These lecture notes may be used and distributed freely, for individual study or by course instructors. They may not be sold.

These lecture notes were prepared for the course CS 798/QIC 890 Advanced Topics in Quantum Information Theory, taught at the University of Waterloo in Spring 2020. There are currently only 8 lectures, but I do plan to add additional lectures in the future.

Latest update: March 14, 2021

All 8 lectures in one file (106 pages) [pdf]

1. Conic programming [pdf]
2. Max-relative entropy and conditional min-entropy [pdf]
3. Smoothing and optimizing max-relative entropy [pdf]
4. Regularization of the smoothed max-relative entropy [pdf]
5. Min-relative entropy, conditional max-entropy, and hypothesis-testing relative entropy [pdf]
6. Nonlocal games and Tsirelson’s theorem [pdf]
7. A semidefinite program for the entangled bias of XOR games [pdf]
8. The hierarchy of Navascues, Pironio, and Acin [pdf]

©2020 John Watrous