Prof. Reinhold Blümel (Wesleyan University) will be visiting Dynamica between the 11th and 14th of March

Prof. Reinhold Blümel (Wesleyan Uni., Middeltown, CT), a long time collaborator will be among us from the 11th to the 14th of March and will give 2 talks to the community. The first one is meant for a wider audience and will be given on Tuesday the 12th of March 15h30 as a departmental colloquium.

Title 1 : QUANTUM COMPUTERS

Abstract : Finally! Quantum computers are here!

We can either buy them outright, or access them via the internet! As a consequence, university and industry-based education in quantum computing is growing, essential quantum workforce is scarce, and governments all over the globe have funded quantum initiatives worth billions of dollars for research and development of quantum computers. Quantum computing has emerged from the realm of pure academic research and is now a staple of industrial research and development.

Quantum computing has reached criticality, is taking off, and it’s an excellent time to hop on board!

After briefly reviewing the history of quantum computing, and explaining why quantum computers are so much faster than “classical” computers, I will provide an overview of current players in the market together with their products.

The extraordinary levels of government funding currently pouring into quantum computing underscore the importance of quantum computing for the near and not- so-near future.

The second talk of a more technical nature and is scheduled for the next day (location and time to be announced). It reads

Title 2 : HOW TO MAKE A QUANTUM COMPUTER

Abstract: While there are any number of ways to realize a qubit, two types of quantum computer architectures have emerged as the leading contenders for realizing a quantum computer:

(1) trapped ions and (2) Josephson junctions.

After a brief overview over quantum computing companies and their preferred architectures, I’ll focus exclusively on how to build a quantum computer based on trapped-ion technology. As an example I will discuss the types of quantum computers that have already been built at research labs at the University of Maryland. These computers use trapped Yb ions and realize the computational qubit as one of the hyperfine transitions in Yb^+. Advantages and problems of the ion-trap architecture will be discussed.