pontiff | February 21, 2008QCMC 2008 in Calgary call for abstracts, Quantum Information and Control in Cairns, Australia call for abstracts, Covaqial, Brassard nominated for Herzberg Medal, and the limits of quantum computers.
QCMC 2008, to be held in Calgary (why do I want to say "yippee ki yay" whenever I hear the word "Calgary?") is asking for abstract submissions:
This is a call for abstract submission to the Ninth International Conference on Quantum Communication, Measurement and Computing (QCMC), which will be held at the University of Calgary, Canada, on August 19 to 24, 2008.
A one-page abstract of your…
pontiff | February 19, 2008There are days when I wish quantum cryptography was a mature, installed, technology. Today is one of those days. Why? You might think its because I'm a quantum obsessed physicist whose daily sustenance depends on the future of quantum information science. But no. Today I wish quantum cryptography were installed because today the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Bush administration's domestic spying program;
The Supreme Court rejected a challenge Tuesday to the Bush administration's domestic spying program.
The justices' decision, issued without comment, is the latest setback to…
pontiff | February 19, 2008On President's day I attended the sSQUINT followup conference to SQUINT 2008. sSQUINT? Never heard of it? Neither had I. But when I learned that the "s" stood for "ski" (or maybe "snowboard") and that some of my fellow quantum informationers would be trekking to Wolf Creek Ski Area, well I had to submit a paper. Mine paper was about mogul formation as a self-organizing system. Another paper was on the ski bum as an outcast and iconoclast. Much to our delight the weather gods gave us some beautiful blue southern Colorado sunshine. For your delight, pictures below.
One quantum…
pontiff | February 16, 2008Yes we work on Saturdays. Okay work may be the wrong word. Updated as the day goes along and my brain doesn't fill up (plus I'm chairing a session, so is it ethical to chair and blog at the same time?)
The first talk of the morning was by Edward Farhi. Farhi talked about the NAND tree algorithm (see the Optimizer along with quant-ph/0702144 and its plethora of follow up works.) This was only the second computer talk Farhi has given. That's right, hell has frozen over, and MIT physic professors have given up transparencies and are now using computers. I feel like an era has come to pass…
pontiff | February 15, 2008Sloan awards have been announced for this year. On the list I noticed at least two three quantum computing/information related names: Alexandre Blais (University of Sherbrooke), Andris Ambainis (University of Waterloo), and Jason Petta (Princeton.) Congrats!
pontiff | February 15, 2008Jeff Kimble, who taught me all about waves as a second year undergraduate at Caltech, is interviewed by Scientific American.
My favorite part:
Switching gears--this new movie, Jumper, is about a kid, and some other people, who teleport from place to place.
I didn't know that.
If you saw X-Men, with Nightcrawler...
I haven't seen X-Men either.
Do you watch Heroes on NBC?
No. I watch some of the football playoffs.
But you know Captain Kirk...
I have some advice. Just don't talk about teleporting people in your story. The technical base of our society is information commerce, and in the next 20…
pontiff | February 15, 2008Live blogging from day one of the talks at SquInT 2008. Updated as the day goes along. So hit that refresh button :)
In a sign that history may be warping itself into a cirlce, the first speaker of the day was Serge Haroche, who was the first speaker at the first SqUinT conference ten years ago. Close time like curves anyone?
Haroche talked about quantum nondemolition measurements of a photon number in a cavity (see 0707.3880.) A quantum nondemolition measurement is a measurement of eigenstates which commutes with the free evolution of the quantum system (thus only external interactions…
pontiff | February 14, 2008I've never live blogged before (well I've been alive while I've blogged, but that is different, I guess), but maybe it will make me pay more attention to the talks, so here goes nothing. Oh, and happy Hallmark(TM) Valentines day! I'll be updating these posts as the conference goes along.
John Martinis led a tutorial on measuring coherence in one qubit (Rabi flopping, Ramnsey interference, lifetimes, spin echo), measuring fidelities of one qubit gates, and process tomography for one and two qubit systems. All illustrated with beautiful experimental data from his group at UCSB.
Most…
pontiff | February 13, 2008Yep, lucky me I'm off to Santa Fe tomorrow morning for the tenth annual SquInT conference. Holy moly ten years of SqUiNT conferences really makes me feel old. I wonder how many Chiles I've eaten over all of those conferences (and I don't even want to think about how many Margaritas or quantum beers I've had.)
For fun, and because I'm procrastinating and because I'm self-centered, I decided to go back and look at how I'd participated in this conference:SqUiNT I (1999): Poster: "Concatenating decoherence free subspaces with quantum error correcting codes"SqUinT II (2000): Talk: Quantum…
pontiff | February 13, 2008A website dedicated to chronicling the lives, injuries, and money lost due to a lack of critical thinking. Woah. Is it just me or is there is somethink kind of creepy about assembling this kind of website?
pontiff | February 12, 2008Via the Computational Complexity (welcome back Lance), the list of accepted papers for CCC 2008 has been posted. Woot, that's a lot of quantum inspired papers. By my count 7 of 33. Quoteth Feynman...and I'm not happy with all the analyses that go with just the classical theory, because nature isn't classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical...
pontiff | February 12, 2008Some days it seems the universe is trying to tell you something. The last few days, this has apparently been something to do with clothing:
Self cleaning clothes. I really need these as I am in a constant battle with mustard.
Via Three-Toed Sloth, A Call for Professional Attire on dressing in academia. Recently my dog ate the elbows out of a new sweater, so I now have a sweater with patched elbows, the ultimate in professorial attire, I suppose. Sadly the article doesn't take the argument to its conclusion and require that not just profs wear fancy clothes, but that students also be…
pontiff | February 11, 2008Mike Huckabee calls the state of Washington the Soveit Union. Of course, this is old news to anyone who has been to Fremont:
pontiff | February 11, 2008The U.S. presidential candidates been invited to a debate on science. Will they come? I don't know, but the thought of Mike Huckabee using biblical references in discussing science could lead to some very fun sentences. For example, if he wanted to get apocrypha-l, when talking about the bioethics of artificial wombs, he could bring up the Gospel of Thomas 15:Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."
Of course, Mike Huckabee didn't major in math, so I worry that he won't attend for fear that the debate might test his…
pontiff | February 11, 2008Quantum theory justifying gambling? So reads this column by one Reverend Doctor Mervin Stoddart from Florida in the Jamaica Observer.
Now I don't know whether quantum theory "justifies" gambling or not. But this paragraphLife itself is a gamble and a game of trial and error in which all humans are forced to participate. In matters of life, all humans win some and lose some. Living is mostly sowing and reaping, and often just investing while losing or gaining. Playing the slot machine by investing 25 cents with a chance to win $25,000 is much better odds than buying ordinary shares or…
pontiff | February 8, 2008New results out of the Martinis lab at UCSB have shown single qubit gate fidelities of 0.98 for a superconducting phase qubit. This is significantly better than previous single qubit gate fidelities in their system and in any other superconducting qubit system. It is an extremely impressive number. (Seems that carefully crafted microwaves pulses were a big help in getting the gate fidelity to this level.) Martinis is speaking at SQUINT 2008, but just in a tutorial section. Maybe we will get lucky and a bit of these new fidelities will leak into his talk.
pontiff | February 8, 2008As a native Californian, my sworn enemy is the state of Texas. Thus it gives me great pleasure to see that the state of Washington is tied with Texas in venture capital funding. Soon, Seattle, will rule the world! Okay, maybe not. But I love Oren Etzioni's comment on comparing Silicon Valley to Seattle:Mr. Etzioni says Seattle has at least one advantage over its storied counterpart in California. "People aren't distracted by too much sunshine," he said. "They sit in their offices or garages and get creative."
pontiff | February 7, 2008Via John Cook's Venture blog, introducing Alaska Airlines new clippy, "Jenn".
My discussion:You Asked: Where are you?
Jenn: Right now, it appears I live with you...but don't worry, I won't overstay my welcome! How can I help you?
You Asked: Are you human?
Jenn: I am a virtual assistant, here to help you navigate our Web site.
You Asked: Are you smart?
Jenn: I know quite a bit about traveling with Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. What can I help you with?
You Asked: do planes fly by flapping their wings
Jenn: I would love to help you, but I am not sure I understand your question. Could you…
pontiff | February 7, 2008Two faculty postions in experimental Quantum Information and Nanoscience are being advertised at the University of Bristol. The positions are a part of the Centre (not sure what that word is) for Quantum Photonics and will be housed in the new £11M Nanoscience & Quantum Information Building. Since quantum and nano are so small they should be able to cram a lot of work in this new building! Oh wait, that's not how it works.
The listing:
The University of Bristol is seeking to make two academic (faculty) appointments jointly in the Department of Physics and Department of Electrical…
pontiff | February 7, 2008Super Mario World vs. the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics:
Those of you who know me outside of this blog will find that particular juxtaposition of physics and Nintendo very amusing.