Chapman University named as part of U.S. Army Research Office Grant for Physics

ORANGE, Calif. – Chapman University is a recipient of an Army Research Office (ARO) grant as part of a larger award to U.C. Berkeley designed to understand the continuous measurement of superconducting quantum bits using microwave fields. The initial award of the ARO grant is more than $4 million over four years, of which $400,000 is subcontracted to Chapman University.

The principal investigator from Chapman University on the project is Justin Dressel, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics. The project is titled the Theory for Continuous Quantum State Tracking and Error Correction, or CQSTEC.

“One of the most promising technologies for quantum computation to appear in recent years uses superconducting quantum bits that are cooled near absolute zero,” explained Dr. Dressel. “The most recent research focuses on how to control these quantum bits to avoid common errors—our proposal will look at how to read and write information to the bits continuously with microwave fields, aiming to improve upon the established error correction methods that are discrete in time.”

The experimental team, which includes U.C. Berkeley’s Dr. Siddiqi, will fabricate and test new designs for multi-quantum-bit superconducting chips, building on cutting edge work pioneered by the team of Dr. Martinis at U.C. Santa Barbara (now affiliated with Google Inc.), among others. The theoretical machinery necessary to understand and realize continuous error correction for these quantum bits will be provided by the three subcontracting collaborators from U.C. Riverside, University of Rochester, and Chapman University.

Chapman University’s role will focus on developing advanced methods for extracting information from continuous microwave signals, including methods for estimating changing evolution parameters in real time, for identifying initially unknown quantum states given constrained estimation resources, and for efficiently tracking the state evolution of correlated quantum bits in the presence of continuous microwave measurements.

According to the ARO’s website: “The U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s Office mission is to serve as the Army’s premier extramural basic research agency in the engineering, information and life sciences; developing and exploiting innovative advances to insure the nation’s technological superiority.” More information can be found at http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=29

Consistently ranked among the top universities in the West, Chapman University provides a uniquely personalized and interdisciplinary educational experience to highly qualified students. Our programs encourage innovation, creativity and collaboration, and focus on developing global citizen-leaders who are distinctively prepared to improve their community and their world. Visit www.chapman.edu.

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