8.372 - Quantum Information Science 3 8.372 - Quantum Information Science 3
Instructor: Aram W Harrow
Office hours: Tuesday 10:30-12pm and Thursday 1-2:30pm, Room 6-318
Part-time TA: Richard Allen
Office hours: Monday 5-6pm and Friday 10-11am, Room 6-316.
Office hours may be adjusted as the term goes on. Feel free also to write us to request a meeting at other times.
This is a third class in the MIT QIS sequence, following 8.370 and 8.371. It ran before in Fall 2020 [as 8.S372/18.S996], in Fall 2022, and in Fall 2024.
Psets and lecture notes will be made public. Registered students (including listeners) can access the canvas site and Piazza discussion boards. Any content only for registered students (such as pset solutions) will be labeled by the 
icon.
This is a third course in quantum information and computing theory, focused on special topics that may change from year to year. This year the focus is on quantum information theory, both understanding the core theory of the field, as well as application to physics.
The first part of the course will introduce the main questions and tools of quantum information theory, such as entropies, capacities, hypothesis testing, decoupling, random states and unitaries, symmetry, and entanglement. The second part will apply these tools, along with those from quantum complexity theory and error correction, to questions in many-body physics.
Grading and course policies for those taking the class for credit.
| Assignment | Due Date | Solutions | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem set 1 | Thurs, Sep 17 | Bit commitment and metrics on states | |
| Problem set 2 | Thurs, Sep 24 | ||
| Problem set 3 | Thurs, Oct 1 | ||
| Problem set 4 | Thurs, Oct 8 | ||
| Problem set 5 | Thurs, Oct 15 | ||
| Problem set 6 | Thurs, Oct 22 | ||
| Problem set 7 | Thurs, Oct 29 | ||
| Midterm | Thurs, Nov 5 | ||
| Problem set 8 | Thurs, Nov 19 | ||
| Problem set 9 | Thurs, Dec 3 | ||
| Project presentation | Thurs, Dec 10 | ||
| Project paper | Thurs, Dec 10 |
Sep 9, 2026: introduction, purifications, bit commitment
(tablet notes, previous scribed notes)
Review material: 8.371 lectures on density
matrices, quantum
operations
Related reading: Chap 5 of [Wilde].
Sep 14, 2026: trace distance, fidelity, metrics
(tablet notes, previous scribed notes)
Review material: Chap 9 of [Wilde], Section 3.2 of [Wat]
Related reading: early review of the bit-commitment no-go paper.
Sep 12, 2024: classical information theory: entropy, compression and channel coding
Sep 17, 2024: quantum entropy and compression.