Jordi Tura (LION) and Tim Coopmans (QuTech)

PACMAN, Preparation And Certification of highly-entangled Multipartite quANtum states

Tura and Coopmans will explore how we can better verify that quantum computers and networks are truly operating in a quantum way. By combining three ‘ingredients’ - tools that are both theoretically powerful and experimentally practical- their goal is to make testing of large-scale quantum states easier.

Koenraad Schalm and Kaveh Lahabi

Is there a fundamental quantum limit on diffusion?

Schalm and Lahabi conduct measurements at the tiniest scales and at extremely low temperatures. By combining electrical measurements with microscopic imaging, they investigate how quantum information spreads. They study both local transmission and non-local effects caused by quantum entanglement. In doing so, they aim to get as close as possible to the fundamental (quantum mechanical) limit of the speed at which quantum information can travel.

Tjerk Oosterkamp and Louk Rademaker

Massive Quantum Chaos – does complexity speed up the gravitational non-unitarity of a quantum system?

Quantum mechanics works astonishingly well for the extremely small — like atoms — while gravity is mainly relevant for very large objects, such as the Earth. But these two forces operate in completely different realms. So what happens when the laws of quantum physics and gravity come into contact? And what role does complexity — the level of chaos in interactions — play in that encounter?

If it turns out that complexity — not just mass — can cause quantum rules to break down, it would have major implications for our understanding of the universe. In other words, we're searching for the very boundaries of reality itself.

Alfons Laarman (aQa Leiden) and Sebastian Feld (QuTech)

Project title: xqLIMITS: Expanding the Limits of Quantum Complexity with Automated Reasoning

Quantum complexity theory faces key challenges, including simulating quantum systems, understanding entanglement, and solving many-body problems – many of which are too complex for unaided human reasoning. This project tackles these issues by combining human insight with automated reasoning (AR), a method that has already solved difficult problems in mathematics. Building on recent work that connects quantum problems to AR techniques, we will collaborate with researchers at TU Delft to apply this approach and advance fundamental questions in quantum computing.

Wolfgang Löffler and Sense Jan van der Molen

Quantum kicks – from decoherence to driving superpositions

One of the big dreams in modern quantum physics is to create an object that is both massive and exists in multiple places at once — a phenomenon known as quantum superposition. But the larger the object, the harder this becomes. Researchers are aiming for objects made up of at least a million atoms, ideally in a superposition stretched across distances from nanometres to micrometres. So far, however, no one has managed to achieve this in a stable and controlled way.

In this project, we aim to push that boundary using something we call a ‘quantum kick’ — a powerful impulse that can place a massive particle into a quantum superposition. This is largely unexplored territory. We’ll start small, with electrons, and study how they create vibrations on the surface of a crystal. After that, we aim to place the electrons themselves into a spatial superposition, similar to the famous double-slit experiment.

Our goal? To measure a quantum kick 100 times stronger than anything achieved so far. If we succeed, it would mark a major step towards revealing quantum behaviour in the macroscopic world.

Dirk Bouwmeester and Evert van Nieuwenburg

Quantum Information Processing in the Brain

We are investigating whether nuclear spins could play a role in how quantum information processing might occur in the brain. In addition, we aim to explore whether the use of quantum computing in the brain could offer an evolutionary advantage. To do this, we use optical readouts of neural activity in neurological tissue, in collaboration with an external partner who enables these measurements. Importantly, this research is not conducted on human tissue.

Anna Dawid and Hao Wang

How to train a classical computer to act like a quantumcomputer?

Quantum systems are very complex and hard to describe using classical methods. Inspired by how well neural networks handle large, complex datasets, physicists are trying to use neural networks to describe quantum systems. These neural networks, called neural quantum states (NQSs), can capture even very intricate quantum behavior like entanglement and have sometimes worked better than other state-of-the-art classical methods.

However, while NQSs are powerful in theory, actually training them to work well is difficult — much harder than training typical machine learning models. This research project looks into why training NQSs is so hard. By understanding the challenges, we can figure out what makes learning about quantum systems different from regular data, and we can improve how well neural networks represent quantum systems.

Semonti Bhattacharyya (LION) and Mazhar N. Ali (QN)

What is the quantum limit of friction? 

On the macroscopic scale, we have a fairly good understanding of friction. But at the nanoscale — where atoms literally slide past one another — our understanding remains limited. In this realm, quantum mechanics sets the rules. In our research, we aim to describe friction at a fundamental quantum mechanical level.

We work with two-dimensional materials that are atomically smooth. By moving these layers over one another in a controlled manner, we can study the interactions between atomic surfaces with unprecedented precision. In doing so, we hope to gain new insights into the nature of friction at the smallest possible scale.

• kwantumfysica
• kwantumrevolutie
• quantum
• quantum algorithms
• quantum technologie

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