Automatic Quantum Computer Programming: A Genetic Programming Approach

This is a book about the frontiers of computer science that have re­ cently been opened by work in quantum mechanics, but it is also a book about the use of recently developed automatic programming technolo­ gies to explore those frontiers. The automatic programming technologies themselves issue from another interdisciplinary frontier of computer sci­ ence — one born of the intersection of computer science with evolution­ ary biology. So this is a book about two frontiers of computer science, one being used primarily for the sake of exploring the other. The selection of topics in this book was made with the intention of showing how genetic programming can be usefully applied to certain problems in quantum computing. To this end, it provides a basic intro­ duction to quantum computing for non-physicists and it also provides a basic introduction to genetic programming for non-computer-scientists. These treatments should be comprehensible to scientifically literate read­ ers who have, at minimum, a passing familiarity with undergradua- level computer science (e.g. programming concepts) and mathematics (e.g. simple linear algebra). No background in physics is assumed.