Quantum Information Science

Computing technology has become so much a part of everyday life that most of us never consider just how amazing the technology, or the extent of the technological revolution it has created. The next revolution is around the corner: quantum information science.

Computer science, aided by quantum mechanical inventions such as the transistor and the laser, has developed further in the past 50 years than we would have imagined. But current computers are binary: a switch is either on or off, one or zero. In this way, they are limited in what they can do.

QIS offers the potential to approach quantum mechanics and computer science through a powerful new frame. Potential applications range from cryptography, code-breaking, design and simulation of materials and chemicals, to fast optimization and machine learning techniques.

Many nations are already investing billions of dollars in the field, and spinoff technologies using QIS are already being commercialized, including sensors, amplifiers and detectors with applications ranging from medical imaging to oil exploration.

This program connects theorists and experimentalists who address field’s most fundamental questions. This approach will pay dividends by encouraging radically new ideas, at the same time it engages with industry in the search for new applications and to maximize the positive impact on society of QIS.

SELECTED PAPERS

Knill, E., R. Laflamme et G.J. Milburn. "A scheme for efficient quantum computation with linear optics." Nature 409 (2001) : 46-52. ABSTRACT

Negrevergne, C. et al. "Benchmarking quantum control methods on a 12-qubit system." Physical Review Letters, 96 (2006) : 170501 ABSTRACT

L. A. Rozema et al., “Quantum Data Compression of a Qubit Ensemble,” Physical Review Letters 113, 16 (2014). ABSTRACT

J. Zhang et al., “Digital quantum simulation of the statistical mechanics of a frustrated magnet,” Nature Communications 3, 880 (2012). ABSTRACT