Future undergraduate students

Wednesday, May 22, 2024 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

IQC Student Seminar Featuring Nachiket Sherlekar

Stable and Localized Emission from Ambipolar Dopant-Free Lateral p-n Junctions

Quantum-Nano Centre, 200 University Ave West, Room QNC 1201 Waterloo, ON CA N2L 3G1

Combining the architectures of a dopant-free lateral p-n junction and a single-electron pump in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure material system could yield high-rate, electrically-driven quantum emitters with performances surpassing the competition in quantum sensing, communication and cryptography. Observed drawbacks of the dopant-free p-n junctions are a rapid decay in electroluminescence during operation, as well as delocalized emission that lowers the measured quantum efficiency. This talk details novel measurement protocols and gate architectures implemented by us to overcome these challenges.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

IQC Student Seminar Featuring Everett Patterson

Unruh phenomena and thermalization for qudit detectors

Quantum-Nano Centre, 200 University Ave West, Room QNC 1201 Waterloo, ON CA N2L 3G1

The Unruh effect is the flat space analogue to Hawking radiation, describing how an observer in flat spacetime perceives the quantum vacuum state to be in a thermal state when moving along a constantly accelerated trajectory. This effect is often described operationally using the qubit-based Unruh-DeWitt detector.

We study Unruh phenomena for more general qudit detectors coupled to a quantized scalar field, noting the limitations to the utility of the detailed balance condition as an indicator for Unruh thermality of higher-dimensional qudit detector models. We illustrate these limitations using two types of qutrit detector models based on the spin-1 representations of SU(2) and the non-Hermitian generalization of the Pauli observables (the Heisenberg-Weyl operators).

[2309.04598] Unruh phenomena and thermalization for qudit detectors (arxiv.org)

Wednesday, January 10, 2024 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

IQC Student Seminar Featuring Senrui Chen, University of Chicago

Tight bounds for Pauli channel learning with and without entanglement

Quantum Nano Centre, 200 University Ave West, Room QNC 1201
Waterloo, ON CA N2L 3G1

Quantum entanglement is a crucial resource for learning properties from nature, but a precise characterization of its advantage can be challenging. In this work, we consider learning algorithms without entanglement as those that only utilize separable states, measurements, and operations between the main system of interest and an ancillary system. Interestingly, these algorithms are equivalent to those that apply quantum circuits on the main system interleaved with mid-circuit measurements and classical feedforward. Within this setting, we prove a tight lower bound for Pauli channel learning without entanglement that closes the gap between the best-known upper bound. In particular, we show that Θ(n^2/ε^2) rounds of measurements are required to estimate each eigenvalue of an n-qubit Pauli channel to ε error with high probability when learning without entanglement. In contrast, a learning algorithm with entanglement only needs Θ(1/ε^2) copies of the Pauli channel. Our results strengthen the foundation for an entanglement-enabled advantage for Pauli noise characterization. We will talk about ongoing experimental progress in this direction.

Reference: Mainly based on [arXiv: 2309.13461]

In English

À l’approche de 2024, l’Institut d’informatique quantique (IQC) souhaite prendre un moment pour porter un regard reconnaissant sur tout ce qu’il a accompli en 2023.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Quantum Q&A with Melissa Henderson

En francais

Dr. Melissa Henderson is a researcher at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and the University of Waterloos Department of Physics and Astronomy. Her research considers the scattering of neutral particles known as neutrons, and their relation to quantum materials.

En francais

The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo would like to congratulate Dr. Thomas Jennewein on his appointment to the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) Program, which he will hold at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia.

En francais

Last week, the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) welcomed over 20 promising postdoctoral fellows from around the world to Waterloo as part of the ninth annual Quantum Innovators workshop.

Split into two streams focused on theoretical and experimental research, speakers covered topics ranging from fault-tolerance and quantum cryptography to quantum defects in diamonds and atomic arrays, and many more topics spanning cutting edge quantum information research.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

Quantum Today: The Quantum Ethics Project

Live on YouTube

Join us for Quantum Today, where we sit down with researchers from the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) to talk about their work, its impact and where their research may lead.

In this special session, we’ll be joined by Joan Arrow and Özge Gülsayin of the Quantum Ethics Project, a team of researchers exploring the intersection of quantum and society. We’ll discuss how to advocate for the responsible and inclusive development of quantum technologies through education and research, and why an ethics lens is important in even the early stages of technological innovation.