So most of my conference announcements are going out on qspeak now (and will be digested every week in a post here.) But since I’m helping out with this one it, I thought I’d post a separate note here. TQC 2011 will be held in Madrid, Spain from May 24 to May 26. The important deadline is January 24, 2011 for submissions. Website here.
Note that TQC has a proceedings (for those who care about the politics of getting a job in a computer science department, the fact that QIP does not have have a proceedings is not good for the field of quantum computing. The lack of best paper and best student paper awards at conferences is even worse. But that’s just silly politics of, you know, getting a job. Does it matter to the science of the conference? No. Does it matter if you don’t want the field to disappear from the face of the earth because universities won’t hire faculty in the area? Probably. Of course people will argue that a QIP proceedings would prohibit STOC and FOCS submissions, but seeing as how exactly one quantum paper made it to FOCS this year…)
Consequence of the Concept of the Universe as a Computer
The ACM’s Ubiquity has been running a symposium on the question What is Computation?. Amusingly they let a slacker like me take a shot at the question and my essay has now been posted: Computation and Fundamental Physics. As a reviewer of the article said, this reads like an article someone would have written after attending a science fiction convention. Which I think was supposed to be an insult, but which I take as a blessing. For the experts in the audience, the fun part starts at the “Fundamental Physics” heading.
Seth Lloyd at IQC
Some fun short clips of Seth Lloyd at the IQC. Love the first one. Disagree with the second one. The third is a great hope. Disagree strong with the fourth one (since I think the definition of a computer must include fault-tolerance.) The fifth one is a great ad!
And the music. Well the intro and final music is…awesome.
Quantum Shwantum
Toronto CIFAR Meeting
My last trip to Canada for a CIFAR conference was….interesting. This time I’m in Toronto for the quantum computing CIFAR meeting and I’m happy to report that the meeting is full of people who mostly believe quantum theory and who also happen to be doing very interesting work. My favorite talk, because I’m biased to this line of work, was Robert Raussendorf’s talk on the universality for measurement-based quantum computing on the 2D AKLT state (work he did with Tzu-Chieh Wei and Ian Affleck. The authors are TAR, heh.) It was also interesting to hear the state of position based quantum cryptography. It seems that history (bit commitment) is repeating itself? Marcin Pawlowski also gave a very neat derivations of Bell inequalities that I’d never seen….using an Escher drawing!
Some photos. First of all it was not clear if the pain the sign below was related at all to quantum information processing:
And then there was what some would consider computer scientist’s heaven:
I did manage to have a beer and write some equations in said bar. I’m certain they are correct.
March Meeting Madness
The 2011 APS March meeting deadline for submission of abstracts is today. Chris Fuchs writes with some stats about current submissions from the topical group on quantum information and in particular the number of quantum foundations talks (a list of foundation-ish talks is listed in the email):
As I write to you, 3200 abstracts have already been submitted for the APS March Meeting, with 140 of those earmarked for the Topical Group on Quantum Information. Very importantly for quantum foundations, however, 34 of those abstracts (culled from all sessions) can be considered with good justification quantum foundations submissions!! In other words, at the moment, we’ve got 1% of the whole meeting thinking about the foundations of physics!-
Have a look at some of the titles and speakers below; there are going to be some very good talks at this meeting. It will be a grand opportunity for everyone in our community to mix and mingle and learn from each other.
Please don’t forget that the abstract submission deadline is tomorrow, November 19, at 5:00 PM EST.
I really encourage everyone who wants to see quantum foundations thrive and be memorable to please submit a talk to this meeting. Encourage your colleagues and students too. Let’s build a critical mass. Your voice will count.
The place to go is:
http://www.aps.org/meetings/abstract/instructions.cfm
You must have an APS membership before submitting ($128 regular, $64 for recently completed PhDs, and $0 for students first joining), but you can still submit an abstract even if you don’t have your membership number yet–the instructions at the link explain how to do it. (It is not necessary, but please do spend the extra $8 to join the Topical Group on Quantum Information, the official home within the APS for quantum foundations research.)
Sincerely,
Chris Fuchs
Long Talks:
A Brief Prehistory of Qubits
Benjamin Schumacher
Quantum Information and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics: A Story of Mutual Benefit
Anton Zeilinger
Toward a Conceptual Foundation of Quantum Information Processing
Giulio Chribella
On Mutually Unbiased Bases
Berthold-Georg Englert
Quantum States as Probabilities from Symmetric Informationally Complete
Measurements (SICs)
Åsa Ericsson
The Lie Algebraic Significance of Symmetric Informationally Complete Measurements
Steven T. Flammia
Report on the Zeilinger Group SIC and MUB Experiments
Christophe Schaef
States with the Same Probability Distribution for Each Basis in a Complete Set of MUBs
William K. Wootters
Short Talks:
Physics as Information
Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano
Quantum theory cannot be extended
Roger Colbeck, Renato Renner
The quantal algebra and abstract equations of motion
Samir LipovacaScaling of quantum Zeno dynamics in thermodynamic systems
Wing Chi Yu, Li-Gang Wang, Shi-Jian Gu
Mathematical Constraint on Realistic Theories
James Franson
Uncertainty Relation for Smooth Entropies
Marco Tomamichel, Renato Renner
Quaternions and the Quantum
Matthew Graydon
A Linear Dependency Structure Arising from Weyl-Heisenberg Symmetry
Hoan Bui Dang, Marcus Appleby, Ingemar Bengtsson, Kate Blanchfield, Asa Ericsson, Christopher Fuchs, Matthew Graydon, Gelo Tabia
Proofs of the Kochen-Specker theorem based on the 600-cell
P.K. Aravind, Mordecai Waegell, Norman Megill, Mladen Pavicic
Proofs of the Kochen-Specker theorem based on two qubits
Mordecai Waegell, P.K. Aravind
Quantum Theory for a Total System with One Internal Measuring Apparatus
Wen-ge Wang
The thermodynamic meaning of negative entropy
Lidia del Rio, Renato Renner, Johan Aaberg, Oscar Dahlsten, Vlatko Vedral
Pseudo-unitary freedom in the operator-sum representation
Yong Cheng Ou, Mark S. Byrd
Quantum Computational Geodesic Derivative
Howard Brandt
Hardy’s paradox and a violation of a state-independent Bell inequality in time
Alessandro Fedrizzi, Marcelo P. Almeida, Matthew A. Broome, Andrew G. White, Marco Barbieri
Topos formulation of History Quantum Theory
Cecilia Flori
Quantum Darwinism in an Everyday Environment: Huge Redundancy in Scattered Photons
Charles Riedel, Wojciech Zurek
Redundant imprinting of information in non-ideal environments: Quantum Darwinism via a noisy channel
Michael Zwolak, Haitao Quan, Wojciech Zurek
Foundational aspects of energy-time entanglement
Jan-Åke Larsson
A Bigger Quantum Region in Multi-Party Bell Experiments
Matty Hoban, Dan Browne
Qutrits under a microscope
Gelo Noel Tabia
Quantum systems as embarrassed colleagues: what do tax evasion and state tomography have in common?
Chris Ferrie, Robin Blume-Kohout
Modal Quantum Theory
Michael Westmoreland, Benjamin Schumacher
On the Experimental Violation of Mermin’s High-Spin Bell Inequalities in the Schwinger Representation
Ruffin Evans, Olivier Pfister
Measurement backaction and the quantum Zeno effect in a superconducting qubit
Daniel H. Slichter, R. Vijay, Irfan Siddiqi
A derivation of quantum theory from physical requirements
Markus Mueller, Lluis Masanes
And that’s just the “foundation”-ish talks.
Rush Science
It looks like QIP talk accepts and rejects are out. Sadly a piece of work I’ve been hacking on for a while didn’t make the cut (eventually it will make it’s way to the arXiv.) But I did get one of the more amusing reviews sentences I’ve seen:
However, working this idea out seems to a require a protocol which is rather involved and, in some places, subtle. Consequently, I was not able to work through and understand the construction in the time available.
Which is, perhaps, one of the best condemnations of the computer science conference system I’ve ever seen!
All rush and no play makes science something something.
More APS March Meeting GQI Goodness
As a follow up to my last post, I’d also note that Chris Fuchs has set up what looks likes a great lineup for the March meeting. Because not all of you are GQI members (join!) here is the email Chris sent out that describes the lineup:
Dear GQI Membership,
I write to you as the chair-elect of the GQI executive committee and the program chair of our portion of the 2011 APS March Meeting. This coming year the meeting will be in Dallas, Texas, 21-25 March 2011.
We believe we have put together an exciting venue of invited talks and focus sessions. Please have a look at the attachment (see below) and you will see. There will be some astounding experiments reported, and you will also have a chance to meet several of the founders of our field. 2011 is a hallmark year for quantum information as a field within physics Also we are pleased to announce that one of our talks will be given by one of the two LeRoy Apker Award winners for “outstanding achievements in physics by undergraduate students.”
I should further mention that the meeting will host a talk from one of this year’s Nobel-Prize winners for the discovery of graphene, Konstantin Novoselov. (Andre Geim may also speak, but has not yet confirmed.) Moreover, there will be a recognition of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity with a session of historical talks devoted to the subject, as well as a Nobel-laureate session on it. Speakers will include Ivar Giaever, Wolfgang Ketterle, Sir Anthony Leggett, K. Alexander Mueller, and Frank Wilczek, and there is word that there may be more.
In all, it should be a more-than-usual memorable meeting, with some quite wonderful GQI invited and focus sessions. The executive committee and I hope the venue will be exciting enough to tip the scales for you if you have been indecisive about attending.
Particularly, we encourage you to submit a talk or poster on your latest research. The better showing GQI makes at this meeting, the greater the chance we have of increasing general APS awareness of our field, the better the chance the topical group may recruit enough members to attain APS Division status, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, the better the chance we have of convincing American physics departments that it is worthwhile to create faculty and research positions for all of us. Your participation is really, truly vital. Quantum information needs you!
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.Please note that the deadline for abstract submission is NOVEMBER 19 (less than 11 days away!). Please submit an abstract yourself; please get your students to submit an abstract too! Please get your associates to submit an abstract as well!! The place to go to submit and register for the meeting is here:
http://www.aps.org/meetings/march/
The GQI executive committee and I hope to see you in Dallas. It’ll be a whoppin’ good time!
Chris Fuchs
Chair-elect of APS Topical Group on Quantum Information
GQI Program Chair for 2011 APS March Meeting
The attachment reads:
Sunday, March 20, tutorial
Ivan Deutsch (University of New Mexico)
Quantum Simulation and Computing with AtomsTuesday, March 22, invited session, “Quantum Information: Featured Experi-
ments”H. Jeff Kimble (California Institute of Technology)
Entanglement of Spin Waves among Multiple Quantum MemoriesChristopher Monroe (Joint Quantum Institute and University of Maryland)
Quantum Networks with Atoms and PhotonsTill Rosenband (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Quantum-Logic Clocks for Metrology and GeophysicsRobert J. Schoelkopf (Yale University)
Towards Quantum Information Processing with Superconducting CircuitsAnton Zeilinger (University of Vienna)
Quantum Information and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics: A Story of Mutual BenefitWednesday, March 23, invited session, “20 Years of Quantum Information in Physical Review Letters”
Charles H. Bennett (IBM Research)
The Theory of Entanglement and Entanglement-Assisted CommunicationDavid P. DiVincenzo (Aachen University)
Twenty Years of Quantum Error CorrectionArtur Ekert (University of Oxford and National University of Singapore)
Less Reality, More SecurityPeter W. Shor (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
The Early Days of Quantum AlgorithmsBenjamin Schumacher (Kenyon College)
A Brief Prehistory of QubitsThursday, March 24, invited session, “Symmetric Discrete Structures for Finite Dimensional Quantum Systems”
Berthold-Georg Englert (National University of Singapore)
On Mutually Unbiased Bases (MUBs)Asa Ericsson (Institut Mittag-Leffler)
Quantum States as Probabilities from Symmetric Informationally Complete Measurements (SICs)Steven T. Flammia (California Institute of Technology)
The Lie Algebraic Significance of Symmetric Informationally Complete MeasurementsChristophe Schaef (University of Vienna)
Report on the Zeilinger Group SIC and MUB ExperimentsWilliam K. Wootters (Williams College)
States with the Same Probability Distribution for Each Basis in a Complete Set of MUBsFocus Session: Superconducting Qubits
Chair: Robert McDermott (University of Wisconsin – Madison)
John Martinis (University of California at Santa Barbara)
Scaling Superconducting Qubits with the ResQu ArchitectureChristopher Chudzicki (Williams College)
Parallel Entanglement Distribution on Hypercube Networks (Apker Award talk)Focus Session: Quantum Optics with Superconducting Circuits
Chair: David Schuster (Yale University)
Andreas Wallraff (ETH, Zurich)
Tomography and Correlation Function Measurements of Itinerant Microwave PhotonsFocus Session: Semiconducting Qubits
Chair: Jason Petta (Princeton University)Amir Yacoby (Harvard University)
Control and Manipulation of Two-Electron Spin Qubits in GaAs Quantum DotsFocus Session: Quantum Information for Quantum Foundations
Chair: Christopher Fuchs (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)
Giulio Chiribella (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)
Toward a Conceptual Foundation of Quantum Information ProcessingFocus Session: Advances in Ion Trap Quantum Computation
Chair: Jungsang Kim (Duke University)
Richart E. Slusher (Georgia Tech Quantum Institute)
Trapped Ion Arrays for Quantum SimulationFocus Session: 20 Years of APS Quantum Cryptography: Where Do We Stand?
Chair: Norbert Lutkenhaus (University of Waterloo)
Richard J. Hughes (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Twenty-Seven Years of Quantum Cryptography!
Like I said, looks like a wonderful lineup. So you should go (I mean I think it’s even strong enough to persuade a native Californian like me to go to Texas for a meet
ing.
And that’s saying a lot. Though it is easier considering the results of the World Series 🙂 )
Quantum Foundations at the APS March Meeting
If you’re a member of the APS topical group on Quantum Information (GQI) you recently received an email from Chris Fuchs about the upcoming APS March meeting (to be held in Dallas, Texas this year.) If you’re not a member, shame on you, you should become a member! But more importantly Chris has made a very good effort this year to have a good showing of talks from the quantum foundations community. There is a focus session this year, “Quantum Information for Quantum Foundations” with Giulio Chiribella (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics) as the invited speaker. Giulio will give a talk titled “Toward a Conceptual Foundation of Quantum Information Processing.” Further Anton Zeilinger (University of Vienna) will be giving a symposium talk, “Quantum Information and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics: A Story of Mutual Benefit.”
One of the explicit reasons for forming GQI, in addition to the explosive growth of quantum information science, was a place for all who are tightly tied to quantum theory and in particular for quantum foundations folks. The mission statement of GQI makes this explicit:
The Group is committed to serving as the home within the American Physical Society for researchers in the foundations of quantum mechanics. The Topical Group will promote a continuation of the active and beneficial exchange of ideas between quantum foundations and quantum information science.
Over the years this has resulted in varying degrees of success. I can remember a few foundations sessions at the March meeting that were top notch and very interesting, but increasingly there has not been a strong foundations showing.
I would, of course, encourage all quantum information related people to attend (submit a talk or a poster) to the March meeting (at worst you’re going to learn about the very exciting superconducting qubit experiments occurring at places like UCSB, Yale, and IBM) but I would particularly encourage you to submit a talk or a post if you are from the quantum foundations community.
My personal view is that foundations work lies very deep in the heart of quantum information science. Not necessarily for the grand old debate about the interpretation of quantum theory, but because foundations seeks to bring conceptual clarity to a subject whose mystery is what we are trying to exploit. So foundations people come out of yer closet and help shed some crazy light on quantum information science!
Quantum Article Parse Failure of the Pontiffical Kind
Two observations from yesterdays New York Times article about quantum computing (Moving Toward Quantum Computers.)
First, the drawing accompanying the article (here) is interesting to me. I wonder where they got the idea for it and whether this idea involved Q*bert, color codes, or topological codes? Or was it just the same old: we have no idea how to draw a quantum computer, so lets just make a cool looking graphic?
Second, I find this sentence fascinating: “D-Wave has built a system with more than 50 quantum bits, but it has been greeted skeptically by many researchers who believe that it has not proved true entanglement.” Emphasis mine. Okay I find it fascinating not because of the debate about the quantum nature of D-wave’s machine, but for its language. If there is “true” entanglement, what is “false” entanglement? Further for some reason I can’t quite pen down the sentence strikes me as awkward. In particular it feels like it needs to be something more like “that is has not proved that its system possess real entanglement.” (Yes I understand the sentence, yes I’m not good at reading comprehension, and yes I’m beyond pedantic.) Am I the only one having a hard time parsing this sentence