Category: CEPI

Posted on

CEPI Seminar 3/9/05 – Ben Schumacher

Ben Schumacher, quantum informationista extraordinare, and inventor of the word “qubit” will be givin the next Complexity, Entrophy, and the Physics of Information Distinguished Lecture at the Santa Fe Institute this Wednesday, 3/9/05, reception at 4:15, talk starts at 5:00:

Information Engines and the Second Law
Ben Schumacher
Department of Physics, Kenyon College
Maxwell’s demon, which extracts work from a thermodynamic system by acquiring information about it, has for more than a century been a favorite thought-experiment in the foundations of statistical physics. The demon has variously been viewed as a threat, an exception, an exemplar, and a means for extending the Second Law. I will describe a new formulation of thermodynamics in which such “information engines” play the central role, giving new insights about entropy, information erasure, the meaning of temperature, and the connection between fluctuation and dissipation.

Posted on

CEPI Seminar 1/19/05: H. Jeff Kimble

Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information Lecture Series
Wednesday, January 19, 2005, 5:00 PM. Refreshments 4:15 PM.
Robert N. Noyce Conference Room, Santa Fe Insitute
H. Jeff Kimble
Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology
Title: Quantum Information Enabled by Quantum Optics
Abstract: Across a broad front in physics, an exciting advance in recent years has been the increasing ability to observe and manipulate the dynamical processes of individual quantum systems. In this endeavor, an important physical system has been a single atom strongly coupled to the electromagnetic field of a high-Q cavity within the setting of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED). Diverse new phenomena in cavity QED include the realization of nonlinear interactions between single photons and the development of a laser in a regime of strong coupling that operates with “one-and-the-same-atom”. Because of several unique advantages, cavity QED is playing an important role in the new science of quantum information, such as for the realization of complex quantum networks and for the investigation of quantum dynamics of single quantum systems. This presentation will give an overview of recent developments in cavity QED and several other areas in Quantum Optics that are providing enabling capabilities for Quantum Information Science.

Posted on

CEPI Seminar 10/10/04 Wim van Dam

Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information Lecture Series
Wednesday, November 10, 2004, 5:00 PM. Refreshments 4:15 PM.
Robert N. Noyce Conference Room, Santa Fe Insitute
Wim van Dam
Computer Science Dept., University of California, Santa Barbara
Quantum Computing, Zeroes of Zeta Functions & Approximate Counting
Abstract:
In this talk I describe a possible connection between quantum computing and Zeta functions of finite field equations that is inspired by the ‘spectral approach’ to the Riemann conjecture. The assumption is that the zeroes of such Zeta functions correspond to the eigenvalues of finite dimensional unitary operators of natural quantum mechanical systems. To model the desired quantum systems I use the notion of universal, efficient quantum computation.
Using eigenvalue estimation, such quantum systems are able to approximately count the number of solutions of the specific finite field equations with an accuracy that does not appear to be feasible classically. For certain equations (Fermat hypersurfaces) I show that one can indeed model their Zeta functions with efficient quantum algorithms, which gives some evidence in favour of the proposal.