Projects- Quantum computation and entanglement with ion strings
- Strongly interacting Fermi gases
- Dipolar quantum gases
- Quantum entanglement in higher-dimensional Hilbert spaces: foundations and applications
- Probing and controlling mesoscopic low-dimensional quantum systems
- Quantum agents, simulation and measurement-based computation
- Atom cavity QED
- Simulation of strongly correlated quantum systems
- Many-body quantum systems of cold atoms, molecules and ions
- A quantum switch for light
- Large-scale numerical simulations of quantum matter
- Entanglement in a CQED system
| Quantum agents, simulation and measurement-based computation
Hans J. Briegel
Markus Tiersch
This project connects concepts from quantum computation and simulation with the field of artificial and biological agents. We will develop models of quantum and classical agents that operate in unknown or partially known environments, where both the environment and the agent may involve quantum degrees of freedom. Certain schemes in quantum information processing, such as the one-way quantum computer, can be cast in the form of such quantum-classical agents whose actions in a quantum environment is driven by sensory feedback. While these schemes are well understood, their formulation as an agent problem offers a lot of room for generalization, e.g., by introducing learning rules that modifies the program through reward-type feedback from the environment. We will study quantum agents both from a theoretical perspective and regarding their experimental implementation in quantum optical systems. In a related part, we will further explore the role of quantum effects in biological systems. While this is an important topic in its own right, its connection to agent research is at the particular focus of this project. Such a connection is given when biological systems employ quantum effects for their survival in a given environment. A prominent example is given by avian magneto-reception, which helps certain birds to navigate in the Earth’s magnetic field during migration. We shall study the avian compass both in its own right and as a quantum control scheme which is part of a living agent interacting with a classical environment. | |
