One-Way Quantum Computing in the Optical Frequency Comb

该奖项名为“光学频率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)是一项令人着迷的努力，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因式分解，后者是破解网络加密的关键。对QC的实验实现提出的物理挑战是令人望而生畏的，可以总结为在单个水平上精细地控制数千个单量子系统(例如原子)的要求。由于与原子不同，光很容易有效地控制，所以这个研究项目是基于PI和他的合作者提出的一种新的量子计算机方案，使用不同频率的类似激光的光束。大量先前的理论结果表明，这项建议提供了令人兴奋的前景，特别是原型量子计算机的惊人增长。拟议工作的广泛影响包括对UVA物理学研究生和本科生项目的积极研究贡献，形式是每年持续为3名博士生和2名本科生提供建议(通常由NSF REU补助金支持)。同样是由于这项研究，QFQI的不同成员每年都会举办几次部门研讨会，现在，弗吉尼亚大学的PI定期教授高级研究生课程“量子光学和量子信息”(物理888)。在跨学科方面，QFQI小组和UVA工程学院UVA微细加工实验室主任Arthur Lichtenberger教授正在进行合作，特别是将微影光刻技术应用于光子材料的制造。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，这项研究有可能通过探索大规模量子行为来开启量子力学的基础测试，在这个区域，理论预测未经测试，甚至很难做出。因此，这将代表着比原子、分子和光学物理领域更广泛的科学努力。

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.