Condensed Matter Seminar Series

The Power of Quantum Correlations in Physics and Computation

Janet Anders

University College London

Thursday December 15,  11:30 am,  Room 298,  Physics Building

Abstract: Quantum correlations, i.e. entanglement, appears in many natural and experimental physical situations and is an ingredient in quantum computation. Their appearance marks the establishment of a qualitatively different behaviour - be it a new phase, such as a BEC, or a resource for impossible computations. I will give an overview of a range of contexts where entanglement plays such a role. Finally, I will discuss claims that quantum correlations lead to a violation of the second law of thermodynamics and with it Landauer's erasure principle. I will argue why these claims are erroneous and show how a consistent treatment of correlations in this thermodynamical context resolves the paradoxical situation.