summer 2026 · self-directed study

Notebook: quantum mechanics & computing, ten weeks.

From late June to the end of August I'm self-teaching quantum mechanics, then quantum computing as the thing built on top. Five weeks of physics first (wave functions, observables, entanglement), then five weeks of computing (qubits, gates, algorithms, simulating a molecule). This pairs with my UCL quantum computing for materials & chemistry project.

By September I want to walk into the UCL project with enough vocabulary to participate meaningfully from the start, so I'm working from week one rather than learning the basics on the job.

library

What I'm working through.

Books, courses, papers and talks I'm using over the summer.

Books

The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol III Richard Feynman · quantum mechanics reference
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat John Gribbin Week 4
The Quantum Universe Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw Weeks 2-3

Courses

The Theoretical Minimum: Quantum Mechanics Leonard Susskind · Stanford lecture series Weeks 2-5

Papers & talks

Simulating Physics with Computers Richard Feynman · 1981 Week 1
The Perfect Battery Material Is Dangerous Veritasium · a materials problem quantum computing is aiming at · suggested by my UCL contact Week 1

the plan

Ten weeks, mapped out.

I drafted this before I started so I'd actually stick to it. The dates are a guide, not a contract; some weeks might overrun.

Week 1 22-28 Jun Why we need quantum mechanics at allwave-particle duality, the double-slit, photons · Cox & Forshaw early chapters planned
Week 2 29 Jun-5 Jul How a wave function actually behaves over timestate vectors, the Schrödinger equation, Susskind lectures begin planned
Week 3 6-12 Jul What you can actually measure, and the maths behind itobservables, operators, eigenstates · Feynman Vol III planned
Week 4 13-19 Jul What happens when you actually measureprobability, collapse, the Born rule, Schrödinger's cat · Gribbin planned
Week 5 20-26 Jul Entanglement, the strangest partBell states, non-locality, why this breaks intuition planned
Week 6 27 Jul-2 Aug From quantum mechanics to qubitssuperposition as state vectors, the Bloch sphere · Feynman 1981 paper revisited planned
Week 7 3-9 Aug Boston interlude: 5 days at CEMS, gates and circuits in the gapssingle-qubit and multi-qubit operations, CNOT, picked up in evenings and the weekend planned
Week 8 10-16 Aug Some real quantum algorithmsDeutsch-Jozsa, Bernstein-Vazirani, intuition for Grover planned
Week 9 17-23 Aug Trying to simulate H₂ in Qiskit (VQE)the bridge to chemistry, my first hands-on problem planned
Week 10 24-30 Aug Did I get there?retrospective against the goal, what worked, what I'm reading in autumn term planned

posts

Notes as I go.

Posts when I've got something worth writing up - some weeks more than others.

Nothing here yet. This fills up as I work through the plan.