Understanding the Matrices of Quantum Logic Gates

[Floating Info]

(I am not sure if this is the right section for this).

This question probably is extremely trivial and silly, but I haven't been able to find the answer to it despite going through quite a bit of The Internet.

So, it appears that each Quantum Logic Gate corresponds to a matrix. Ones that interact with one qubit are 2 x 2, two qubits 4 x 4. The problem is, I have no clue what on Earth these matrices do and how they correspond to the gates. Do you multiply them by something? If so, what is that something?

 

[John Creighto]

(I am not sure if this is the right section for this).

This question probably is extremely trivial and silly, but I haven't been able to find the answer to it despite going through quite a bit of The Internet.

So, it appears that each Quantum Logic Gate corresponds to a matrix. Ones that interact with one qubit are 2 x 2, two qubits 4 x 4. The problem is, I have no clue what on Earth these matrices do and how they correspond to the gates. Do you multiply them by something? If so, what is that something?

I haven't delved into the subject but If you want to really understand them you should work your way through the following lecture notes:

http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/preskill/ph229/#lecture

My impression is that any type of summary articles (such as Wikipedia) will be too brief to get much understanding.