Events

Dmitri Iouchtchenko

It has been suggested that placing dipolar linear rotors in one-dimensional lattices at zero temperature results in a model that has a transition between ordered and disordered phases. We use the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) to compute ground states of this model near the critical point to provide further evidence of the phase transition. In particular, we numerically demonstrate divergences in both the entanglement entropy and the correlation length.

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PhD Thesis Presentation

Candidate: Chunhao Wang

A Connection Between Gentle Measurement of Quantum States and Differential Privacy

I'll explain a surprising new connection between, on the one hand, gentle measurement (where one wants to measure n unentangled quantum states, in a way that damages the states only by a little), and on the other hand, differential privacy (a field of classical CS where one wants to query a database about n users, in a way that reveals only a little about any individual user).

M.Sc. Thesis Presentation

Candidate: Stefanie Beale
Supervisor: Raymond Laflamme

Luca Dellantonio, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

The fields of opto- and electromechanics have facilitated numerous advances in the areas of precision measurement and sensing, ultimately driving the studies of mechanical systems into the quantum regime. To date, however, the quantization of the mechanical motion and the associated quantum jumps between phonon states remains elusive. For optomechanical systems, the coupling to the environment was shown to preclude the detection of the mechanical mode occupation, unless strong single photon optomechanical coupling is achieved.

Jinglei Zhang, Aarhus University

When a quantum system is monitored with a sequence of measurements, its evolution is given by a stochastic quantum trajectory. At any time the state, and therefore any prediction we can make about an observable, is dependent on previous measurement outcomes. Past quantum state, on the other hand, is a general theory that allows us to include the information collected about the system with later measurements.

Nick Spooner, University of Southern California, Berkeley

Understanding the computational power of multi-prover interactive proofs where the provers may share entanglement -- the complexity class MIP* -- is a central question in quantum computation. In 2012, Ito and Vidick showed that this model is at least as powerful as MIP, i.e. NEXP is contained in MIP*.

Yaoyun Shi, Director, Alibaba Quantum Laboratory (AQL)

I will take this opportunity to share with the Waterloo quantum community the thinkings behind Alibaba Group's quantum computing program and our main activities. Questions and comments from the audience are welcome.

About the speaker: Yaoyun Shi is a computer scientist trained at Beijing University, Princeton, and Caltech. He taught at University of Michigan before moving to Alibaba to launch its quantum computing program.

Polarization Entangled Photon Sources for Free-Space Quantum Key Distribution

M.Sc. Candidate: Ramy Tannous​
Supervisor: Thomas Jennewein

​The thesis has been deposited in the Faculty of Science Graduate Office, PHY 2013, and is available for perusal.

Exploring Practical Methodologies for the Characterization and Control of Small Quantum Systems

PhD Candidate: Ian Hincks
Supervisors: David Cory, Joseph Emerson

Thesis available from MGO - mgo@uwaterloo.ca