Information processing devices, like computers, have become ubiquitous and indispensable in our modern life as an information society. A new promising paradigm, called quantum information processing (QIP), uses microscopic quantum states to encode information, and harnesses counterintuitive quantum effects such as superposition and quantum correlation called entanglement to attain drastic improvements over conventional devices. As the concepts from QIP start to be appreciated more in quantum many-body physics, it becomes clearer that nature handles quantum information better than we have imagined when it exhibits various exotic macroscopic physical phenomena useful in our technology. In this project we will study how effectively the intrinsic complexity of quantum many-body systems can be harnessed for the advancement and scaling-up of QIP. Strongly-correlated quantum many-body systems, like frustrated quantum magnets, are explored as potential resources for entanglement available from large-scale QIP. This theoretical project is expected to cross-fertilize QIP and quantum many-body physics at their newly intersecting frontiers, and to help pave the way to larger scale quantum simulation and quantum computation.
The research will contribute to the knowledge base of quantum information science, and to the training of future scientists in this highly interdisciplinary field. Students will be involved in all aspects of the project, including education, research, and the dissemination of results. The project broadens the current research spectrum of the NSF-funded Center for Quantum Information and Control (CQuIC) significantly towards the interface with quantum many-body physics. Video conferencing is used to allow participation of CQuIC partners in the regular activities of CQuIC, including weekly group meetings and research seminars. All students and senior personnel will actively participate in the Southwest Quantum Information Technology (SQuInT) network, including the annual workshop. During its 15-year history SQuInT has provided a vibrant avenue for exchange of ideas and results in QIP, with particular emphasis given to PhD students, postdocs, and new researchers in the field.
