Please join us for this week’s AMO/QI seminar featuring Dr. Eleanor Rieffel from NASA Ames. She will be giving a talk titled: A NASA Perspective on Quantum Computing, with Emphasis on Two Applications of Quantum Networks

Abstract:
This talk will begin with a brief overview of the NASA QuAIL team’s ongoing quantum computing investigations. It will then transition to cover two specific technical topics, one in distributed quantum computing and one in fundamental quantum physics.

I’ll introduce both the classical and quantum CONGEST-CLIQUE Models of distributed computation, and then outline two quantum algorithms that succeed with high probability; one yields an approximately optimal Steiner Tree, and the other an exact directed minimum spanning tree, each using asymptotically fewer rounds of communication than any known algorithms in the classical CONGEST-CLIQUE model. We achieve these results by combining classical algorithms with fast quantum subroutines. Additionally, we characterize the constants and logarithmic factors involved in our algorithms, as well as related prior classical and quantum algorithms, revealing the importance of “small” factors and highlighting that advances are needed to render both the classical and quantum algorithms practical.

Within the last few years, researchers have proposed extended Wigner friend scenarios that lead to new theorems, along the lines of Bell’s theorems but with weaker assumptions. This work is tied to deep questions related to reversibility, observation, and measurement. We map out an ultimate experiment that would include a human-level artificial intelligence (HLAI) QUALL-E running on a quantum computer playing the role of a friend. On the one hand, a proof-of-principle experiment in which a photon played the role of a “friend” has already been carried out. On the other hand, we were able to provide rough upper bounds for the resources required to implement the full experiment. An interesting open question is to design attractive intermediate experiments. The intent of this work is to give a clear goal for future experimentalists, and a clear motivation for trying to achieve that goal.