Events

Quantum information processing with superconducting quantum circuits

Archana Kamal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The promise of quantum computers to solve problems intractable with their best classical counterparts has catapulted quantum information processing into a major research effort in recent years. In addition, rapidly evolving capabilities in manipulating quantum systems have provided us with new insights into the dynamics of nature at small scales. One of the primary challenges in developing any practical quantum information platform, however, is to harness quantum effects on macroscopic scales.

Bottom-up approaches for quantum many-body physics with cold trapped atoms

Crystal Senko, Harvard University

A major outstanding challenge in quantum science is the development and refinement of techniques to control interactions among quantum particles, which will be a key ingredient in quantum information processing and laboratory studies of quantum many-body physics. This talk will describe two atom-based platforms for studying artificial spin-spin interactions.

Finding non-signalling agents and subsystems in global theories

Lidia del Rio, University of Bristol

How can we find operational notions of local agents within a global theory? In this talk, I will present an operational way to model the effective state spaces of individual agents, as well as the range of their actions. I will then address the aspects of locality relevant to derive independence and non-signalling conditions between agents. This approach establishes an operational connection between local action and local observations, and gives a global interpretation to concepts like discarding a subsystem or composing local functions.

Tensor Rank and Entanglement Transformation between Multipartite Pure States

Cheng Guo, Tsinghua University & University of Technology, Sydney

The tensor rank of a symmetric tensor is equal to the polynomial rank of some homogeneous polynomial. I will introduce the isomorphism between symmetric states and homogeneous polynomials.

Multicolor quantum channels for nanowire-based photonic devices 

Wayne Cheng-Wei Huang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 

Using a two-color laser field and tungsten nanotips, we showed that multicolor quantum channels led to a twofold increase in quantum efficiency. By gating quantum efficiency with pulse delay, optical control of electron photoemission was attained for fields with modest intensity. In this talk, I will discuss the observed effect and potential applications for nanowire-based photonics transistors and ultrafast spin-polarized electron sources. 

Friction under microscope in a trapped-ion optical-lattice emulator

Alexei Bylinskii, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Friction is the ubiquitous mechanical process of sticking and energy dissipation at the interface between objects. Despite its technological and economic significance, friction remains poorly understood, being a non-linear, out-of-equilibrium, many-body process. According to the widely known empirical laws of friction, it is proportional to the load on the interface and independent of velocity.

Quantum Technologies for Cyber Security: from threats to solutions

Bruno Huttner, ID Quantique, Switzerland

Recent developments in quantum computers have spurred renewed interest in quantum-safe solutions for information security [1]. It is now widely accepted that the current public key infrastructures, which are the foundation of cyber security, will not withstand the arrival of the quantum computer [2], [3], and that this arrival will occur with high probability within the next ten to fifteen years. New solutions are called for, and these solutions should at least be partly based on quantum technologies.

Join us at the Institute for Quantum Computing for a two-week introduction to the theoretical and experimental study of quantum information processing.

The Relativistic Quantum Information North (RQI-N) Conference, hosted by the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), will bring together an interdisciplinary community of researchers at the interface of quantum information science and relativity.

Public lecture by Bill Unruh, The University of British Columbia

On February 11, 2016 it was announced that gravitational  waves have been detected affecting an instrument on earth. In addition to the realization of a 100 year old prediction the astounding sensitivity of the detector demanded the approaching and overcoming of seemingly fundamental quantum limits on measuring the motion of 25Kg masses. Quantum mechanics is usually thought of applying only to the very small (zeptogrammes and nanometers).