This multi-authored textbook addresses graduate students with a background in physics, mathematics or computer science. No research experience is necessary.Consequently, rather than comprehensively reviewing the vast body of knowledge and literature gathered in the past twenty years, this book concentrates on a number of carefully selected aspects of quantum information theory and technology.Given the highly interdisciplinary nature of the subject, the multi-authored approach brings together different points of view from various renowned experts, providing a coherent picture of the subject...

The idea of editing the present volume in the Lecture Notes in Physics series arosewhileorganizingthe ConferenceonIrreversibleQuantumDynamics that took place at The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, from July 29 to August 2, 2002. The aim of the Conference was to bring together di?erent groups of - searcherswhoseinterestsandpursuitsinvolveirreversibilityandtimeasymmetry in quantum mechanics. The Conference promoted open and in-depth exchanges of di?erent points of view, concerning both the content and character of qu- tum irreversibility and the...