Books

One of the most cited books in physics of all time, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information remains the best textbook in this exciting field of science.

A thorough exposition of quantum computing and the underlying concepts of quantum physics, with explanations of the relevant mathematics and numerous examples.

Written by noted quantum computing theorist Scott Aaronson, this book takes readers on a tour through some of the deepest ideas of math, computer science and physics.

Quantum Computing for Babies is a colorfully simple introduction to the magical world of quantum computers. Babies (and grownups!) will discover the difference between bits and qubits and how quantum computers will change our future. With a tongue-in-cheek approach that adults will love, this installment of the Baby University board book series is the perfect way to introduce basic concepts to even the youngest scientists.

This book teaches a theory at the forefront of modern physics to an audience presumed to already know only basic arithmetic. Topics covered range from the practical (new technologies we can expect soon) to the foundational (old ideas that attempt to make sense of the theory). The theory is built up precisely and quantitatively. Deceptively vague jargon and analogies are avoided, and mysterious features of the theory are made explicit and not skirted. The tenacious reader will emerge with a better technical understanding of why we are troubled by this theory than that possessed by many professional physicists. The book is accompanied by a site Q is for Quantum which also includes more learning resources for beginners.

Quantum Computing for the Quantum Curious
by Ciaran Hughes, Joshua Isaacson, Anastasia Perry, Ranbel F. Sun, and Jessica Turner

Learn Quantum Computing with Python and Q#: A hands-on approach
by Sarah C. Kaiser and Christopher Granade

Learn Quantum Computing with Python and Q# demystifies quantum computing. Using Python and the new quantum programming language Q#, you’ll learn QC fundamentals as you apply quantum programming techniques to real-world examples including cryptography and chemical analysis. Learn Quantum Computing with Python and Q# builds your understanding of quantum computers, using Microsoft’s Quantum Development Kit to abstract away the mathematical complexities. You’ll learn QC basics as you create your own quantum simulator in Python, then move on to using the QDK and the new Q# language for writing and running algorithms very different to those found in classical computing.

Quantum Computing Experimentation with Amazon Braket
by Alex Khan

Amazon Braket is a cloud-based pay-per-use platform for executing quantum algorithms on cutting-edge quantum computers and simulators. It is ideal for developing robust apps with the latest quantum devices. With this book, you’ll take a hands-on approach to learning how to take real-world problems and run them on quantum devices. You’ll begin with an introduction to the Amazon Braket platform and learn about the devices currently available on the platform, their benefits, and their purpose. Then, you’ll review key quantum concepts and algorithms critical to converting real-world problems into a quantum circuit or binary quadratic model based on the appropriate device and its capability. The book also covers various optimization use cases, along with an explanation of the code. Finally, you’ll work with a framework using code examples that will help to solve your use cases with quantum and quantum-inspired technologies.

Quantum Computing: An Applied Approach
by Jack D. Hidary

This book integrates the foundations of quantum computing with a hands-on coding approach to this emerging field; it is the first work to bring these strands together in an updated manner. This work is suitable for both academic coursework and corporate technical training.

Dancing with Qubits: How quantum computing works and how it may change the world
by Robert S. Sutor

Dancing with Qubits is for those who want to deeply explore the inner workings of quantum computing. This entails some sophisticated mathematical exposition and is therefore best suited for those with a healthy interest in mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer science

Quantum Chemistry and Computing for the Curious: Illustrated with Python and Qiskit® code
by Keeper Sharkey and Alain Chancé with Forward by Alex Khan

Explore quantum chemical concepts and the postulates of quantum mechanics in a modern fashion, with the intent to see how chemistry and computing intertwine. Along the way you’ll relate these concepts to quantum information theory and computation. The book builds a framework of computational tools that lead you through traditional computational methods and straight to the forefront of exciting opportunities. These opportunities will rely on achieving next-generation accuracy by going further than the standard approximations such as beyond Born-Oppenheimer calculations. The book provides illustrations made with Python code, Qiskit, and open-source quantum chemistry packages.

Fundamentals of Quantum Computing: Theory and Practice
by Venkateswaran Kasirajan

This introductory book on quantum computing includes an emphasis on the development of algorithms.  Appropriate for both university students as well as software developers interested in programming a quantum computer, this practical approach to modern quantum computing takes the reader through the required background and up to the latest developments.

Quantum Boost: Using Quantum Computing to Supercharge Your Business
by Brian Lenahan

Quantum computing is the new technology of the 2020’s and the learning curve will be steeper, and the competitive advantage greater in the next few years. Don’t hesitate. Take the time now to learn and engage in the world of quantum computers to provide your business with faster solutions to the most complex challenges.

Quantum Excellence: How Leading Companies Are Deploying the Transformational Technology
by Brian T. Lenahan

Quantum Excellence shares insights from global experts on quantum technologies including sensing, communications, cryptography and computing and how they are being deployed by leading companies. Maturing quickly, quantum offers incredible opportunities for portfolio and traffic optimization, lines sciences research, navigation and so much more. Written by the chair of the Quantum Strategy Institute and author of the prequel Quantum Boost, Quantum Excellence offers a common-language approach to getting involved in this exciting field.

Law and Policy for the Quantum Age
by Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L. Garfinkel

In Law and Policy for the Quantum Age, Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L. Garfinkel explain the genesis of quantum information science (QIS) and the resulting quantum technologies that are most exciting: quantum sensing, computing, and communication. This groundbreaking, timely text explains how quantum technologies work, how countries will likely employ QIS for future national defense and what the legal landscapes will be for these nations, and how companies might (or might not) profit from the technology. Hoofnagle and Garfinkel argue that the consequences of CIS are so profound that we must begin planning for them today.

Programming Quantum Computers
by Eric Johnston, Nic Harrigan, and Mercedes Gimeno-Segovia

This book show you how to build the skills, tools, and intuition required to write quantum programs at the center of applications. You’ll understand what quantum computers can do and learn how to identify the types of problems they can solve. It includes three multichapter sections: Programming for a QPU, QPU Primitives, and QPU Applications.

Quantum Information and Quantum Optics with Superconducting Circuits
by Juan José García Ripoll

Superconducting quantum circuits are among the most promising solutions for the development of scalable quantum computers. Built with sizes that range from microns to tens of metres using superconducting fabrication techniques and microwave technology, superconducting circuits demonstrate distinctive quantum properties such as superposition and entanglement at cryogenic temperatures. This book provides a comprehensive and self-contained introduction to the world of superconducting quantum circuits, and how they are used in current quantum technology. Beginning with a description of their basic superconducting properties, the author then explores their use in quantum systems, showing how they can emulate individual photons and atoms, and ultimately behave as qubits within highly connected quantum systems. Particular attention is paid to cutting-edge applications of these superconducting circuits in quantum computing and quantum simulation. Written for graduate students and junior researchers, this accessible text includes numerous homework problems and worked examples.

Quantum Computing in Action
by Johan Vos

Quantum Computing in Action will make sure you’re prepared to start programming when quantum supercomputing becomes a practical reality for production systems. Rather than a hardware manual or academic theory guide, this book is focused on practical implementations of quantum computing algorithms. Using Strange, a Java-based quantum computer simulator, you’ll go hands-on with quantum computing’s core components including qubits and quantum gates as you write your very first quantum code. By the end of the book you’ll be ahead of the game with the skills to create quantum algorithms using standard Java and your favorite IDE and build tools.

Schrödinger’s Killer App: Race to Build the World’s First Quantum Computer
by Jonathan P. Dowling

This book presents an inside look at the government’s quest to build a quantum computer capable of solving complex mathematical problems and hacking the public-key encryption codes used to secure the Internet. It  develops the concept of entanglement in the historical context of Einstein’s 30-year battle with the physics community over the true meaning of quantum theory.  The author also covers applications to other important areas, such as quantum physics simulators, synchronized clocks, quantum sensors, and imaging devices.

Picturing Quantum Processes: A First Course in Quantum Theory and Diagrammatic Reasoning
by Bob Coecke and Aleks Kissinger

The unique features of the quantum world are explained in this book through the language of diagrams, setting out an innovative visual method for presenting complex theories. Requiring only basic mathematical literacy, this book employs a unique formalism that builds intuitive understanding of quantum features while eliminating the need for complex calculations.

Quantum Computing without Magic: Devices
by Zdzislaw Meglicki

This text offers an introduction to quantum computing, with a special emphasis on basic quantum physics, experiment, and quantum devices. Unlike many other texts, which tend to emphasize algorithms, Quantum Computing Without Magic explains the requisite quantum physics in some depth, and then explains the devices themselves. This book is a great resource on the devices used in quantum computation and can be used as a complementary text for physics and electronic engineering undergraduates studying quantum computing and basic quantum mechanics, or as an introduction and guide for electronic engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, or scholars in these fields who are interested in quantum computing and how it might fit into their research programs.

Quantum Design Sprint
by Moses Ma, Po Chi Wu and Skip Sanzeri

The goal of this book is to help readers perform a quantum risk assessment, and learn how to do “quantum thinking” in order to expand their business model to not only mitigate those risks, but to take a leadership role in guiding their company into the quantum age. For any organization to succeed in this brave new quantum computing-powered world, it will require an entirely new approach to truly adapt and innovate.

Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction
by N. David Mermin

This book is a concise introduction to quantum computation, developing the basic elements of it without assuming any background in physics. The book is intended primarily for computer scientists who know nothing about quantum theory, but will also be of interest to physicists who want to learn the theory of quantum computation, and philosophers of science interested in quantum foundational issues.

Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists
by Noson S. Yonofsky and Mirco A. Monnucci

Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists takes readers on a tour of this fascinating area of cutting-edge research. Written in an accessible yet rigorous fashion, this book employs ideas and techniques familiar to every student of computer science. The reader is not expected to have any advanced mathematics or physics background.

Quantum Computing for Everyone
by Chris Bernhardt

Chris Bernhardt offers an introduction to quantum computing that is accessible to anyone who is comfortable with high school mathematics. He explains qubits, entanglement, quantum teleportation, quantum algorithms, and other quantum-related topics as clearly as possible for the general reader. He simplifies the mathematics and provides elementary examples that illustrate both how the math works and what it means.

An Introduction to Quantum Computing
by Phillip Kaye, Raymond Laflamme, and Michele Mosca

This concise, accessible text provides a thorough introduction to quantum computing is aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in these disciplines, the text is technically detailed and is clearly illustrated throughout with diagrams and exercises. Some prior knowledge of linear algebra is assumed, including vector spaces and inner products.

Quantum Computing Explained
by David McMahon

If you already have taken courses in elementary quantum mechanics, McMahon removes much of the mystery about quantum computing. Unlike other books on the subject, McMahon’s narrative is generously interspersed with many examples. These tend to be simple mathematically, but they illustrate key points. The emphasis in McMahon is indeed on providing extended and simple explanations.

Essential Mathematics for Quantum Computing: A beginner’s guide to just the math you need without needless complexities
by Leonard S. Woody III

This book will teach the requisite math concepts in an intuitive way and connect them to principles in quantum computing. Starting with the most basic of concepts, 2D vectors that are just line segments in space, you’ll move on to tackle matrix multiplication using an instinctive method. Linearity is the major theme throughout the book and since quantum mechanics is a linear theory, you’ll see how they go hand in hand. As you advance, you’ll understand intrinsically what a vector is and how to transform vectors with matrices and operators. You’ll also see how complex numbers make their voices heard and understand the probability behind it all.

Mathematics of Quantum Computing: An Introduction
by Wolfgang Scherer

This textbook presents the elementary aspects of quantum computing in a mathematical form. It is intended as core or supplementary reading for physicists, mathematicians, and computer scientists taking a first course on quantum computing. It starts by introducing the basic mathematics required for quantum mechanics, and then goes on to present, in detail, the notions of quantum mechanics, entanglement, quantum gates, and quantum algorithms.