Quantum Crypto School for High School Students

Are you a High School Students interested in Quantum Mechanics and Cryptography? You should attend to this summer school in Waterloo!

The Quantum Cryptography School for Young Students (QCSYS) is an exciting week-long program offered to students in Grades 10-12. This year the program will run through August 8-12, 2011. The program is run by the Institute for Quantum Computing in conjunction with the University of Waterloo.

Students will be given a first-hand look into one of the most exciting topics in contemporary science – quantum cryptography. Not only will students be exposed to cutting-edge topics like quantum physics and cryptography – they will have the opportunity to meet some of the most renowned researchers the field has to offer. In addition, students will get a tour of quantum computing and quantum cryptography experiments.

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“It is thermodynamics gone mad,” by Lord Kelvin, one of the founders of thermodynamics, commenting on Boltzmann’s derivation of Stefan’s law.

Journal of Universal Rejection

Are you tired of getting every paper accepted in the best journals? Well, you should submit then to the Journal of Universal Rejection!

The founding principle of the Journal of Universal Rejection (JofUR) is rejection. Universal rejection. That is to say, all submissions, regardless of quality, will be rejected.

Pretty neat!

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If they can make a law
Then I can break a law
If I can break a law
Will the law break me?
-Dropkick Murphys

Physics Journals learning from Open Science

It is good to see some of the biggest names in physics journals embrace ideas pioneered by the open sciences community.

I hope they push further! Any comments of future directions you would like them to take?

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Theorem: Consider the set of all sets that have never been considered. Hey! They’re all gone! Oh, well, never mind…

Lazy States: Sufficient and Necessary Condition for Zero Quantum Entropy Rates under any Coupling to the Environment

Our paper Sufficient and Necessary Condition for Zero Quantum Entropy Rates under any Coupling to the Environment has appeared in Physical Review Letters.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 050403 (2011) [arXiv version]

César A. Rodríguez-Rosario, Gen Kimura, Hideki Imai, and Alán Aspuru-Guzik

We find the necessary and sufficient conditions for the entropy rate of the system to be zero under any system-environment Hamiltonian interaction. We call the class of system-environment states that satisfy this condition lazy states. They are a generalization of classically correlated states defined by quantum discord, but based on projective measurements of any rank. The concept of lazy states permits the construction of a protocol for detecting global quantum correlations using only local dynamical information. We show how quantum correlations to the environment provide bounds to the entropy rate, and how to estimate dissipation rates for general non-Markovian open quantum systems.

Previously, here and here.

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“The more physics you have the less engineering you need.”
-Ernest Rutherford

Clean Energy Project 2

My friends at the Clean Energy Project have started a second stage that focuses on quantum chemistry calculation. You might recall [previously: here and here] that the Clean Energy Project consists of screen saver that allows you to donate computer time to do calculations to discover better materials for solar energy.

You can find some nice instructional videos on how to donate your computer time to help discover the next generation of photovoltaics here.

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Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
-Groucho Marx

‘Lazy States’ accepted in PRL

Our latest paper Lazy states: sufficient and necessary condition for zero quantum entropy rates under any coupling to the environment has been accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. Woohoo!

Lazy states: sufficient and necessary condition for zero quantum entropy rates under any coupling to the environment

We find the necessary and sufficient conditions for the entropy rate of the system to be zero under any system-environment Hamiltonian interaction. We call the class of system-environment states that satisfy this condition lazy states. They are a generalization of classically correlated states defined by quantum discord, but based on projective measurements of any rank. The concept of lazy states permits the construction of a protocol for detecting global quantum correlations using only  local dynamical information. We show how quantum correlations to the environment provide bounds to the entropy rate, and how to estimate dissipation rates for general non-Markovian open quantum systems.

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I had the feeling that, through the surface of atomic phenomena, I was looking at a strangely beautiful interior, and felt almost giddy at the thought that I now had to probe this wealth of mathematical structure nature had so generously spread out before me.
-Heisenberg

Andy Maloney’s Open Science Biophysics Dissertation

Andy Maloney, a leader in open science, is embracing the open philosophy all the way. He has decided to write his dissertation as it evolves as an open science document. First chapter draft is here. Go there to witness the first fully open dissertation ever.

Yes, every version, every draft, every correction, everything will be posted there. Members of the wiki can also write him comments and suggestions. This is a fantastic idea, as this is the first time others can see how  a dissertations actually develops. This will help both experts in the field, and graduate students that want to see how is the dissertation-writing process.

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[Jesus walks out of the lake with a small bottle of lemonade]
Jesus Christ: Lemonade?
Father Eustace: Will there be enough?
Jesus Christ: Oh, there’ll be plenty.
-Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter

International Journal of Quantum Information Call for Papers: Quantum Correlations: entanglement and beyond

Kavan Modi has asked me to share this call for papers for a special issue. It looks very exciting indeed.

CALL for PAPERS (Special Issue)
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of QUANTUM INFORMATION
Quantum Correlations: entanglement and beyond

GUEST EDITORS
Shunlong Luo (Chinese Academy of Sciences, CN)
Sabrina Maniscalco (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK)
Kavan Modi (National University of Singapore, SG)
G. Massimo Palma (University of Palermo, IT)
Matteo G. A. Paris (University of Milano, IT)

Quantum correlations have been the subject of intensive studies in the last two decades, mainly due to the general belief that they are fundamental resources for quantum information processing and other
tasks in quantum technology. The first rigorous attempt to address the classification of quantum correlations was put forward by Werner, who formalized the elusive concept of quantum entanglement. More recently, other quantities, as such quantum discord, have been proposed to capture different aspects of the quantumness of correlations. In parallel, several applications where quantum, classical, hybrid correlations play a role have been suggested and implemented. Among them we mention quantum imaging, interferometry, state engineering, computing and entanglement-assisted quantum measurements.

This special issue is aimed to collect papers addressing both fundamental problems and applications, thus offering to readers comprehensive and up-to-date overview on the characterization and use
of quantum correlations.  We welcome papers that address fundamental aspects of quantum and classical correlations in discrete and continuous variable systems, propose implementations to make
quantitative measurements of quantum correlations, or describe experiments that exploit quantum correlations as a resource for quantum technology.

Possible topics include, but are in no way limited to: characterization and measurement of entanglement and quantum discord, discrimination of classical and quantum correlations in quantum systems, applications of quantum correlations to quantum technology, dynamics of quantum correlations in open systems, decoherence, metrology, error correction.

Manuscripts should be submitted to matteo.paris@fisica.unimi.it with subject “[QCSPE] and must meet the normal refereeing standards of IJQI.

LaTeX is the exceedingly preferred format, IJQI macros are available at
http://www.worldscinet.com/style_files/ijqi/187-readme_2e.shtml
Deadline for submission is May 15th 2011. Publication is expected within 2011.

Sincerely,

Kavan Modi, PhD
Centre for Quantum Technologies
National University of Singapore

—
“It is thermodynamics gone mad,” by Lord Kelvin, one of the founders of thermodynamics, commenting on Boltzmann’s derivation of Stefan’s law.

Futurama and American Physical Society

David X. Cohen, one of the minds behind one of my favorite animated series, Futurama, tells the American Physical Society how he is physics-lover.

Profiles in Versatility: The Futurama of Physics with David X. Cohen

Happy New Year!

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“Hey, what kinda party is this? There’s no booze and only one hooker.”
-Bender Bending Rodriguez