One-Way Quantum Computing in the Optical Frequency Comb

该奖项名为“光频梳中的单向量子计算”，支持弗吉尼亚大学（UVa）物理系的量子场和量子信息（QFQI）小组。量子计算（QC）是一项迷人的奋进，其最重要的承诺是特定数学问题的指数加速，如量子系统模拟和整数分解，后者是破解网络加密的关键。QC的实验实施所面临的物理挑战是令人生畏的，可以通过在个体水平上精细控制数千个单个量子系统（例如原子）的要求来总结。因为光很容易有效控制，而不是原子，所以这个研究项目是基于PI和他的合作者对量子计算机的一个新提议，使用不同频率的激光光束。大量先前的理论结果已经表明，这一提议提供了令人兴奋的前景，特别是原型量子计算机的尺寸的惊人增加。拟议工作的更广泛影响包括对UVa物理研究生和本科生课程的积极研究贡献，以3个博士的持续建议的形式。学生每年和2个本科生每个夏天（通常由NSF REU补助金的补充支持）。也源于这项研究，部门研讨会已经给出了几次，每年由不同的QFQI成员和先进的研究生课程“量子光学和量子信息”（物理888），现在教的PI在UVa定期。在跨学科方面，这项研究正在催生QFQI小组和UVa工程学院UVa微加工实验室主任亚瑟利希滕贝格教授之间的合作努力，特别是用于光子材料制造的微光刻。最后但并非最不重要的是，这项研究有可能通过在理论预测未经测试甚至难以做出的情况下探索大规模量子行为来引入量子力学的基本测试。因此，这将代表比原子，分子和光学物理领域更广泛的科学奋进。

This award, "One-way quantum computing in the optical frequency comb," supports the Quantum Fields and Quantum Information (QFQI) group in the Physics Department of the University of Virginia (UVa). Quantum computing (QC) is a fascinating endeavor whose most important promise is the exponential speedup of particular mathematical problems such as quantum system simulation and integer factoring, the latter being key to breaking cyber encryption. The physical challenges posed to the experimental implementation of QC are daunting and can be summarized by the requirement of exquisitely controlling thousands of single quantum systems (e.g. atoms) at the individual level. Because light is easy to control efficiently, as opposed to atoms, this research project is based on a novel proposal for a quantum computer, by the PI and his collaborators, using laser-like beams of light at different frequencies. A large amount of prior theoretical results has shown that this proposal offers exciting perspectives, in particular a spectacular increase of the size of prototype quantum computers.Broader impacts of the proposed work comprise an active research contribution to the UVa Physics graduate and undergraduate programs, in the form of the continuous advising of 3 Ph.D. students per year and 2 undergraduate students per summer (typically supported by NSF REU supplements to the grant). Also stemming from this research, departmental seminars have been given several times a year by different QFQI members and an advanced graduate course "Quantum Optics and Quantum Information" (Phys 888) is now taught by the PI at UVa on a regular basis. On the interdisciplinary front, this research is spawning collaborative efforts between the QFQI group and Prof. Arthur Lichtenberger, director of the UVa Microfabrication Laboratory at the UVa School of Engineering, in particular for microphotolithography applied to the fabrication of photonic materials. Last but not least, there exists the potential for this research to usher in fundamental tests of quantum mechanics by exploring large-scale quantum behavior in a regime where theoretical predictions are untested and even difficult to make. This would therefore represent a scientific endeavor on a broader scale than the field of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics.