Author: dabacon

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Theory Matters Vision Nuggets

One result of a workshop held in 2008 that “broad research themes within theoretical computer science…that have potential for a major impact in the future, and distill these research directions into compelling “nuggets” that can quickly convey their importance to a layperson” is this set of nuggets. Among the summary of nuggets we find quantum computing and three questions:

In the wake of Shor’s algorithm, one can identify three basic questions:
(1) First, can quantum computers actually be built? Can they cope with realistic rates of decoherence — that is, unwanted interaction between a quantum computer and its external environment? Alternatively, can we find any plausible change to currently-accepted laws of physics such that quantum computing would *not* be possible?
(2) Second, what would the actual capabilities of quantum computers be? For example, could they efficiently solve NP-complete problems? Though quantum computers would break many of today’s cryptographic codes (including RSA), can other practical codes be found that are secure against quantum attacks?
(3) Third, does quantum computing represent the actual limit of what is efficiently computable in the physical world? Or could (for example) quantum gravity lead to yet more powerful kinds of computation?

I would have added (a) are quantum computers useful for physical simulation of chemistry, biology, and physics?, (b) can quantum computing theory overcome roadblocks that have plagued classical computational complexity?, and (c) is quantum computing useful for understanding how to build classical algorithms for simulating physical systems?

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What To Do With Scirate?

One interesting thing about quantum computing is that because it is a very new field, a large amount of the research in the field is on the arXiv (interestingly the worst users have historically been computer scientists.) Back in 2006 whenever I would sit around BSing about the arXiv with other quantum computing people, the idea of improvements that would bring the arXiv more up to date would come up. After hearing repeatedly about such ideas, in January 2007, I got fed up of hearing about these ideas and so I sat down and wrote scirate.com, a Digg-like front end for the arXiv. Okay well mostly I did it to learn PHP and Python. Oh, and because coding is fun and I can actually succeed at it as opposed to opened ended research which if hard. Also I did it because I hated spending time filtering through the arXiv each day and wanted to use the power of group knowledge to help save me time. I figure if I add up the time Scirate has saved me versus the time spent reading it I’m pretty close to having gained time. What you didn’t know the point of this blog is to slow down all you competing quantum researchers and thus effectively increase my own effective research speed? 🙂
After some initial development, however, I mostly stopped working on Scirate. Why? Well first of all because I didn’t think I’d succeeded in a very elegant way. Second there was never much traction: there is a group of quantum computing theorists who use scirate fairly often, but outside of that it is not widely used (though there are around a thousand users signed up.) Probably this is also because the development of scirate was essentially closed, consisting of me, hacking away in his spare time. Third, well this thing called a “real job” called (but I keep getting this “hold” music, heh.) I am, however, very proud that until last week, I basically haven’t had to touch the website in any way (last week my host moved Scirates server and didn’t copy over my crontab jobs, thus there is a day missing where I didn’t catch this) besides fixing a few double votes (that occur via a mechanism I’ve never been able to track down.)
So now the question is: what should I do with Scirate?
Some things I’ve been thinking about.

  • One problem with Scirate is it’s closed nature. Thus it seems that it would be useful to open up an API for Scirate, allowing for its integrated functionality in other Science 2.0 websites. Indeed I’ve been thinking a bit about a very general framework for the type of functionality Scirate provides, but haven’t mapped the idea out fully.
  • I’d like to learn more about Google App engine. Seems like what I do next would be a good opportunity to achieve this.
  • One thing that was clearly missing was the ability to use Scirate for some sort of social networking. I’m a bit of a skeptic of “scientific social networking” sites, simply because I don’t see how scientists are all that special in their needs for social networking. Or to say it another way I don’t quite see how a more general social networking tool can’t be “extended” to be useful for scientists, but also be very useful across a wide swath of society. This would imply that I should investigate integration into other social networking sites. But does anyone really want Scirate on Facebook? (Farmville proves to me, however, that I have no idea what people want with Facebook.) And something like LinkedIn doesn’t seem to me to be as widely used as a social networking site (it’s more of a contacts / job site) nor does it allow for extend-able apps as far as I know. Actually this makes me realize that there is a huge hole in the professional social networking genre, though I’m sure that there are people out there attacking this problem. Anyone have any leads?
  • There are rumors that the arXiv will soon be accessible in “the cloud.” What sorts of functionality would this allow that it currently missing?

Anyway it seems that I’m due to be working on something new…and yes I know I need to update my iPhone apps as well 🙂

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Hybrid Research/IT Position at PI

Rob sends me information about an interesting new position at the Perimeter Institute (more info here):

The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) is looking for a Scientific IT specialist — a creative individual with experience in both scientific research and information technology (IT). This is a new, hybrid, research/IT position within the Institute, dedicated to helping PI’s scientific staff make effective use of IT resources. It has two clear missions. First, to directly assist researchers in using known, available IT tools to do their research. Second, to uncover or develop cutting-edge IT resources, introduce and test them with PI researchers, and then share the things we create and discover with the worldwide scientific community.
By “tools”, we mean almost anything. Coding techniques are an obvious example. Collaboration and communication technologies are another: tools for peer-to-peer interactions (such as skype), virtual whiteboards, video conferencing tools, platforms for running virtual conferences (that can do justice to talks in the mathematical sciences), and novel ways of presenting research results such as archives for recorded seminars, blogs, and wikis. Further examples include tools for helping researchers organize information (e.g., specialized search engines and filtering schemes), and end-user software that facilitates bread-and-butter scientific activities like writing papers collaboratively, preparing presentations, and organizing references.
We are seeking a person who brings an independent and ambitious vision that will help define this vision. The job is as yet quite malleable in its scope and duties! We’re looking for someone who is inspired by the possibility that new IT tools can improve or perhaps even revolutionize the way that physics research is done, and someone who can take full advantage of a mandate to create and implement that vision.
Some Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Act as a knowledge broker among Researchers. That is, find and test new programs and practices, advertise them, and be prepared to train others in their use.
  • Participate in the creation of a high quality “standard” Researcher IT environment (desktop hardware, software set-up), built from a mix of open source software and popular commercial packages.
  • Help with High Performance Computing demands.
  • Maintain expert level knowledge in the use of the main packages used by Researchers, including Mathematica, Maple, LaTex, etc.

For the official job ad, go here:
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Scientific/Applications/Scientific_IT_Specialist/

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An Adiabatic Tale of the Cat and Mouse

Customer X: Hi, D-wave? So, I hear that you have this computer that can be used to solve computationally hard problems. Oh, yes, sorry, should have said a quantum computer, my bad. Well, you know we’ve got this hard computational problem, [Editor: problem description deleted to protect identity of involved company.] So what do you think, can you solve this problem for me? Great! Let me put you in contact with my technical guy. Yes, I’ll wire the money to your account today.
Months later.
Customer X: Hi D-Wave, thanks for all your help with getting us set up to use your machine to solve these hard computational problems. We ran the adiabatic algorithm a few times, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Do you have any suggestions? Oh, try a different adiabatic annealing schedule, okay, I’ll pass this on to my technical guy. Thanks for your help. Is it still raining in Vancouver?
A day later.
Customer X: So we tried a new annealing schedule, but it didn’t seem to help. Well it helped on a few of our instances, but not all of them. Any suggestions? Okay I can hold. [Celine Dion music ensues for twenty minutes.] Right. Your tech guys suggest this particular annealing schedule. Great, we’ll try that! How’s the rain?
An hour later
Customer X: Well okay, so we tried that one and again it got a few more answers correct, but now it doesn’t work on the other instances. Can you tell me where that annealing schedule came from? Oh, I understand company secret. Okay can you send me another annealing schedule? Rain again? Sheesh, Noah would have loved Vancouver.
Days later, many annealing strategies shown not to work.
Customer X: So, um, I guess I should have asked this when we started, but what understanding do you have about the speed-ups guaranteed by your machine? I mean, certainly you have at least some evidence that the machine will be able to solve the instances that matter, right? Or at least tell me if my instances will be sped up on your computer? Hello? Hello?
[This blog post brought to you by the letter R and the quote “For now the adiabatic quantum optimizers have the upper hand.”]

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Not True in Any Base

Yes, dear Gray Lady, you certainly sound more sophisticated when you use the word “prime number” in your newspaper. But perhaps you might want to look up the actual meaning of the word before placing those words prominently beside two times five times five.

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Quantum Information Theory Conference in Stockholm Sweden

Mary Beth Ruskai sends a note about a travel grant program for a quantum information theory conference in Sweden this fall:

US NSF Travel Grant Program for Nordita/Mittag-Leffler Conference on Quantum Information Theory 4-8 Oct. 2010
This program will provide funds to support travel and lodging for US scientists to participate in the International Conference on Quantum Information Theory to be held in Stockholm Sweden during 4-8 October 2010. Information on the conference is available at
http://agenda.albanova.se/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=1440
The program is contingent on funding expected from the US National Science Foundation and will be administered by Tufts University. It is intended to cover most of the costs of travel and lodging.
In addition, funds are available to cover lodging for 1-2 weeks before or after the conference to participate in the fall programs at Nordita and Mittag-Leffler or to engage in collaborative research at other institutes in Scandanavia. For information on these programs see
http://www.nordita.org/ http://www.mittag-leffler.se/programs/future/1011f/
Those not constrained by teaching obligations are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity.
Eligibility: Open to US scientists, i.e., US citizens or those affiliated with a US institution.

  • Preference will be given to junior scientists (advanced graduate students and recent PhD’s) and faculty at undergraduate (RUI) institutions. Members of under-represented groups are especially encouraged to apply.
  • In general, those who have current grants with travel funds are not eligible. Partial institutional support is permissible.
  • US scientists participating in the Nordita or Mittag-leffler programs in Sept. or Oct. who
    wish to extend their stay to include the conference week are eligible for lodging support that week.
  • Transatlantic travel must use US flag carriers (even if more expensive).

Application process: Applications must be submitted by e-mail to Chris King c.king [atatat] neu.edu Send a CV with a cover letter containing a brief description of research interests. Those who want to extend their stay should also describe their plans and/or interest in this. Graduate students and new PhD’s should arrange for one (at most two) letters of recommendation to be sent separately.
Application Deadline: 15 July 2010
Selection Process: Applications will be reviewed by a selection committee of Charles H. Bennett, Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Julio Gea-Banacloche, Christopher King (chair), Marius Junge, Mary Beth Ruskai (PI) and Wim van Dam. We expect to notify applicants by the start of August.
Questions: Contact the PI, Mary Beth Ruskai, by e-mail to marybeth.ruskai [atatatat] tufts.edu

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Milburn Interview

Another interview from the Science Watch special topic on quantum computing interview series: Gerard Milburn. Most interestingly is Milburn’s comments on linear optics quantum computing funding:

SW: How has the field of quantum computing changed in the past decade? Where do you hope to see it go in the next?
No matter what technology is ultimately used for quantum computing, optics will necessarily be used for short- and long-distance communication both within and between quantum computers (as is currently the case for conventional computing).
I was thus somewhat puzzled to learn that the US government had recently stopped funding research on optical quantum information processing. We certainly will continue to develop optical quantum information processing. At some point the solid-state QC community will need to return to quantum optical interconnects.

I had heard that the latest round of grants from the x-ARPA’s didn’t include linear optics quantum computing. (Though one could argue that some of the funding for systems that produce or detect single photons is really linear optics research in a bad disguise.) I wonder what the reasons for this were? Oh well, hopefully Australian and the UK, among others, will keep the candle alive.

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One Unit of Dave

This month I’ve been home on paternity leave—which is to say I’ve been working my butt of trying to keep things afloat during that effervescent temporal interval known as nap time. I am truly lucky to have the opportunity to spend time with baby Bacon during these precious early days, and right this moment he is smiling giggling and talking to me in a dialect I have yet to decipher. But the dangerous thing about paternity leave and time spent feeding baby is that it gives you time to reflect, which is especially bad on days like today when I’ve received two negative referee reports, and am vastly behind on the huge number of tasks that just don’t disappear because I’m away on paternity leave.
Now, I don’t like to dwell on the negative, and like I said there is much that is great in my life, but I do wonder a little bit about whether I’m doing the right thing with my work life. So to alleviate my negative musing, I’ve been trying to think about the positive things that I’ve been able to achieve and then to think about how I might better

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Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner has passed away at age 95. I fondly remember going back through the back issues of “Scientific American” as a kid and devouring Gardner’s “Mathematical Recreations” column (along with the similar columns written by Hofstadter and Dewdney.) If I have any mathematical skills, I probably owe a large chunk of them to some of Gardner’s puzzles. Indeed, in my mind, Scientific American went from a pretty good first rate science magazine, to something less than stellar, when they ended these regular columns along with their “Amateur Scientist” column. (And don’t get me started on the “Skeptic” column in the Scientific American, which yes, I know is ironic considering Gardner’s job after the SciAm gig ended.)