MATH 522 Topics in Quantum Information Theory

A graduate-level treatment of how quantum mechanics reshapes the foundations of information itself, from how states and channels are represented to what can actually be transmitted, compressed, or kept secret through them. You will work through the mathematical machinery, density operators, completely positive maps, fidelity and trace-distance bounds, von Neumann entropy, and apply it to stabilizer codes, Shor and CSS constructions, Schumacher compression, and a full security argument for BB84. The course sits downstream of linear algebra and basic quantum mechanics and upstream of research in quantum computing, cryptography, and channel coding, giving you the technical vocabulary needed to read Watrous and current literature rather than just describe quantum protocols in words.