O brave new quantum world!
Sciencewatch interview with Guifre Vidal:
Apart from enormously stimulating experimental research, which has led to impressive progress in our ability to control quantum systems, thinking about quantum computers has given birth to a new way of looking at quantum mechanical problems, including a new framework and new tools to address strongly correlated quantum many-body systems.
The Aerospace Corporation is hiring in quantum information science. Here is the flyer:Aerospace-QIS-PositionNotice-2010. Note that the job is only open to U.S. citizens.
Update: See the comments for a link to the application.
ID Quantique is holding it’s third school on practical quantum cryptography. Keynote speakers include Nicolas Gisin, Renato Renne, and Vadim Makarov (cool Quantum Hacking Group).
I am glad to inform you that the “3rd Winter School on Practical Quantum Cryptography” will take place from January 17 to 20, 2011
You will find some info under
http://www.idquantique.com/training-services/winter-school.html
And the brochure under
http://www.idquantique.com/images/stories/PDF/winterschool-brochure.pdf
and testimonies on previous edition
http://www.idquantique.com/training-services/winter-school-2010.html
The list of papers accepted at AQIS 2010 is now available. 12 long talks, 31 short talks, and 100 posters.
Congrats to Rahul Jain, Zhengfeng Ji, Sarvagya Upadhyay, and John Watrous for being selected a best paper at STOC 2010 for their paper “QIP=PSPACE”. (The best paper award was shared with “An improved LP-based approximation for Steiner Tree” by Jaroslaw Byrka, Fabrizio Grandoni , Thomas Rothvoss and Laura Sanit√†)
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?
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.”]
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
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.
AQIS’10 submission and registration is now open:
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The 10th Asian Conference on
Quantum Information Science (AQIS’10)
http://www.qci.jst.go.jp/aqis10/
Tutorials: August 27, 2010
Conference: August 28 – 31, 2010
The University of Tokyo, Japan
Submission Deadline (2 to 10 pages): June 14 (Monday), 2010
Notification of Acceptance: July 12 (Monday), 2010
Final version (2 pages): July 30 (Friday), 2010
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Apologies for cross-postings.
Please send to interested colleagues and students.
We would like to draw your attention to
the 10th Asian Conference on Quantum Information Science.
The website is now open for registration and paper submission.
AQIS’10 is a meeting focused on quantum information science and technology. Its broad scope includes advances in various fields such as quantum physics, computer science, mathematics and information technologies. This event is the memorable tenth conference which builds upon a successful series of EQIS’01-05 and AQIS’06-09 conferences.
AQIS’10 will take place on the University of Tokyo from August 27 to 31. Details about the conference are available via the website.
http://www.qci.jst.go.jp/aqis10/
The paper submission deadline is
23:59, Monday, June 14th, 2010, (Pacific Daylight Time).
Tutorial Lecturers:
* Charles Bennett (IBM)
“Quantum information theory”
* Harry Buhrman (Univ. of Amsterdam)
“Quantum non-locality”
* Richard Jozsa (Univ. of Cambridge)
“Classical simulation of quantum circuits”
* Akihisa Tomita (Hokkaido Univ.)
“Interplay between quantum computation and quantum information”
Keynote Speakers:
* David Wineland (NIST, U.S.A.)
* Andrew Yao (Tsinghua Univ.)
Invited Speakers:
* Dagmar Bruss (HHU Dusseldorf)
* Harry Buhrman (Univ. of Amsterdam)
* Bill Coish (Univ. of Waterloo)
* Jonathan P. Dowling (Louisiana St. Univ.)
* Yasunobu Nakamura (NEC Corp.)
* Artur Ekert (NUS, Univ. of Oxford)
We are looking forward to seeing you in Tokyo.
Chairs:
Steering Committee Chair
Jozef Gruska (Masaryk Univ.)
Program Committee Chair
Kae Nemoto (NII)
Program Committee Co-Chair
Michele Mosca (IQC, Univ. of Waterloo, and Perimeter Institute)
Conference Committee Chair
Hiroshi Imai (Univ. of Tokyo / ERATO-SORST)
Organizers:
Hiroshi Imai (chair) (Univ. of Tokyo / ERATO-SORST)