Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.
For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.
To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Charlotte Lehman

Please note non-standard date, time, and location for this special talk, co-sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Studies and the Quantum Initiative

Tuesday, August 10, 2010
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

MSL Auditorium, A104

Speaker: Dudley Herschbach (Harvard University)

Technical Host: Steve Buelow

TOPIC: Prospects for Quantum Computing with Polar Molecules

Abstract
Over the past decade, arrays of ultracold (< mK) polar molecules have come to be considered among the most promising platforms to implement a quantum computer. In principle, such a computer can perform a wide variety of calculations with exponentially fewer steps than a classical computer. A key requisite for quantum computing is entangled states. For a pair of entangled states, the wavefunction cannot be separated into a product of functions of the individual partner states. (Einstein found quantum entanglement intolerable, because it allowed “spooky action at any distance.”) For arrays of polar molecules, entanglement is supplied by dipole-dipole interaction. Previous studies of prospects for computing with polar molecules had identified experimental conditions deemed suitable and accessible. This talk reports calculations of entanglement pertaining to such conditions. The results show that pairwise entanglement would be entirely quenched for the ground state (lowest energy) of the array, but not for many excited states, and also suggest means to revive it even for the ground state.