Events

The Institute for Quantum Computing's (IQC) Grad Student Association  is screening the 7 Academy Award winning movie Gravity on April 2nd at 7 pm. The event will be followed by a short presentation and Q&A with IQC's  associate member, astronaut, and former Canadian Space Agency president Steve MacLean.

Jingyun Fan, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Measurements based on the quantum properties of physical system have enabled many tasks which are not possible by any classical means. In this talk, I introduce two quantum receivers that discriminate nonorthogonal optical coherent states unconditionally surpassing the standard quantum limit, with mean photon numbers ranging from single photon level to many photons, thus bridging the gap between quantum information technology and state-of-the art coherent communications.

Joseph F. Traub, Columbia University

Robin Kothari

We provide a quantum algorithm for simulating the
dynamics of sparse Hamiltonians with complexity sublogarithmic in
the inverse error, an exponential improvement over previous methods.
Unlike previous approaches based on product formulas, the query
complexity is independent of the number of qubits acted on, and for
time-varying Hamiltonians, the gate complexity is logarithmic in the
norm of the derivative of the Hamiltonian. Our algorithm is based on
a significantly improved simulation of the continuous- and

Amir Jafari-Salim, IQC

In this talk, I will give a summary of my recent research on superconducting nanostructures for quantum detection of electromagnetic radiation. In this regard, electrodynamics of topological excitations in 1D superconducting nanowires and 2D superconducting nanostrips is investigated. Topological excitations in superconducting nanowires and nanostrips lead to crucial deviation from the bulk properties.

Michael Hilke, McGill University

We will review several proof of principle applications for graphene based devices performed in our group, including in field sensors, electronics, THz spectroscopy, spintronics, nanofluidics, and even musical instruments. We will then discuss the synthesis mechanism of graphene as well as the synthesis of very large single layered graphene monocrystals with various shapes, ranging from hexagons to fractals, dubbed graphlocons.

Magdalena Stobinska, University of Gdańsk/Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

We discuss a device capable of filtering out two-mode states of light with mode populations differing by more than a certain threshold, while not revealing which mode is more populated. It would allow engineering of macroscopic quantum states of light in a way which is preserving specific superpositions. As a result, it would enhance optical phase estimation with these states. We propose an optical scheme, which is a relatively simple, albeit non-ideal, operational implementation of such a filter.

Omar Fawzi, McGill University

The goal of two-party cryptography is to enable Alice and Bob to solve tasks in cooperation even if they do not trust each other. Examples of such tasks include bit commitment, coin flipping and oblivious transfer. Unfortunately, it has been shown that even using quantum communication, none of these tasks can be implemented when the adversary is completely general.

David Elkouss, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

The Undergraduate School on Experimental Quantum Information Processing (USEQIP) is a two-week program on the theoretical and experimental study of quantum information aimed primarily at students completing their third undergraduate year. The lectures and experiments are geared toward students in engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science, though all interested students are invited to apply.