Condensed Matter Seminar - Umesh Vazirani, Berkeley, "Testing quantum systems "
Quantum computation teaches us that general quantum quantum systems of n particles
exhibit complexity that scales exponentially in n. Can we test whether the output of such a system
is consistent with quantum mechanics? For example, is it possible to test whether a claimed
implementation of a quantum computer is "really quantum". The difficulty lies in the exponential
complexity of calculating the output predicted by quantum mechanics. In this talk I will describe how
ideas based on computational complexity theory can be used to tackle this testing problem without
making any exponentially difficult calculations.
Location: PCTS Seminar Room
Date/Time: 03/26/12 at 1:15 pm - 03/26/12 at 2:30 pm
Category: Condensed Matter Seminar
Department: Physics