Bold Ideas in Physics Lecture: Quantum Computing and the Entanglement Frontier

Abstract:

The quantum laws governing atoms and other tiny objects seem to defy common sense, and information encoded in quantum systems has weird properties that baffle our feeble human minds. John Preskill will explain why he loves quantum entanglement, the elusive feature making quantum information fundamentally different from information in the macroscopic world.

By exploiting quantum entanglement, quantum computers should be able to solve otherwise intractable problems, with far-reaching applications to cryptology, materials, and fundamental physical science. Preskill is less weird than a quantum computer, and easier to understand.

Bio: 

John Preskill is the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology, and Director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech. Preskill received his Ph.D. in physics in 1980 from Harvard, and joined the Caltech faculty in 1983.  Preskill began his career in particle physics and cosmology, but in the 1990s he got excited about the possibility of solving otherwise intractable computational problems by exploiting quantum physics; he is especially intrigued by the ways our deepening understanding of quantum information and quantum computing can be applied to other fundamental issues in physics, such as the quantum structure of space and time. You can follow him on Twitter @preskill

About the Bold Ideas In Physics Lecture and Exhibit

The lecture series celebrates the life and work of David Ritz Finkelstein, the late School of Physics professor who was unafraid to challenge orthodoxy. The exhibit introduces Finkelstein's life, his work on gravational fields, space-time, quantum relativity, and quantum computations, as well as research by Georgia Tech faculty and students that continues some of his bold ideas. For more information, visit www.davidritzfinkelstein.com.