The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Starting Grants to three UvA researchers. They are physicist Ludovico Lami, legal scholar Dilek Kurban and computer scientist Dimitris Tzionas. The Starting Grant is a personal subsidy of approximately 1.5 million euros per project. The subsidy offers talented scientists five years of support for their research.
Ludovico Lami (Institute of Physics/QuSoft): Entanglement Theory: a Quantum Odyssey – From the generalised quantum stein’s lemma to quantum gravity (ETQO)
In quantum computing, the notion of entanglement – the typical quantum phenomenon where disconnected systems can share information that goes beyond traditional ‘bits’ – plays a crucial role. Quantum entanglement fuels the most important quantum information processing protocols and is central to modern physics. However, the most profound questions concerning its operational meaning remain unanswered. Most importantly, we do not know how efficiently mixed-state entanglement can be manipulated or detected, whether it is possible to formulate a thermodynamical theory of entanglement, or how entanglement can be exploited to reveal quantum features of gravity. A single key statement connects all of these questions: the so-called Generalised Quantum Stein’s Lemma (GQSL). However, previously Lami has uncovered a fatal flaw in the original proof of the GQSL, and this is now regarded as one of the most important open problems in entanglement theory. His project provides a road map to address all of the above questions in a unified way through the GQSL.
Lami will carry out his project at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Italy).
