summer 2026 · self-directed study

Notebook: quantum mechanics & computing.

Over the summer I'm teaching myself quantum mechanics, then quantum computing on top of that. Each week I pick something to get through and write up what I actually understood; whatever I get stuck on or curious about decides the next week. It roughly splits into four parts, in order. This goes alongside 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

Courses

Papers & talks

the plan

The rough plan.

Four parts, roughly in order. I only really plan the next week; some are lighter than others (there's a Boston lab week, and a week of tennis camp at the Rafa Nadal Academy).

  1. One Why quantum computers even existFeynman's 1981 paper - why the numbers blow up so fast when a normal computer tries to simulate quantum stuff, and his mad-sounding fix under way
  2. Two How the quantum world actually workssuperposition, measurement, entanglement - writing quantum states down as vectors and amplitudes · Susskind, Cox & Forshaw ahead
  3. Three Turning physics into computingqubits, gates and circuits - how you build an actual machine out of the maths · Qiskit textbook ahead
  4. Four What you can actually do with ita couple of real algorithms, then trying to simulate a hydrogen molecule (H₂) in Qiskit myself ahead
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.