SCIENCE AT THE SHINE DOME canberra 7 - 9 may 2008

New Fellows Seminar

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Professor Howard Wiseman
Centre for Quantum Dynamics, Griffith University

Howard Wiseman is a theoretical quantum physicist. In his PhD he showed how quantum trajectories (continuous quantum measurement theory) could be applied to the problem of quantum feedback, an approach that has since become standard. As a postdoctoral researcher in Auckland he pioneered atom laser theory. Since 1996 he has held ARC research fellowships; a postdoctoral fellowship on adaptive measurements, an area of continuing theoretical and experimental interest; a QEII Fellowship on non-Markovian quantum dynamics, including quantum trajectories for non-ideal measurement devices; and a Federation Fellowship in quantum information, measurement and control. He has over 130 refereed journal papers, and has won the Bragg Medal of the Australian Institute of Physics, the Australian Academy of Science’s Pawsey Medal and the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year.

Quantum information, measurement, and control, with application in interferometry

The ability to manipulate individual quantum systems, using quantum measurement and control, promises to bring about a quantum information revolution, including computers that are faster than any conceivable conventional computer. A recent application of ideas from these disciplines is the first ever experiment achieving the Heisenberg limit in interferometry. Interferometry is used ubiquitously, for example to measure the optical properties of a sample. The Heisenberg limit represents the most accurate possible measurement given a limited resource, for example the number of photon-passes through the sample. We demonstrated this using single-photon technology developed for quantum computing, implementing an algorithm inspired by quantum computer algorithms, and modified using measurement and control theory.