Quantum Phenomenology and Quantum Technology

量子物理学在20世纪出现，通过引入自然界的基本不确定性和拒绝局部实在论，挑战了科学的基础。在同一世纪，量子物理学带来了核能、晶体管和激光等新技术。最近出现了一些令人兴奋的量子理论，包括量子计算、量子密码学、量子计量学、物质的量子态和生物分子复合物中的量子输运。我的研究计划侧重于量子科学的四个令人兴奋的方面，战略性地选择以推动量子科学和技术的最新发展。量子计算的目标是在量子计算机上将某些棘手的计算问题转化为易于解决的问题。最早能够回答经典计算机无法解决的问题的计算可能是量子模拟，它将模拟量子系统的进化，并可能有广泛的应用，例如解决线性方程。我将开发用于测量的量子算法，采用当前量子模拟的状态生成方法来完全解决问题，我将开发用于模拟相对论和开放量子系统的量子算法。我的目标是为小型量子计算机构建量子算法，以解决其他难以解决的问题。实现量子信息处理的一个挑战是，实际可实现的操作并不完全满足量子信息处理的需要，而量子控制旨在实现顺序的现实操作，在某些情况下具有反馈，以实现必要的操作。为约束量子控制设计控制序列的易处理自治算法，例如严格限制执行时间。贪婪算法是一种流行且快速的算法，但它要求局部最优算法足够好，这对于约束问题可能会失败。我计划利用我们的非贪婪人工智能量子计量算法来寻找良好的量子控制算法，并找到既快速又准确的控制序列。量子科学的进步在很大程度上取决于实验的进步，所以我将致力于实验建议和合作，旨在推动这一艺术的发展。在接下来的几年里，我的重点将放在三种介质上：单光子输入干涉测量法、人工原子超导电路和硅表面悬空键。我的干涉测量工作旨在有效地进行玻色子采样。用干涉仪进行玻色子采样被认为是有效的，但使用经典计算却很棘手。我的工作是控制和观察超导电路中人造原子的集体效应，我的目标是利用这些人造原子的集体效应和相干效应来控制微波脉冲，并应用于可扩展的量子计算。硅表面双悬空键项目探索并最终利用悬空键之间电子隧穿的量子相干动力学。近年来，生物系统中的量子效应，如光合作用中的相干激子输运，成为研究的热点。受相干输运的前景和研究原生和突变种蛋白质之间电子转移的能力的启发，我们表明溶剂在电子转移中起积极作用，但溶剂在辅助电子转移中的确切作用尚未确定。我们现在的目标是确定溶剂的作用，并将我们的结果与现有的和计划中的实验进行比较。由于高效的位点选择性电子转移对代谢至关重要，我们对电子转移的研究可能为健康问题提供见解。

Quantum physics arrived in the twentieth century and challenged the foundations of science by introducing a fundamental indeterminacy in nature and rejecting local realism. In the same century quantum physics ushered in new technologies such as nuclear power, transistors and lasers. Recently new exciting quantum proposals emerged including quantum computing, quantum cryptography, quantum metrology, quantum states of matter and quantum transport in biomolecular complexes. My research programme focuses on four exciting aspects of quantum science chosen strategically to push forward the state of the art in quantum science and technology. Quantum computing’s goal is to convert certain intractable computational problems into easy-to-solve problems on quantum computers. The earliest computations that answer questions beyond the reach of classical computers is likely to be quantum simulation, which will mimic evolution of quantum systems and could have wide applications for example to solving linear equations. I will develop quantum algorithms for measurement that take the current state-generation approach of quantum simulation to full problem-solving, and I will develop quantum algorithms for simulating relativistic and open quantum systems. My aim is to construct quantum algorithms for small-scale quantum computers to solve otherwise-intractable problems. One challenge to realizing quantum information processing is that practically realizable operations do not quite meet the needs of quantum information processing, but quantum control aims to implement sequential realistic operations, in some cases with feedback, to realize necessary operations. I tractable autonomous algorithms for designing control sequences for constrained quantum control, for example tightly limiting the execution time. Greedy algorithms are popular and fast but require local optima to be good enough, which can fail for constrained problems. I plan to adapt our non-greedy artificial-intelligence quantum-metrology algorithms to find good quantum-control algorithms with the benefit of finding control sequences that are both fast and accurate. Advances in quantum science depend crucially on experimental advances so I will work on experimental proposals and collaborations aiming to advance the state of the art. My focus over the next few years is on three media: interferometry with single-photon inputs, superconducting-circuits with artificial atoms and silicon-surface dangling bonds. My interferometry work aims to perform BosonSampling efficiently. BosonSampling is expected to be efficient with interferometers but intractable using classical computation. I am working on controlling and observing collective effects for artificial atoms in superconducting circuits, and I aim to using collective and coherent effects in these artificial atoms to control microwave pulses with applications to scalable quantum computing. The silicon-surface double dangling bond project explores and ultimately exploits quantum coherent dynamics of electron tunneling between dangling bonds. In the past few years quantum effects in biological systems such as coherent exciton transport in photosynthesis has been a hot topic. Inspired by the prospect of coherent transport and by the capability of studying electron transfer between proteins for native and mutant species, we showed that the solvent plays an active role in electron transfer, but the exact role of the solvent in assisting electron transfer is not established. Our aim now is to determine the role of the solvent and compare our results with existing and planned experiments. As efficient site-selective electron transfer is vital for metabolism, our research on electron transfer is likely to provide insight into health issues.