Hard problems — technical, commercial, and otherwise.

A living map of quantum computing — every node a concept, every edge a relationship. I publish nodes as I truly understand them; the dashed ones are where I'm headed next.

Lately: randomized benchmarking, decoder architectures, and what spec-sheet fidelity numbers actually mean.
publishedin progresscoming soon
describesforms the basisgroundsenablesimplemented ongeneralized byextendsrunsruns onsolvesleads tocharacterized byMathematical Foundations· Linear Algebra· Complex Numbers· Probability TheoryQuantum Mechanics· Superposition· Entanglement· Interference· Measurement PostulateQuantum Information· Qubits & States· Measurement· Density Matrices· Channels, CPTP, Kraus· Entanglement TheoryHardware & Platforms· Superconducting· Trapped Ion· Photonic· Neutral Atom· TopologicalClassical Computing· Bits & Boolean Logic· Complexity Theory· Shannon Information· Information TheoryQUANTUM COMPUTINGAlgorithms· Grover — search· Shor — factoring· QFT & Phase Estimation· VQE · QAOAApplications· Cryptography· Optimization· Simulation - Chemistry· Machine LearningNoise & Benchmarking· T1, T2 Decoherence· Randomized Benchmarking· Error Correctionopen this map →builds on / enablesrelies on / runs onleads to
fig. 1 — the atlas. boxes are territories, arrows are relationships. click Noise & Benchmarking to go one level down.

Learning paths

From zero to your first circuit
7 stopsMath → QM → Qubits → Circuits
The dependency chain in order — answers "what should I learn next?" at every step.
Why quantum computers fail — and how we fix them
9 stopsNoise → Characterization → QEC
From decoherence to the surface code, via how we actually measure error.
From physics to products
11 stopsPhysics → Stack → Industry
Where most guides stop at algorithms, this one continues into roadmaps and strategy.

Recently tended

Measurement
Aug 30Quantumnew node
The Born rule, collapse, and why the basis you choose is half the physics.
Randomized Benchmarking
Aug 12Quantum
Rewrote the "why SPAM-free" section after re-reading the non-Markovian RB paper.
Decoder Architectures
Aug 08Quantum🚧 new frontier node
Collecting papers on matching and RL-based decoders for the surface code.