This text is the first comprehensive introduction to the main ideas and techniques of the field of quantum computation and quantum information. Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang ask the question: what are the ultimate physical limits to computation and communication They describe in detail such remarkable effects as fast quantum algorithms, quantum teleportation, quantum cryptography and quantum error-correction. A wealth of accompanying figures and exercises illustrate and develop the material in more depth. The authors describe what a quantum computer is, how it can be used to solve problems faster than familiar 'classical' computers, and the real-world implementation of quantum computers. The book concludes with an in-depth treatment of quantum information, explaining how quantum states can be used to perform remarkable feats of communication, together with a discussion of how it is possible to protect quantum states against the effects of noise.

Nielsen, Michael A.Michael Nielsen was educated at the University of Queensland, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of New Mexico. He worked as the Richard Chace Tolman Fellow at Caltech at Los Alamos National Laboratory, was Foundation Professor of Quantum Information Science and a Federation Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a Senior Faculty Member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.Chuang, Isaac L.Isaac Chuang is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, jointly appointed in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and in Physics. He leads the quanta research group at the Center for Ultracold Atoms, in the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, which seeks to understand and create information technology and intelligence from the fundamental building blocks of physical systems, atoms and molecules.