Quantum Mechanics for Beginners: With Applications to Quantum Communication and Quantum Computing

Quantum mechanics is a highly successful yet mysterious theory. Quantum Mechanics for Beginners provides an accessible introduction to this fascinating subject for those with only a high school background in physics and mathematics. This book is entirely algebra-based, except for the last chapter on the Schrodinger equation. A major advantage of this book is that it provides an introduction to the fields of quantum communication and quantum computing.

Topics covered include wave-particle duality, Heisenberg uncertainty relation, Bohr’s principle of complementarity, quantum superposition and entanglement, Schrodinger’s cat, Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, Bell theorem, quantum no-cloning theorem and quantum copying, quantum eraser and delayed choice, quantum teleportation, quantum key distribution protocols such as BB-84 and B-92, counterfactual communication, quantum money, quantum Fourier transform, quantum computing protocols including Shor and Grover algorithms, quantum dense coding, and quantum tunneling. All these topics and more are explained fully, but using only elementary mathematics. Each chapter is followed by exercises and a short list of references.

This book is meant for beginning college students as well as advanced high school students, and can be used as a text for a one-semester course at the undergraduate level. It can also be useful for those who want to learn some of the fascinating recent and ongoing developments in areas related to the foundations of quantum mechanics and its applications to areas like quantum communication and quantum computing.