QICL Workshop announcement

[Matthew Leifer]

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WORKSHOP AND SUMMER SCHOOL ANNOUNCEMENT
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* Quantum Information, Computation and Logic: *
* Exploring New Connections                   *
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Dates:      July 17th - 22nd
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Location:   Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 
            Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
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Organizers:
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- Matthew Leifer (Perimeter Institute) 

- Howard Barnum  (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

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Advisory Committee:
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- Carlton Caves    (University of New Mexico) 

- David Foulis     (University of Massachusetts - Emeritus) 

- Lucien Hardy     (Perimeter Institute) 

- Sonja Smets      (Free University of Brussels) 

- Alexander Wilce  (Susquehanna University)

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Topics:
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- Logical/axiomatic approaches to the Foundations of Quantum 
  Mechanics

- Quantum Foundations in the Light of Quantum Information

- Logical aspects of Quantum Computer Science

- Information processing on general Quantum Structures

- Models of Quantum Computing

- Quantum Algorithms and Complexity

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Invited Speakers (* denotes tentatively confirmed):
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*Samson Abramsky (Oxford), *Guido Bacciagaluppi (IHPST, France), 
*Alexandru Baltag (Oxford), *Thurlow Cook             
(Massachusetts), *Bob Coecke (Oxford), *Dave Foulis               
(Massachusetts), *Richard Greechie (Louisiana Tech. University), 
*Stanley Gudder (Denver), *Hans Halvorson (Princeton), Maria 
Luisa Dalla Chiara (Firenze), *Sonja Smets (Brussels), *Alex 
Wilce (Susquehanna)

Scott Aaronson (IAS, Princeton), Dorit Aharonov (Hebrew 
University), Gilles Brassard (Montreal), *Hans Briegel 
(Innsbruck), *Carlton Caves (New Mexico), *Chris Fuchs (Bell 
Labs/Dublin Institute of Technology), *Lucien Hardy (Perimeter), 
Richard Josza (Bristol), *Elham Kashefi (Waterloo), Alexei Kitaev 
(CalTech), *Ruediger Schack (Royal Holloway), *Benjamin 
Schumacher (Kenyon), *Rob Spekkens (Perimeter), Reinhard Werner 
(Braunschweig), *Bill Wootters (Williams)

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Introductory Talks:
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The first two days of the Workshop will be devoted to an 
intensive school on Quantum Information, Computation and Logic.  
Topics covered in parallel sessions will include:

Hilbert Space and Orthomodular lattices, Basic Concepts of 
Category Theory, The Geneva Approach to Quantum Theory, 
Operational Quantum Logic, Ludwig's Axiomatization of Quantum 
Theory, Basic Concepts of Quantum Information, Quantum 
Cryptography, Quantum Shannon Theory, Models of Quantum 
Computation, Quantum Algorithms, Quantum Computational Complexity

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Poster Session:
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Non-invited participants will have the opportunity to present 
their research in a poster session.  Please send titles and 
abstracts to barnum at lanl.gov.

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Description:
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Both quantum logic (QL) and quantum information (QI) are based on 
viewing quantum mechanics in terms of concepts closely tied to 
information, so QL, should be closely connected to QI.  On the 
whole, these two research fields are pursued by separate 
communities and so a closer collaboration is likely to yield 
significant insights into both.  While taking a broad view of 
both fields, the workshop will focus on areas that we feel are 
most likely to spark significant collaboration and new research 
initiatives.  We will emphasize three areas in particular.

Firstly, QI raises questions about the power of systems governed 
by different types of theories for performing 
information-processing tasks, and QI researchers have become 
interested in characterizing theories by their information 
processing power.  Since QL, broadly construed, is also deeply 
concerned with characterizing types of theories axiomatically, 
combining the efforts of these two communities would be fruitful. 
The QL community is much further along in developing mathematical 
frameworks for such investigations, while the QI community has 
explored task-motivated, operational properties in more detail. 
Both communities have been led to consider structures that 
are neither quantum nor classical.  We expect that bringing 
together these two approaches will result in more operationally 
meaningful characterizations of theories, addressing the 
complaint that some axioms in QL based approaches to quantum 
mechanics are of unclear operational significance even if they 
are mathematically natural.

Second, quantum logic might serve as a useful tool for 
investigating problems in quantum computing.  Indeed, it could 
shed significant light on the power of quantum computation, a 
question that has occupied many quantum information theorists in 
recent years.  A few attempts to construct logics for quantum 
computation have been made, but it is not yet clear what the 
definitive logic of quantum computation is.  It is likely that 
alternative models of quantum computing, especially those based 
on measurements, might provide a clearer connection between 
quantum logic and computing.

Thirdly, problems in classical logic, such as the satisfiability 
problem, play a key role in the theory of computational 
complexity. These give significant insight into the power of 
classical computation, enabling questions such as whether P=NP to 
be posed in a mathematically rigorous form.  It seems natural to 
investigate whether there are analogs of these problems in 
quantum logic that could play a similar role in quantum 
computational complexity.

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Registration:
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To register interest, please send an email to Matt Leifer 
(mleifer at perimeterinstitute.ca).  You will then be informed of 
further details as soon as the become available.

There will be a registration fee for non-invited participants, 
but we may be able to provide limited support for students to 
attend.

The total number of participants will be limited to ~60.

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Website:
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Further details will be posted on the web at 
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/activities/scientific/PI-WORK-3/ as
soon as they become available.

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