Conference on Mathematical Sciences Challenges in Quantum Information

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This award supports participation in a conference on mathematical sciences challenges in quantum information science, held 12-13 February 2015 in Arlington, Virginia. The field of quantum information (QI) explores the theoretical, experimental, and technological areas covering the use and implications of quantum mechanics for communication and computation purposes. While conceptually all of the diverse aspects that QI encompasses arise from the seemingly simple appreciation of information as a physical resource, its consequences have the potential to revolutionize computation, communication, and ideas about complexity. In particular, QI promises exponentially more efficient quantum algorithms for solving hard combinatorial problems and for simulating the behavior of complex quantum systems, along with unprecedented opportunities for secure communication and new perspectives to tackle a range of problems in physics, biology, applied mathematics, engineering, and computer sciences. As a result, QI is currently a thriving and naturally interdisciplinary research area, and one of critical strategic relevance to 21st century's science and technology. As the QI field is entering a new stage of maturity, further progress is increasingly relying on the use of diverse advanced mathematical techniques. In turn, new areas of mathematics are being identified, which offer the potential for major future advances in the field. This award supports a one-and-a-half-day conference that brings together leading researchers working across a broad spectrum of problems in QI theory, with the goals of (i) highlighting the centrality and importance of mathematical tools; and (ii) assessing outstanding mathematical challenges and formulating a vision for the future. A distinguished group of speakers will highlight the latest research developments and open problems in topics, including quantum channels and quantum error correction theory, quantum marginals, random quantum states and dynamics, many-body quantum systems, and quantum control. Panel discussions and breakout sessions are intended to identify new promising directions for investigations. The expected broad impacts of the proposed conference are twofold. On the one hand, the conference facilitates collaborative exploration between academic and federal agency scientists of the short- to mid-term mathematical challenges in advancing the field of QI -- with a written report being anticipated as an output of the conference. On the other hand, the conference serves as a vehicle to enlist mathematically-oriented scientists to bring their ideas to bear on accessible fundamental problems in QI, and to educate the next generation of scientists working in this very important field.