Speakers

Our program consists of 12 talks by six keynote speakers and seven invited speakers.

Keynote Speakers

Abstract: Quantum computing with neutral atoms or with atomic ions requires exquisite levels of control.

We use global optimization to design pulse control to propose ultra-high fidelity and interpret what the optimization results tell us, partly to make sure our results make sense and partly to make sure we have intuition to guide as from theory to realistic experimental implementation.

Barry C. Sanders is a professor and Director of the Institute for Quantum Science and Technology at the University of Calgary, Lead of the Quantum Alberta consortium, part-time Distinguished Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China and part-time VAJRA professor at the Raman Research Institute in India. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of the Institute of Physics, of the American Physical Society and of the Optical Society of America.

Abstract: Quantum entanglement is a key phenomenon that separates the classical and quantum theories of information.

In this talk, I will begin by introducing the notion of entanglement and discuss its applications, beginning with fundamental protocols like teleportation, super-dense coding, and the CHSH game. Then I will progress to more sophisticated topics like various communication capacities of quantum channels and highlight the role of entanglement in each of them.
Key references include:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1106.1445 https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.04672

Mark M. Wilde is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Center for Computation and Technology at Louisiana State University. He is a Visiting Associate Professor at Cornell University and will start there full time in July 2022.
He is a recipient of the Career Development Award from the US National Science Foundation, co-recipient of the 2018 AHP-Birkhauser Prize from the journal Annales Henri Poincare, and Associate Editor for Quantum Information Theory at IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and New Journal of Physics. His current research interests are in quantum Shannon theory, quantum optical communication, quantum computational complexity theory, and quantum error correction.

Abstract: Quantum computing has come a long way since the discovery of Shor’s factoring (1995) and Grover’s search (1996) algorithms.

We now know a quantum computer can solve enormously large set of linear equations, can simulate a wide range of Hamiltonians representing chemical and biological systems, can perform various linear transformations including Fourier transforms, and can efficiently evaluate inner products and distances in super high dimensional vector space, the last of which is particularly useful
in machine learning and other information processing tasks.
However, to perform such tasks would in general require millions of qubits and a fully fault-tolerant architecture.
A pressing open question for quantum computing in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era is whether a shallow-depth quantum circuit with limited number of qubits can demonstrate quantum advantages in solving problems of practical significance. In this Prof. Wang’s talk, she will present her team’s attempts in designing quantum algorithms for NISQ devices.
References:
[1] Wu and Wang, Estimating Gibbs partition function with quantum Clifford sampling, arXiv:2109.10486 (2021)
[2] Bennett, Matwiejew, Marsh and Wang, Quantum walk-based vehicle routing optimisation, arXiv:2109.14907 (2021)
[3] Marsh and Wang, A framework for optimal quantum spatial search using alternating phase-walks, Quantum Science and Technology 6, 045029 (2021)
[4] Marsh and Wang, Deterministic spatial search using alternating quantum walks, Physical Review A 104, 022216 (2021)
[5] Slate, Matwiejew, Marsh and Wang, Quantum walk-based portfolio optimisation, Quantum 5, 513 (2021) [6] Qiang, et al., Implementing graph-theoretic quantum algorithms on a silicon photonic quantum walk processor, Science Advances 7, eabb8375 (2021)
[7] Wu, Izaac, Li, Wang, Chen, Zhu, Wang and Ma, Experimental Parity-Time Symmetric Quantum Walks for Centrality Ranking on Directed Graphs, Physical Review Letters 125, 240501 (2020)
[8] Wang, Shi, Xiao, Wang, Joglekar and Xue, Experimental realization of continuous-time quantum walks on directed graphs and their application in PageRank, Optica 7, 1524-1530 (2020)
[9] Marsh and Wang, Combinatorial optimization via highly efficient quantum walks, Phys Rev Research 2, 023302 (2020)
[10] Marsh and Wang, A quantum walk-assisted approximate algorithm for bounded NP optimisation problems, Quantum
Information Processing 18, 61 (2019) [11] Yu, Gao, Liu, Huynh, Reynolds and Wang, Quantum algorithm for visual tracking, Physical Review A 99, 022301 (2019)
[12] Yu, Gao, Lin and Wang, Quantum data compression by principal component analysis, Quantum Information Processing 18, 249 (2019)

Jingbo B. Wang is the Director of QUISA Research Centre (https://quisa.tech/) hosted at The University of Western Australia, leading an active group in the area of quantum information, simulation, and algorithm development.
Prof. Wang and her team pioneered quantum walk-based algorithms to solve problems of practical importance otherwise intractable, which include complex network analysis, graph theoretical analysis, machine learning, and combinatorial optimization. 
She is currently also the Head of Physics Department, Deputy Head of School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, and Chair of QST (Quantum Science and Technology) Topical Group under the Australian Institute of Physics.

Abstract: Many types of quantum systems use mechanical degrees of freedom – and to achieve low decoherence rates researchers have developed several ways to levitate quantum systems using either optical forces (optical tweezers), or electro-dynamic forces (ion traps).

We have proposed and developed an alternate route using magnetic levitation – which uses no active power and can support macroscopic objects. We discuss some research relating to magnetic trapping and cooling or macroscopic objects, both theory and experiment; and a novel scheme to achieve a sensing precision which scales better than the quantum Heisenberg limit – a general method useful for extreme metrology.

Jason Twamley is a researcher in the theoretical physics of quantum science and technology with a particular emphasis on hybrid quantum systems – systems where one marries together different types of quantum systems to achieve an overall functionality which no one subsystem possesses.
In 2020, Professor Twamley was appointed to lead the Quantum Machines Unit at the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology, Japan. There he leads a group of researchers (experiment and theory), developing hybrid quantum systems for quantum sensors, communications, interfaces and computation. OIST is located on the tropical island of Okinawa and is a graduate university accepting graduate students from all over the world.

Abstract: A quantum channel cannot generally be inverted unless it is a simple unitary map.

However we can think of a quasi-inverse in the sense that its composition with the original channel brings it as close as possible to the identity map. We introduce this concept and discuss the general properties of the quasi-inverse. Then for the qubit case we present the complete solution. The case of higher dimensional channels is different in several important respects which hinders a complete solution. Despite this we present solutions for several important classes of channels.

After getting a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1987, Vahid Karimipour switched to physics and  got his PhD in Physics from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran in 1993 where he has been a Professor of Physics since 2001. 
His most research works on theoretical aspects of quantum information focus on inversion of quantum channels, multi-partite entangled states and quantum communications in the absence of shared reference frames. He is an editor of European Physics Journal D and International Journal of Quantum Information, and is also an outstanding referee of American Physical Society. He is now a  Simons Associate of International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy.

Abstract: The main challenge for scaling up photonic quantum technologies is the lack of perfect quantum light sources.

We have pushed the parametric down-conversion to its physical limit and produce two-photon source with simultaneously a collection efficiency of 97% and an indistinguishability of 96% between independent photons. Using a single quantum dot in microcavities, we have produced on-demand single photons with high purity (>99%), near-unity indistinguishability, and high extraction efficiency—all combined in a single device compatibly and simultaneously. Based on the high-performance quantum light sources, we have implemented boson sampling—which is an intermediate model of quantum computing, a strong candidate for demonstrating quantum computational advantage and refuting Extended Church Turing Thesis—with up to 76 photon clicks after a 100-mode interferometer. The photonic quantum computer, Jiuzhang, yields an output state space dimension of 10^30 and a sampling rate that is 10^14 faster using the state-of-the-art simulation strategy on supercomputers.

Chao-Yang Lu was born in 1982 in Zhejiang, China. He obtained Bachelor’s degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2004, and PhD in Physics from the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in 2011. Since 2011, he is a Professor of Physics at USTC. His current research interest includes quantum computation, solid-state quantum photonics, multiparticle entanglement, quantum teleportation, superconducting circuits, and atomic arrays.

His work on quantum teleportation was selected as by Physics World as “Breakthrough of the Year 2015”. His work on single-photon sources and optical quantum computing was selected by Optical Society of American (OSA) as one of “Optics in 2016”, “Optics in 2017”, and “Optics in 2019”. His work on photonic quantum computational advantage was selected by “UNESCO Netexplo 10 Digital Innovation”.
He has been awarded as Fellow of Churchill College (2011), Hong Kong Qiu Shi Outstanding Young Scholars (2014), National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2015), Nature’s top ten “science star of China” (2016), OSA Fellow (2017), Fresnel Prize from the European Physical Society (2017), AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize (2018), Huangkun Prize from Chinese Physical Society (2019), Nishina Asian Award (2019), Xplorer Prize (2019), IUPAP-ICO Young Scientist Prize in Optics (2019), OSA Adolph Lomb Medal (2020), Rolf Landauer and Charles H. Bennett Award in Quantum Computing (2021), World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2021), and James P. Gordon Memorial Speakership (2021).
He is the Chair of Quantum 2020 and has served as an editorial board member in international journals such as Quantum Science and Technology, PhotoniX, Advanced Photonics, Advanced Quantum Technology, Science Bulletin, and iScience.

Invited Speakers

Abstract: The study of quantum systems interacting with their environment – so-called open quantum systems – is extremely important from both applied and theoretical points of view.

On the applied side, such systems shed light on the practical implementation of various emerging quantum technologies such as quantum computation, metrology and communication. On the theoretical side, the study of open quantum systems has radically altered our understanding of the quantum to classical transition. To study open quantum systems, a variety of techniques have been developed.The most common approach is to use master equations.
The idea is to use the joint unitary evolution of the system and its environment and discard the environment degrees of freedom to obtain a differential equation describing the time evolution of the system of interest only. Deriving master equations generally requires making a series of approximations.
For example, the system-environment interaction is assumed to be weak, with the system and its environment initially uncorrelated. We have recently obtained a master equation that takes into account the system-environment correlations and have used this to show that the initial system-environment correlations can actually play an important role.
In fact, we can harness the system-environment correlations constructively in quantum parameter estimation problems – taking the correlations into account leads to considerably better quantum Fisher information. This is not a minor improvement; the correlations can, in some cases, increase the precision of our estimates by orders of magnitude.

References: H. Ather and A. Z. Chaudhry, Improving the estimation of environment parameters via initial probe-environment correlations, Phys. Rev. A 104, 012211 (2021). A. R. Mirza, M. Zia and A. Z. Chaudhry, Master equation incorporating the system-environment correlations present in the joint equilibrium state, Phys. Rev. A 104, 042205 (2021).

Abstract: The focus of this talk is to analyse the dynamics of quantum speed limit time of a central spin,uniformly interacting with the spins of an Ising spin chain placed in a transverse magnetic field, and the non-Markovianity of the spin environment. Loschmidt echo, Quantum phase transition  and capacity for speeding up quantum evolution of the environment will be discussed.

Abstract: We engineer entanglement in hybrid opto-mechanical system comprising Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) in a high-Q Fabry–Perot cavity with a vibrating end mirror. The intra-cavity field couples the vibrating end mirror with collective atomic density of the BEC. We show that the radiation pressure generates the quantum correlation.

Farhan Saif is working at the department of Electronics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He has served as the chairman, department of Electronics, QAU, and founding Head of the Physics Department, National University of Science and Technology.

His main areas of research include matter-wave optics, Quantum Optics, Nano Science and Technology, Quantum Informatics, Bose-Einstein Condensation, Classical and Quantum Chaos. He is a visiting scientist at the University of Electro-Communications, Japan, University of Ulm, Germany, University of Arizona, USA.

Muhammad Faryad is an assistant professor of physics in LUMS since 2014. He obtained his MSc and MPhil in electronics from the Quaid-i-Azam University in 2006 and 2008, respectively, and his PhD in engineering science and mechanics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2012. Most of his past research has focused on computational electromagnetics but he has been learning quantum computing for the last couple of years.

Abstract: We consider the dynamics of the photon states in distant resonators coupled to a common bus resonator at different positions.

The frequencies of distant resonators from a common bus resonator are equally detuned. These frequency detunings are kept larger than the coupling strengths of each resonator to the common bus resonator to satisfy the dispersive interaction regime.
In the dispersive regime, we show that the time dynamics of the system evolve to an arbitrary W-type state in a single step at various interaction times. Our results show that a one-step generation of arbitrary W-type states can be achieved with high fidelity in a system of superconducting resonators.

Shahid Qamar is a Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for Mathematical Sciences, at the Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract: Qubits based on the electron’s spins confined in a semiconductor quantum dot are the leading candidates in quantum computation due to their long coherence time and high fidelity qubit manipulation.

In this talk I discuss the challenges that we need to face with spin qubit. Understanding those problems will help us to control the qubit for its application in quantum information processing.

Bilal Tariq did his Masters in Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad with Dr. Kashif Sabeeh. His thesis topic was “Electron transport in Nanostructures”. He completed his PhD from State University of New York at Buffalo under the supervision of Prof. Xuedong Hu. His PhD dissertation topic was “Spin Based Qubits in Si Quantum Dots”. Dr. Bilal is currently working as a Senior Scientific Officer in the National Center for Physics, Islamabad.  

Manzoor Ikram is Director, National Institute of Lasers and Optronics, Islamabad. He is also the Principal of NILOP-College, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Science.

He also holds the position of Executive Secretary, International Nathiagali Summer College on Physics and Contemporary Needs. He did his PhD in Quantum Computing from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, in 2001 under the supervision of Professor M. Suhail Zuabiry. He started his career from Applied Physics Division, PINSTECH.
Later he served Centre for Quantum Physics, COMSATS University, Islamabad for 5 years mostly at the position of Director there. He holds the position of Professor of Physics since 2011. From 2012 he is serving at NILOP earlier as Deputy Director (2018 – 2021) and now as Director NILOP. He has supervised 6 PhD theses and published 53 research papers in International Journals with Impact Factor over 120 and citations over 1200.

Abstract: Classical automata-based memory models can simulate specific examples of quantum contextuality. However, there also exist single qubit quantum automata that cannot be simulated by any fixed memory classical computational model.

We investigate the possible role contextuality serves in these models by introducing the notion of computational contextuality. In return, the model provides a fertile ground for developing a generic notion of quantum contextuality.

Abstract: Quantum metrology is one of the most auspicious implementations of quantum technologies.

The fundamental goal of this promising field is the estimation of unknown parameters exploiting quantum resources, whose application can lead to enhanced precisions with respect to classical strategies. In this context, different physical systems can be employed to perform quantum metrological tasks, but photonic systems are regarded ideal probes due to their properties such as high mobility and low interaction with the environment, together with the available technology for their generation, manipulation, and detection. Moreover, photonic quantum systems are considered more advantageous, because many physical problems can be mapped into phase estimation processes, and thus photonic interferometry represents one of the most relevant scenarios. Here, I will review the basic concepts behind quantum metrology and then focus on the application of photonic technology for this task, with particular attention to phase estimation. In particular, the present work is focused on estimation schemes based on the phase-sensitive photonic quantum states, such as, entangled coherent states, N00N states and squeezed states.