Fernando Brandao, Bren Professor of Theoretical Physics, Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy Division, Caltech
Recently there has been a confluence of quantum information science with other areas of physics, from condensed matter to high energy. In this talk, by considering two particular problems, we will see how the theory of quantum information gives a new perspective for studying quantum physics in general. Conversely, we will also see how these connections are useful to advance the field's original purpose of finding new technological applications based on the laws of quantum mechanics. The first problem is to understand the structure of entanglement in quantum many-body systems, and its relation with boundary theories.
The second problem is related to the central task in quantum computation of finding new applications for a future quantum computer. We will see that ideas of quantum statistical mechanics lead to quantum speed-ups for solving semidefinite programming, a class of convex optimisation problems of widespread use.