Theoretical investigation of hybrid approaches to quantum information processing and quantum communication utilizing both discrete and continuous quantum variables

量子信息是一个相对年轻的跨学科研究领域。它的主要目标之一是将量子物理学和信息论的原理结合起来。除了概念上的重要性外，量子信息还可以通过利用叠加原理和纠缠等量子属性，在现实世界中应用于通信(量子通信)和计算(量子计算)。量子光学是一个更传统的领域，其中光通过量子理论来描述，例如，导致不同光子数的叠加态的光学模式。我们的项目的目标是提出可行的量子信息协议的实现。更具体地说，这些协议要么代表了量子通信的潜在实现，要么导致了小规模量子信息处理(量子计算)的实现。用于实现的工具箱由量子光学提供，其中光是最方便的通信介质，可以添加原子系统来存储和处理信息。我们项目中的混合方法旨在利用离散和连续的量子变量来编码、处理和提取信息。

Quantum information is a relatively young area of interdisciplinary research. One of its main goals is to combine the principles of quantum physics and information theory. Apart from its conceptual importance, quantum information may lead to real-world applications for communication (“quantum communication”) and computation (“quantum computation”) by exploiting quantum properties such as the superposition principle and entanglement. Quantum optics is a more traditional field in which light is described via quantum theory, leading to, for instance, optical modes in superposition states of different photon numbers.The goal of our project is to propose feasible implementations of quantum information protocols. More specifically, these protocols either represent potential realizations of quantum communication or they lead to the implementation of small-scale quantum information processing (quantum computing). The toolbox used for the implementations is provided by quantum optics, where light represents the most convenient medium for communication and atomic systems may be added for storing and processing information. The hybrid approach pursued in our project aims at utilizing both discrete and continuous quantum variables for encoding, processing, and extracting information.