# Posts for the Topic quantum

A blog written by quantum researchers for quantum researchers and those interested in their work.

## QIP 2016

Quantum Information Processing (QIP) is a conference held each year about quantum computation and quantum information that brings out a large portion of the quantum computing community. The QIP conference started in 1998, and has continued annually. QIP 2016 marks the 19th gathering of scientists and researchers from around the world to join together and discuss various aspects of this specialized field.

## Ask not for which local-hidden-variable-theory the Bell tolls. It tolls for all.

It looks like 2015 is the year of the loophole-free Bell test. Three different papers, with three very different p-values, all claim to put the final nail in the local-realistic coffin. I will compare the designs and results of the three experiments with an eye towards their strengths and weaknesses.[1] The three papers are, in order of experiment completion:

## Anyone can understand quantum mechanics - Part 1

Pixar’s delightful movie Ratatouille – an animated film inspired by the world of French haute cuisine – features two characters with opposing views on cooking. On one hand we have Gusteau, a jolly and chubby chef with an optimistic message that he constantly repeats in his books and TV shows:

## How to enhance separability and entanglement of quantum states

A quantum state $\rho$ that is shared between two parties is called separable if it can be written as a convex combination of local quantum states $\{\sigma_i\}$ and $\{\tau_i\}$:

$\rho = \sum_i p_i \sigma_i \otimes \tau_i.$

States that are not separable are called entangled, and the distinction between these two types of states is important because there are many senses in which entangled states are exactly the "useful" ones in quantum information theory.

## An undergraduate's experience at IQC

Hi! I am a fourth year Engineering Physics student at Queen’s University. I spent this past summer at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) as part of the Undergraduate School on Experimental Quantum Information Processing (USEQIP). I was asked to talk a bit about my research and summer experience.

## Quantum Programming and Circuits Workshop synopsis

During the period of June 8 - June 11 2015, the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) hosted the Quantum Programming and Circuits Workshop. The workshop constituted a rare opportunity to bring together researchers from both quantum computing and classical programming languages.

## The essential content of the Threshold Theorem for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation

The belief that quantum computation is possible in practice is founded strongly on a set of theorems that are generally called ‘the’ Threshold Theorem for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation. Though there is non-trivial variation between threshold theorems based on differing assumptions about the errors that will affect the quantum computer, the essential content of ‘the’ theorem is that errors can be efficiently corrected if they are small enough.

## Notes from the Circus: CLEO 2015

On Wednesday, they brought in a performer on stilts to wander amongst the conference attendees. She was surrounded in rings of multi-coloured LEDs, costumed to look very much like what people thought the future would look like in the eighties. She twirled two torches which projected a United Nations-sanctioned logo for the International Year of Light, as if challenging Lady Liberty to step up her game.

## CAP Congress 2015

About six weeks ago I was fortunate to attend the annual Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) Annual Congress. This conference is organized each year at universities across the country and this year it was hosted at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta from June 15-19.

## On weirdness

Quantum mechanics is weird. You have probably heard this before. If you are a scientist you might have even said it before when trying to explain something to a layperson. If you are not a scientist then you have probably heard it and it has probably been frustrating to hear, because usually it is given in lieu of an explanation. It is both a true statement, and a dangerous one. Why is it dangerous? Because it gives people the wrong impression.

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