Название: Quantum Mechanics: A Concise Introduction
Автор: Biao Wu
Издательство: Springer/Peking University Press
Год: 2023
Страниц: 197
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub
Размер: 12.3 MB

This textbook highlights a concise introduction to quantum mechanics in a readable and serious manner. Being readable, the book intends to present the beauty and magic of quantum mechanics to the mass public. Being serious, the book uses mathematics to describe the most profound results in quantum mechanics. To balance the two, the book assumes that the readers are familiar with high-school mathematics and instructs the least possible advanced mathematics necessary for the understanding of quantum mechanics. The book first covers the history of quantum mechanics and then introduces the magical quantum world, including quantum states living in Hilbert space, indistinguishable particles, linear superposition, Heisenberg's uncertainty relations, quantum entanglement, Bell's inequality, quantum energy levels, Schrödinger’s cat and many-worlds theory, etc. To compare with classic physics, the book also covers the classic mechanics before introducing quantum mechanics. At last, the book briefly covers quantum computing and quantum communications. Besides readers of other majors, the book is also a good reference for students in physics. It helps physics students to develop a solid understanding of the basics of quantum mechanics, preventing them from getting lost in solving the Schrödinger equation. The book also discusses quantum entanglement and quantum information which traditional quantum mechanics textbooks do not cover.

After nearly 40 years of development, quantum computing has evolved from a field attracting a small number of theorists to one of the hottest research fields. Major world powers have announced ambitious plans in the field of quantum information. Many big international companies are making major investments in quantum computing. As a result, major progresses in quantum information technologies are frequently featured in mass media. However, in my opinion, there are still many complex and difficult technical problems in the field of quantum computing, and general-purpose quantum computers with practical applications are at least 50 years away. In the following, I’ll give tutorial introduction of quantum computing with the following three questions in mind: How does a quantum computer work? What advantages can a quantum computer provide over a classical computer? Why is it so hard to build physically a quantum computer? Before introducing quantum computers, let us first review the basic framework of classical computers and briefly explain why classical computers are inherently inefficient in solving quantum mechanical problems.

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