Research Project: Conference: ICMS: Topological Quantum Computing
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Quantum computation has been a major area of research for several decades now, with researchers from many scientific fields across academia, industry and government working together towards the development of quantum technologies. If a powerful quantum computer can be built it will fundamentally transform the landscape of information science and technology. While errors due to the delicate nature of typical quantum states have mitigated progress, topological quantum computation (TQC) is an approach that could overcome this issue. This is by utilizing materials in which information can be "knotted," like a quantum quipu, making them naturally robust against the most common errors. After several years of the relevant research groups working separately, the time is right to bring together a diverse group of physicists and mathematicians with the goal of re-examining the field and exploring new platforms for topological quantum computation. This grant supports the participation of US-based researchers in a workshop to be held in the UK to achieve this goal, foster new collaborations between researchers in the US, the UK, and the rest of the world, and broaden the participation of junior researchers and members of groups historically under-represented in this area. This workshop will bring together researchers in a diversity of fields in and around TQC for the purpose of broadening and deepening the subject, with an eye towards accelerating the realization of scalable technology.
The hurdle of scalable fault-tolerance is insurmountable with the current incremental progress -- while it is possible to engineer systems supporting hundreds of physical qubits, applications beyond mere proof of principle require millions of qubits to implement robust error correction. Topological quantum computation relies upon the preparation of topological phases of matter supporting non-abelian anyons to perform inherently fault-tolerant operations. As errors are corrected at the hardware level through the topological nature of anyons, the problem of scalability is simultaneously overcome. On the other hand, despite years of effort we still do not have unassailable confirmation that non-abelian anyons exist. We will explore new directions beyond the traditional anyon community, embracing relevant topics such as quantum cellular automata, fractons, categorical symmetries and motion groups in 3-dimensions. A website for this event is available at: https://www.icms.org.uk/TopologicalQuantumComputation.
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