Workshop on Quantum Algorithms and Devices – Part 4

3:40PM – 4:20PMQuantum Software and Quantum-safe Cryptography Michele Mosca (University of Waterloo)

Abstract: Quantum algorithms allow us to solve several important problems with a substantially reduced computational complexity. For example, Shor’s algorithms will solve integer factorization and find discrete logarithms in polynomial time, and thus compromise RSA and Diffie-Hellman based cryptosystems. These systems are used ubiquitously today, and, for example, underpin internet security.

For any problem, the precise point at which an available quantum computer will outperform classical algorithms depends on many factors. One of these factors is the efficiency with which the algorithm is compiled into the available physical quantum operations. I will discuss the problem of quantum compiling and overview some of our results on this field.

The advent of a quantum computing device that is able to implement large instances of quantum algorithms will be a major milestone in computing history, as it will bring the possibility of designing advanced quantum materials, simulating chemical reactions at the quantum level, improved optimization methods for a wide range of industries, and so on, including many applications yet to be discovered. However, it is critical that a new generation of cryptographic primitives resistant to quantum attacks is deployed before this happens. It is far from clear that this will happen. I will outline this challenge, and the ongoing work towards meeting the challenge.

4:20PM – 5:00PMHigh Performance Quantum Computing: Applications to Materials Simulations Matthias Troyer (ETH Zurich)

Abstract: None supplied

Speaker Details

Dr. Michele Mosca obtained his D.Phil. in 1999 from the University of Oxford. He is co-founder and Deputy Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, a Professor in the Department of Combinatorics & Optimization of the Faculty of Mathematics, and a founding member of Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Dr. Mosca has done pioneering work in quantum algorithms, including the development and application of the phase estimation approach to quantum algorithms. Together with collaborators at Oxford, he realized several of the first implementations of quantum algorithms using nuclear magnetic resonance. In the area of quantum cryptography, he and his collaborators developed fundamental methods for performing reliable computations with untrusted quantum apparatus, defined the notion of private quantum channels, and developed optimal methods for encrypting quantum information using classical keys. His current research focuses on transitioning the cryptographic infrastructure to one that will be secure in an era with quantum technologies, and on developing algorithms and software tools for quantum computers. He also co-authored the respected textbook “An Introduction to Quantum Computing” (OUP).’

Matthias Troyer received his PhD in 1994 from ETH Zürich, working on numerical simulations of high temperature superconductors and related materials. After three years as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo he returned to ETH in 1998 as lecturer of computational physics. After receiving an assistant professorship grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation in 2000, he was quickly promoted to associate professor in 2002 and full professor in 2005.He is a recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant of the European Research Council, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Member of the Aspen Center for Physics.

His research activities range from quantum simulations and topological quantum computing to novel simulation algorithms, high performance computing, and computational provenance. He has been a pioneer of cluster computing in Europe, having been responsible for the installation of the first Beowulf cluster in Europe with more than 500 CPUs in 1999, and the most energy efficient general purpose computer on the top-500 list in 2008. He is the leader of the ALPS project for the simulation of quantum many body systems. Through his former consulting work with BoostPro Computing he has, among others libraries, written the Boost MPI library, a modern C++ API for message passing on parallel computers.

Date:
Speakers:
Michele Mosca and Matthias Troyer
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, ETH Zurich