>>12168346no, it's more accurate to say you can approach quantum computing and quantum information from a pure math, a pure TCS (which is just another pure math route), or pure physics background and find an 'in,' but almost all the big results and big researchers have to learn more than a trivial amount of the other side. You *can* treat quantum mechanics as a theory of density operators acting with states and channels, but this is your starting point to talk generally about theory that addresses both computation and physics.
This is why MIP* = RE is big, because it connects a pure CS result to operator theory and mathematical physics. This is why quantum information is big, because quantum hamiltonian complexity and holography link it to condensed matter physics and high energy respectively. At some point, you have to put on specific goggles, but it's in service to a heavily interdisciplinary field.
