Quantum computing and communication are hot topics. Software development kits (SDKs) including IBM Qiskit and Google Cirq have been made available to software engineers. But they are useless if the engineers are not trained with quantum algorithms and protocols, which have been described as mysterious and incomprehensible. Can engineers be taught the algorithms and protocols without studying quantum physics? After all, the Nobel prize-winning physicist and one of the best educators, Richard Feynman, says “I think I can safely say that nobody really understands quantum mechanics.”
This book says "Yes!" The only concept that one needs to learn about quantum physics is that at the minuscule scale, a wave cannot be divided into any smaller portions in terms of its energy or mass. The rest of the undergraduate courses on quantum physics are about solving Schrödinger equation for electron waves and have no use to software and communication engineers. On the other hand, everyone in the modern world uses Wi-Fi, cellular, cable, and optical fiber communications daily and are already familiar with many features of radio and optical waves. Further, radio and optical wave engineers have studied radio and optical waves more than anybody has done so that communication engineers can invent new communication protocols using the basic concepts of communication theory without going deep into solving radio and optical wave equations. The goal of this book is to use the same basic concepts, especially the concept of modulation, to help software and communication engineers understand quantum algorithms and protocols and hopefully be able to invent new ones.
The book project is initiated by Dr. Jiang and written in the open-source approach. The whole world is welcome to contribute on
- the text
- the diagrams
- editing
- proofreading. Depending on the evolution of the project, we may use other means to promote the book including publishing the book as an Amazon book.
The book is written in LaTex (on overleaf.com). The project is coordinated over github.com
- BS in Physics, Peking (Beijing) University
- MS in Physics, City College of New York
- PhD in Electrical Engineering, Columbia University His PhD research is on quantum optics and semiconductor device physics for optical communication. He worked as an engineer for telecommunication companies for 20 years and for a software company for 8 years. He has a unique insight into quantum physics from the information and computer science perspective.