Applied Markov Chains

This book is an introduction to quantum Markov chains and explains how this concept is connected to the question of how well a lost quantum mechanical system can be recovered from a correlated subsystem. To achieve this goal, we strengthen the data-processing inequality such that it reveals a statement about the reconstruction of lost information.

This text is ideal for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students. The author first develops the necessary background in probability theory and Markov chains before using it to study a range of randomized algorithms with important applications in optimization and other problems in computing.