Foundations and Applications of Hyperentanglement

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。在大多数量子信息处理（QIP）应用中，量子纠缠（量子系统之间可能存在的奇异的非局部连接）是关键资源，而纠缠光子是许多这些应用中量子信息的中心载体。在本项目中，将探索以几种不同方式同时纠缠的“超纠缠”系统现象，推动光学QIP在量子通信、量子计量和量子计算等多个领域的前沿。超纠缠态可以对量子力学的基础进行新的研究，甚至是一种全新的“隐藏”纠缠，这可能对信息的鲁棒安全编码具有重要意义。最后，这种量子态在增强成像和纳米光子器件表征方面的应用是一个特别令人兴奋的可能结果。除了探索用光子实现小规模量子处理器的潜在变革方法外，这项研究还具有超越QIP“传统”领域的更广泛影响的潜力。例如，单光子多量子比特态可以改进光学计量学：将单个光子耦合到单个量子“天线”的能力将是光学物理学的重大进步，与纳米光子学和单分子物理学等相关。此外，这些实验的基本光学简单性使它们非常适合在本科实验室中采用，将量子信息现象的现实带给学生更早的年龄和更广泛的背景。更进一步，作为博物馆展览的一部分，一系列相关实验的发展，向公众介绍干涉和量子叠加现象，也将继续进行。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Entanglement "the bizarre" nonlocal connection that can exist between quantum systems is the critical resource in most quantum information processing (QIP) applications, and entangled photons are the central carriers of quantum information in many of these applications. In this project the phenomenon of "hyperentanglement" systems that are simultaneously entangled in several different ways will be explored, pushing the frontier of optical QIP in several areas, including quantum communication, quantum metrology, and quantum computing. Hyperentangled states enable new investigations of the foundations of quantum mechanics, and even an entirely new kind of "hidden" entanglement, which could have important implications for robust secure encoding of information. Finally, the application of such quantum states for enhanced imaging and nanophotonic device characterization is a particularly exciting possible result. In addition to exploring a potentially transformative method for implementing small-scale quantum processors with photons, this research has the potential for broader impact beyond the "traditional" areas of QIP. For example, the single-photon multi-quantum-bit states should enable improved optical metrology: the ability to couple a single photon to a single quantum "antenna" would be a major advance in optical physics, with relevance, e.g., in nanophotonics and single-molecule physics. Moreover, the underlying optical simplicity of these experiments makes them well suited for adoption in undergraduate laboratories, bringing the realities of quantum information phenomena to students at an earlier age and in broader contexts. Taking this a step further, the development of a connected series of experiments as part of a museum exhibit to introduce the general public to the phenomena of interference and quantum superposition, will also be pursued.