ENTANGLEMENT AND COHERENCE DECAY IN NANOSYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS TO QUANTUM INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Objectives and Approaches: Entanglement is at the heart of the vast improvement in encryption systems and will hopefully provide the backbone of quantum information systems in general, particularly quantum computing.Since the Josephson System arrays, being pursued experimentally by the Yale and Santa Barbara groups, show great promise, a theoretical analysis of this work will be carried out, using exact methods, as distinct from the master equations presently being used by others.In particular,the effect of temperature on large systems will be emphasized since,even for small systems, it has been found that moderate temperatures can cause disentanglement and that the effect is constant for all times.
Intellectual Merit : Understanding the physical world relies heavily on Quantum Mechanics. But, many questions remain concerning its foundations. In particular, the heart of quantum mechanics is entanglement but, as emphasized by Feynman, among others, its nature essentially remains unknown .Thus, a strong effort will be made to understand it more deeply.
Broader Benefits: Ironically, entanglement is a tool which is essentially used in all modern quantum systems, despite being poorly understood. Thus, greater knowledge of its fundamental characterestics should have significant impact on the design of future information systems with clear economic and social impact. Its study will present a very interesting attraction and challenge to graduate students and should be a great stimulus in course discussions. Attempts will also be made to interest students , not only at LSU, but also at Southern University (an HBCU).
