First CHIST-ERA Joint Transnational Call
 

Call deadline: 5th of November 2010, 17:00 GMT

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics succeed in recording single-atom resolved images of a highly correlated quantum gas.

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices have evolved in the last years into an interdisciplinary tool for many-body solid state and quantum physics. But so far only limited possibilities were available to manipulate and to image the quantum gas on a microscopic scale. For the first time a team around Stefan Kuhr and Immanuel Bloch at MPQ has now succeeded in observing – atom by atom, lattice site by lattice site – such a strongly correlated system (Nature, 18 August 2010, DOI 10.1038/nature09378). The physicists saw that under certain conditions the atoms in the optical lattice arrange in a very regular distribution, with a fixed number of atom per lattice site. This is an important precondition for using these systems as quantum registers with individually addressable quantum bits in future quantum computers.

The Commission ICT Work-Programme 2011-2012 feature an interesting Objective under FET-Open, namely "Objective ICT-2011.9.4: International cooperation on FET research". This consist in a funding scheme that provides additional funding to existing grant for on-going FET IPs and STREPs ending at least 18 months after the submission date of the proposal (click on the tab below to access the full Objective text as published in the WP).

The new ICT Work Programme 2011-2012 has been published on the CORDIS website (a copy for download is available also here), and QIPC is contemplated again amongst the FET Proactive Initiatives. 

The WP features the objective ICT-2011 9.9 "Quantum ICT including ERA-NET Plus" (click on the tab below to read the full text)

On August 6 HP Labs' researcher Vinay Deolalikar sent the following letter to his fellows researchers in HP Labs:

"Dear Fellow Researchers,
I am pleased to announce a proof that P is not equal to NP, which is attached in 10pt and 12pt fonts

The proof required the piecing together of principles from multiple areas within mathematics. The major effort in constructing this proof was uncovering a chain of conceptual links between various fields and viewing them through a common lens. Second to this were the technical hurdles faced at each stage in the proof.

This work builds upon fundamental contributions many esteemed researchers have made to their fields. In the presentation of this paper, it was my intention to provide the reader with an understanding of the global framework for this proof. Technical and computational details within chapters were minimized as much as possible.

Physicists at MPQ control the optical properties of a single atom!

Due to the continued miniaturization of computer chip components, we are about to cross a fundamental boundary where technology can no longer rely on the laws of the macroscopic world. With this in mind, scientists all over the world are researching technologies based on quantum effects that can be used to communicate and process information. One of the most promising developments in this direction are quantum networks in which single photons communicate the information between different nodes, e.g. single atoms. There the information can be stored and processed. A key element in these systems is Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT), an effect that allows to radically change the optical properties of an atomic medium by means of light. Previously, scientists have studied this effect and its amazing properties, using atomic ensembles with hundreds of thousands of atoms. Now, scientists in the group of Prof. Gerhard Rempe, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Garching and Head of the Quantum Dynamics Division, have managed to control the optical response of a single atom using laser light (Nature, Advanced Online Publication, DOI: 10.1038 /nature09093). While representing a corner stone in the development of new quantum based technologies, these results are also fundamental for the understanding of how the quantum behaviour of single atoms can be controlled with light.

The purpose of this first CHIST-ERA conference will be to bring together personalities and scientists from the community of the call topics (Quantum Information Foundations and Technologies and Self-Awareness & Self-Consciousness) preliminarily chosen by the CHIST-ERA Consortium and that will be called for in the first CHIST-ERA transnational call for projects.

Physicists in the US (including AQUTE physicist C. Monroe) have used an optical "frequency comb" to reliably entangle a pair of atomic qubits. The breakthrough bodes well for practicable quantum computing because it allows for simpler manipulation of quantum states than in previous systems.

An effective QUIE2T kick-off meeting took place in Brussels on March 19, 2010. Four QUIE2T members (V. Buzek, E. Giacobino, T. Calarco, P. Grangier) were present to discuss some future plans for the FET flagship initiative.