Teaching Materials by Peter Young
An Undergraduate Course on Quantum Computing
By Peter Young
This textbook, written by Professor Peter Young, serves as the required text for PHYS 150/CSE 109 at UCSC. Designed for undergraduate students in the physical sciences, the book introduces the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and quantum computing, covering key topics such as quantum gates, algorithms, error correction, and quantum cryptography. It aims to provide students with a strong theoretical foundation to understand advanced quantum computing concepts like Shor’s algorithm and quantum error correction.
Access the full textbook An Undergraduate Course on Quantum Computing.
Computational Physics Materials
by Peter Young
These teaching materials were developed for PHYS 115: Computational Physics at UC Santa Cruz and are valuable resources for any course in computational physics.
Random Number Generators in C
Data Analysis and Fitting
- A fairly detailed discussion of data analysis and fitting
- Least squares fitting
- Estimating the error bar from the data
Probability and Statistical Mechanics
Numerical Methods
- Representation of numbers on the computer
- Mathematical equivalence does not mean computational equivalence
- Numerical Differentiation: Approximation and Roundoff Errors
- Romberg Integration
- Slowing down of the rate of convergence in numerical integration due to a singularity at the boundary of the region of integration (and how to avoid this)
- Numerical results for some root-finding algorithms
Differential Equations and Integrations
- Comparison of methods for integrating the simple harmonic oscillator
- Runge-Kutta code for integrating the simple harmonic oscillator
- Leapfrog (Verlet) and other “symplectic” methods for integrating Newton’s equations of motion
- The FPU problem (a talk by David Campbell)
- The Kepler problem
Monte Carlo Simulations
Sorting and Statistical Methods
Fractals and Chaos Theory
- The zeroes of the Riemann zeta function [nb]
- Logistic Map (period doubling route to chaos) [nb] High resolution image
- The Sine Map [nb]
- The Duffing equation (transition to chaos in a differential equation) [nb]
- The Sierpinski gasket (a fractal) [nb]
- Fractals from the Newton-Raphson method [nb]
- The Mandelbrot set (an example of a fractal) [nb]
- My favorite YouTube video of the Mandelbrot set (I recommend viewing it in high definition): View on YouTube
- Another YouTube video zooming in on the Mandelbrot set: View on YouTube
Quantum Mechanics
- Quantum wells – Eigenvalues of the Schrödinger equation for a rectangular well [nb]
- Quantum wells – Eigenvalues of the Schrödinger equation for a sech² well [nb]
- The shooting method applied to the energy levels of the simple harmonic oscillator and other problems [nb]
- Energy levels of the anharmonic oscillator using matrix methods [nb]
Wave Phenomena and Solitons
- Solitons in the Korteweg–de Vries equation [nb]
- Photo of a soliton on the Scott Russell Aqueduct in Scotland
- Scott Russell’s account of his first observation of a “Wave of Translation” (now called a “soliton”) in 1834.
- The Sine-Gordon equation [nb]
Applications and Simulations
- Range of a projectile including air resistance [nb]
- Java applet simulation of the 2D Ising model: Ising Model Simulation
- Introduction to Mathematica
- Factoring and RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) encryption [nb]
Statistical Physics
- Coming soon