Reddit mentions of Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (Cambridge Series on Information and the Natural Sciences)

I was feeling saucy. In all seriousness there are some really cool things to do with quantum computing, pursuing quantum computing to me seems to have the added benefit of advancing our knowledge and engineering capability of all sorts of solid state devices. If you are truly interested and have the necessary background pick up a textbook like this one and then start poking around the arXiv after you have a handle on things.

In terms of grad schools depending on your background and preparation:

Any of the top of the line schools, think MIT and Caltech. Besides them look at schools that have top notch AMO programs, here are some rankings. From there google the physics and engineering departments and look at what research is being done.

Isaac Chuang and Michael Nielsen's Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (Many academic books are known by the author names -- i.e. "Nielsen and Chuang". Informally, this one is also known as "Mike and Ike").

Ah gotcha, yeah to be honest this approach probably won't be terribly illuminating. The problem is that the D-Wave really doesn't work in any kind of classically equivalent way. When you think about algorithms classically, the procedure is highly linear. First you do this, then that, and finally the other. The D-Wave One involves nothing of the sort.

Here's a quick rundown of what a quantum annealing machine actually does, with analogies to (hopefully) clarify a few things. In fact, an analogy is where I'll start. Suppose you had a problem you were working on, and in the course of trying to find the solution you notice that the equation you need to solve looks just like the equation describing how a spring moves with a mass hanging from it. Now you could continue your work, ignoring this coincidence, and solve out the equation on your own. Alternatively, you could go to the storage closet, grab a spring and a mass, and let the physics do the work for you. By observing the motion of the spring, you have found the solution to your original problem (because the equations were the same to begin with).

This is the same process used by the D-Wave One, but instead of a spring and a mass, the D-Wave system uses the physics of something called an Ising system (or model, or problem, etc.). In an Ising system, you have a series of particles^ with nonzero spin that can interact with each other. You arrange this system so that you can easily solve for the ground state (lowest energy) configuration. Now with the system in this ground state, you very, very slowly vary the parameters of the system so that the ground state changes from the one you could easily solve to one that you can't. Of course this new ground state, if you've done things correctly, will be the solution to the problem you were actually concerned with in the first place, just like the spring-mass example above.

So perhaps now I have explained at least a little bit of why I don't call the D-Wave One a "computer". It doesn't compute things. Rather, by a happy coincidence, it sets up an experiment (i.e. the Ising system) which results in a measurement that gives you the answer to the problem you were trying to solve. Unfortunately for you, the software engineer, this resembles precisely nothing of the usual programming-based approach to solving problems on a classical computer.

My advice is this: if you want to learn some quantum computing, check out An Introduction to Quantum Computing by Kaye, Laflamme, and Mosca, or the classic Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Nielson and Chuang.

^ They don't actually have to be single particles (e.g. electrons), but rather they are only required to have spin interactions with each other, as this is the physical mechanism on which computations are based.

Edit: Okay, this was supposed to be a reply to achille below, but apparently I'm not so good with computers.

I'm really fond of Nielsen and Chuang's book on the subject. The book covers quantum computation (including Shor's algorithm and Grover's algorithm), as well as quantum information theory. It also goes over most of the background material you need in computer science (with a discussion of basic complexity theory), math, and physics; your background should be fine for understanding the book.

The standard (and very good) reference for this is still Nielsen and Chuang:

http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computation-Information-Cambridge-Sciences/dp/0521635039

Quite accessible if you know the basics of quantum mechanics. I think there is also a series of video lectures out there by one of the authors, but I've not been able to find it.

Preskill's notes are also top notch.

Also, I recommend the book Quantum information and quantum computation

This one?

http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Computation-Information-Michael-Nielsen/dp/0521635039

> I'm not sure which QM textbooks hardcore physicists use.

NOT that one.

If you're doing quantum physics, you're probably not interested that much in how molecules work. At some point you'll learn a little bit, so you know in what direction that goes, but quantum physicists leave chemistry to the chemists.

As for textbooks, I had Griffiths first (Griffiths is amazing, his E/M book too), then Sakurai, and then Nielsen and Chuang in the 5 courses I've taken so far. And we didn't get through each of those textbooks in full; just covered chapters here and there, like science classes always do.

1. There are several good textbooks (Nielsen and Chuang comes to mind). Beyond that - you need to do instead of learn. Pick a problem, and work at it. You'll learn stuff you need along the way. After enough problems, you'll have a more complete picture of the field.
   
   
2. My family and community are secular. Some are deists, some "weakly" religious, some agnostics, some atheists. So there was never any real issue with my philosophical outlook.
   
   Israel is a weird place. I lived in Tel-Aviv - the secular liberal "capitol" of Israel. Most restaurants are not kosher, gays are welcomed with open arms, girls in bikinis on the beach and everything open Friday night.
   
   20km from there you find Bnei-Brak - orthodox jews all in black, roads physically closed on Saturday, everything very kosher and very strict.
   
   And 30km from there, Palestinian cities - different culture, language, etc.