \pi)$ gate with two control qubits. The constant $\alpha$ is an irrational number that allows to perform any rotation $R_x (\theta)$ by sending…
MBolin
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Is there any 'official' list of errata for Nielsen & Chuang?

The book Quantum Computing and Quantum Information by Nielsen and Chuang is a well-known and celebrated text book that can act as a resource in a wide variety of topics. Of course, in such a vast textbook there might arise small errors. Its own…
JSdJ
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Correct formulation of Exercise 4.11 in Nielsen and Chuang

Inspired by the comments in this question, there is the errata for question 4.11 pg 176 in Nielsen and Chuang. The original form states that for any non parallel $m$ and $n$, then for an arbitrary $U$: $$U = …
Sam Palmer
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How to perform quantum state tomography on two qubits?

I would like to do a quantum tomography on two qubit states. Recently, I successfully did so for one qubit based on Nielsen-Chuang. They advise to use this formula for one qubit density operator estimation: \begin{equation} \rho =…
Martin Vesely
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Nielsen and Chuang's proof for 'approximating arbitrary unitary gates is generically hard'

The following statement is found on the page 199 of Nielsen and Chuang's book (10th Anniversary Edition) in the proof for the fact that 'approximating arbitrary unitary gates is generically hard': Suppose we have $g$ different types of gates…
Nan
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Why does a quantum operation being trace-preserving imply that $\sum_k E_k^\dagger E_k=I$?

I am reading Nielsen Chuang Chapter 8. They say that if a quantum operation is trace-preserving, then \begin{equation} Tr\left(\sum_k E_k^{\dagger}E_k \rho\right) = 1 \end{equation} which I understand. They however then claim that as this is true…
alpha
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