Author: dabacon

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Quacks always say the cutest things. Today I shall attempt my best impersonation.

All of computational complexity is based on a model that is, without question, wrong.

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In Defense of D-wave

The Optimizer has gotten tired of everyone asking him about D-wave and gone and written a tirade about the subject. Like all of the optimizer’s stuff it’s a fun read. But, and of course I’m about to get tomatoes thrown on me for saying this, I have to say that I disagree with Scott’s assessment of the situation. (**Ducks** Mmm, tomato goo.) Further while I agree that people should stop bothering Scott about D-wave (I mean the dudes an assistant professor at an institution known for devouring these beasts for breakfast), I personally think the question of whether or not D-wave will succeed is one of the most important and interesting questions in quantum computing. The fact that we interface with this black box of a company via press releases, an occasional paper, and blog posts at rose blog, for me, makes it all the funner! Plus my father was a lawyer, so if you can’t argue the other side of the argument, well you’re not having any fun! So, in defense of D-wave…
Continue reading “In Defense of D-wave”

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What To Read?

Lately I feel like my reading material has gotten stuck in a rut. The feel is that everything I’m reading is a rehash of something I’ve read before. Okay, maybe it is just that the rain has returned to Seattle 🙂 Since I’m a subscriber to the belief that books that show you something outside of your current view of the world are the most important, a challenge to all two of remaining readers of this blog: what should I be reading that is most likely to be of such high information content? Recommendations? (For comparison, I think my library is available on librarything. Fiction, non-fiction, whatever, though you should be warned that I was a literature major, so I’ve done most of the snotty literature.)

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We Belong Together, Adiabatically

A paper dance today! Yes, indeed, it’s another slow dance (scirate, arXiv:0912.2098):

Adiabatic Cluster State Quantum Computing
Authors: Dave Bacon, Steven T. Flammia
Abstract: Models of quantum computation are important because they change the physical requirements for achieving universal quantum computation (QC). For example, one-way QC requires the preparation of an entangled “cluster” state followed by adaptive measurement on this state, a set of requirements which is different from the standard quantum circuit model. Here we introduce a model based on one-way QC but without measurements (except for the final readout), instead using adiabatic deformation of a Hamiltonian whose initial ground state is the cluster state. This opens the possibility to use the copious results from one-way QC to build more feasible adiabatic schemes.

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Climate Change Emails Scandal of a Physicist Kind

Ha, well, not nearly the soap opera that is the “University of East Anglia” emails, but fun to watch, nonetheless. A letter from American Physical Society president Cherry Murray:

Dear APS Member:
Recently, you may have received an unsolicited email from Hal Lewis, Bob Austin, Will Happer, Larry Gould and Roger Cohen regarding the APS and climate change. Please be assured that this was not an official APS message, nor was it sent with APS knowledge or approval. A number of members have complained to APS regarding this unsolicited e-mail. If the e-mail addresses used to send this message were obtained from our membership directory, this was contrary to the stated guidelines for members’ use of the directory. We arecontinuing to investigate how the senders obtained APS member email addresses.
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Today I Can't Think of a Decent Blog Post Title

I’m in D.C, attending the sorters meeting for the APS March meeting. Traveling in early December is always nice as the planes seem to be empty (*stretch*) and sheesh, it’s downright balmy here in D.C. Now I’ve absconded to a second rate hotel in the middle of what I can only guess is somewhere near the mythical land of suburbia, since the place is surrounded by office complexes, watching the civil war (no, not that civil war, that one.)
Things I’ve been thinking about when I’m not obsession about my latest research:

  • Has anyone ever tried sending a prop to a conference?
  • Because I hate advice columns about graduate school I am happy to point you to Luis von Ahn’s advice on graduate school applications.
  • Next thing you know, xkcd will be drawing Spherical Cows
  • Fafblog contemplates the Pauli paradox.
  • On twitter I was asked “do you think entangled angular momentum states provide any advantage for QKD?” to which I had only FAIL in response. Opinions?
  • A very cool volcano picture.
  • Oh, and happy birthday to Ellen Swallow Richards, even if you did go to the lesser Tech school