CAREER: Realistic Models and Simulations of Systems for Quantum Information Processing

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Quantum information processing (QIP) holds the promise of distinctly new and more powerful information systems, including quantum computation, quantum communications, and quantum information theory. However, this promise can only be achieved if the theoretical advances up to the present can be transformed into actual technology. This requires steady experimental advances over the next few years, which in turn requires a far better practical understanding of realistic quantum systems for QIP. The aim of this proposal is to provide such an understanding.Intellectual Merit.QIP is still a young field, but one that has grown explosively over the last ten years. From the discovery by Peter Shor that quantum computers could factor large numbers, a problem widely believed to be intractable on ordinary computers, and on which the well-known public-key encryption algorithm RSA is based, there has been rapid theoretical development, demonstrating numerous applications of quantum systems to information processing tasks.Experimental development, while also rapid, still lags far behind theory in almost all areas. This is largely due to the inherent difficulty of controlling large quantum systems while isolating them from quantum noise (or decoherence). In addition to improved experiments, careful theoretical treatment is needed to understand the sources of noise in realistic quantum systems, and their effects on QIP. The PI will draw on extensive experience in decoherence to improve both the theoretical and numerical tools for such treatments, and apply them to a wide variety of related problems relating to near-term QIP experiments.Broader Impact As a new field, QIP has so far penetrated only shallowly into the academic community and public consciousness. It is important to train the next generation of quantum engineers. To these ends, the PI will:-create two new courses: one, an introductory graduate course in quantum information and computation, the other an advanced topics course. -The extensive lecture notes will be made publicly available-PI will also host the SQuInT summer retreat for graduate students in QIP at USC, andHe will also reach out to the larger academic community at USC-PI will serve as associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Computers, editing a special issue on QIP. -The software library will also be made available for the use of others in the field, and provided with a suitable easy-to-use interface.