Quantum information and quantum computation: a (very) short introduction

Quantum information and quantum computation are of current interest in computer science, physical sciences, and engineering. They lead to important theoretical and practical results in communication, computation and cryptography. Based on quantum mechanics, that shows counter intuitive behaviours that have no classical counterpart (e.g., intrinsic stochasticity, superposition of states, interference and entanglement), quantum computation, simulation of quantum systems and quantum communication became of great interest in many fields, i.e., algorithm design, quantum key distribution, teleportation, model checking, quantum chemistry and many others. This seminar aims at giving a brief introduction of the quantum world, providing the basic theoretical tools to understand quantum information and computation.