Articles
Must-read articles and essays on quantum computing and mechanics
Showing 32 of 32 articles
Andy Matuschak & Michael Nielsen
An immersive, interactive essay using mnemonic techniques to explain quantum computing fundamentals — qubits, superposition, and quantum gates.
John Preskill
The lecture that coined 'quantum supremacy' — explaining why simulating quantum systems on classical computers is hard.
Andy Matuschak & Michael Nielsen
A spaced-repetition-powered interactive textbook covering the basics of quantum computing and quantum mechanics.
Scott Aaronson
A must-read blog covering quantum computing theory, complexity, philosophy, and meta-science with deep insight and humor.
Community
A Q&A platform for quantum computing researchers, engineers, and enthusiasts. High-quality technical discussions.
IBM Quantum
A comprehensive, interactive textbook teaching quantum computing through the Qiskit SDK with hands-on coding exercises.
David Deutsch
The seminal 1985 paper that first proposed the concept of a universal quantum computer and the quantum Church-Turing thesis.
Richard Feynman
Feynman's visionary 1982 paper that first suggested using quantum systems to simulate other quantum systems — the birth of quantum computing.
Daniel Gottesman
A comprehensive technical introduction to quantum error correction, stabilizer codes, and fault-tolerant architectures.
John Preskill
The seminal paper that defined the NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) era. Explains what we can expect from near-term quantum devices.
Scott Aaronson
A sharp, accessible Scientific American article on what quantum computers can and cannot do, and the fundamental complexity barriers they face.
David P. DiVincenzo
The foundational paper that lays out DiVincenzo's criteria for building a quantum computer — the five requirements every physical implementation must meet.
Frank Arute et al. (Google Quantum AI)
The landmark 2019 Nature paper demonstrating quantum supremacy for the first time using Google's 53-qubit Sycamore processor.
Biamonte, Wittek, Pancotti, et al.
A comprehensive review of quantum machine learning methods, covering variational quantum classifiers, quantum kernel methods, and the potential for quantum advantage.
Jurcevic et al. (IBM Quantum)
IBM's demonstration of Quantum Volume 64 on a 27-qubit processor, explaining the quantum volume metric and its significance for benchmarking.
Microsoft Quantum
An overview of Microsoft's approach to building a fault-tolerant quantum computer using topological qubits, covering the roadmap and key milestones.
IBM Research
An accessible introduction to quantum computing concepts aimed at a general audience, covering qubits, superposition, entanglement, and quantum algorithms.
Google Quantum AI
An introductory guide to quantum error correction, explaining the repetition code, stabilizer formalism, and how surface codes enable fault-tolerant computation.
Google Research
An overview of quantum algorithms with applications to scientific computing, including quantum simulation, linear systems (HHL), and quantum optimization.
Quanta Magazine
A Quanta Magazine article on the current state of quantum computing, the challenges of building scalable quantum systems, and what to expect in the near future.
IBM Research
A practical guide that walks through building and running quantum circuits using Qiskit, from basic gates through to variational algorithms on real hardware.
Scott Aaronson
A high-level overview of quantum computing aimed at non-specialists, covering the key ideas and why researchers believe quantum computers will be powerful.
Cerezo, Arrasmith, Babbush, et al.
A comprehensive review of variational quantum algorithms (VQE, QAOA), their theory, applications, and the challenges of barren plateaus and trainability.
Various
An overview of the quantum software stack, from hardware control to high-level algorithms, on Wikipedia's quantum programming page.
Peter Shor
The original 1997 paper presenting Shor's algorithm for integer factorization, with broad implications for cryptography and complexity theory.
Lov Grover
The original paper presenting Grover's search algorithm, demonstrating a quadratic speedup for unstructured search on quantum computers.
Charles H. Bennett & Gilles Brassard
The original 1984 paper introducing the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol — the first and most widely implemented quantum cryptographic scheme.
Peter Shor
The seminal 1995 paper that introduced the first quantum error correcting code — the 9-qubit Shor code. Published in Physical Review A 52, R2493 (it predates routine arXiv posting).
Andrew Steane
Steane's 1996 paper (Proc. R. Soc. A 452, 2551) introducing the [[7,1,3]] Steane code, one of the most widely studied quantum error correcting codes alongside Shor's code.
Charles H. Bennett & Stephen J. Wiesner
The original 1992 paper on superdense coding: transmitting two classical bits by sending one entangled qubit.
Bennett, Brassard, Crépeau, Jozsa, Peres, Wootters
The original 1993 paper on quantum teleportation, demonstrating how an unknown quantum state can be transmitted using entanglement and classical communication.
Harrow, Hassidim, Lloyd
The original HHL paper presenting an exponential speedup for solving linear systems on a quantum computer, with applications in machine learning and scientific computing.