Advanced Seminar (Oberseminar)
Achim Rosch and Simon Trebst

Fri 12:00-13:30
seminar room | Institute for Theoretical Physics

The seminar will start on Fri April 12th, 2013.


Overview

One of the most intriguing concepts of quantum mechanics occurs when considering how two quantum mechanical objects -- e.g. photons, electrons, or spins -- are interwoven into a collective state. If such a state can no longer be described as the simple product of two individual states, one says that the two quantum mechanical objects are entangled.

Entanglement is the key resource in the field of quantum information theory where it is exploited in storing and manipulating information in so-called qubits. In condensed matter physics the notion of entanglement has become increasingly appreciated as a measure to classify different states of matter which cannot be distinguished by any local measurement. The stunning realization that oftentimes ground states of quantum many-body systems are far from being highly entangled states has led to the development of a novel class of algorithms to simulate quantum mechanical systems (on classical computers).

The seminar will give an introduction to the concept of quantum mechanical entanglement and its relation to quantum information theory. We will discuss how entanglement can be used to characterize different forms of quantum matter, and provide an overview of entanglement-based algorithmic approaches to simulate quantum many-body systems.

Prerequisites

For some talks previous knowledge in Quantum Field Theory is useful, but several topics can also be covered with a basic background in quantum mechanics.

Talks