Talks

In this talk I describe a possible connection between quantum computing and Zeta functions of finite field equations that is inspired by the \'spectral approach\' to the Riemann conjecture. This time the assumption is that the zeros of such Zeta functions correspond to the eigenvalues of finite dimensional unitary operators of quantum mechanical systems. To model the desired quantum systems I use the notion of universal, efficient quantum computation. Using eigenvalue estimation, such quantum systems should be able to approximately count the number of solutions of the specific finite field equations with an accuracy that does not appear to be feasible classically. For certain equations (Fermat hypersurfaces) one can indeed model their Zeta functions with efficient quantum algorithms, which gives some evidence in favor of the proposal. In the case of equations that define elliptic curves, the corresponding unitary transformation is an SU(2) matrix. Hence for random elliptic curves one expects to see the kind of statistics predicted by random matrix theory. In the last part of the talk I discuss to which degree this expectation does indeed hold. Reference: arXiv:quant-ph/0405081

During multi-field Inflation, the curvature perturbation can evovlve on superhorizon scales and will develop non-gaussianity due to non-linear interactions. In this talk I will discuss the calculation of this effect for models of inflation with two scalar fields.

Inferring a quantum system\'s state, from repeated measurements, is critical for verifying theories and designing quantum hardware. It\'s also surprisingly easy to do wrong, as illustrated by maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), the current state of the art. I\'ll explain why MLE yields unreliable and rank-deficient estimates, why you shouldn\'t be a quantum frequentist, and why we need a different approach. I\'ll show how operational divergences -- well-motivated metrics designed to evaluate estimates -- follow from quantum strictly proper scoring rules. This motivates Bayesian Mean Estimation (BME), and I\'ll show how it fixes most of the problems with MLE. I\'ll conclude with a couple of speculations about the future of quantum state and process estimatio

In stochastic treatments of the ERRB set-up, it is equivalent to impose Bell\'s inequalities, a local causality condition, or a certain \"non-contextual hidden variables\" condition. But these conditions are violated by quantum mechanics. On the other hand, it is possible to view quantum mechanics as part of \"quantum measure theory\", a generalization of probability measure theory that allows pair wise interferences between histories whilst banning higher order interference. In this setting, is may be possible find quantum analogues of the three stochastic conditions. Following this line of inquiry, we will see that quantum measure theory allows no stronger violations of Bell\'s inequalities than does standard quantum theory. We also gain some insights into how to define causality in quantum theory.

Quantum information theory has two equivalent mathematical conjectures concerning quantum channels, which are also equivalent to other important conjectures concerning the entanglement. In this talk I explain these conjectures and introduce recent results.

It is a fundamental property of quantum mechanics that non-orthogonal pure states cannot be distinguished with certainty, which leads to the following problem: Given a state picked at random from some ensemble, what is the maximum probability of success of determining which state we actually have? I will discuss two recently obtained analytic lower bounds on this optimal probability. An interesting case to which these bounds can be applied is that of ensembles consisting of states that are themselves picked at random. In this case, I will show that powerful results from random matrix theory may be used to give a strong lower bound on the probability of success, in the regime where the ratio of the number of states in the ensemble to the dimension of the states is constant. I will also briefly discuss applications to quantum computation (the oracle identification problem) and to the study of generic entanglement.