http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/ Theoretical Musings en Copyright 2010 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:19:58 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss TheQuantumPontiffhttp://feedburner.google.com <p>QIP 2010 talks and associated papers if I could find them (amazing how almost all papers for this conference are available, for free, online at one location....also interesting how papers seem to cluster in the 10-12 months of the listings :) ) If anyone has corrections please leave a comment.<br /> <h3>Monday</h3><ul><li>Daniel Gottesman and Sandy Irani<br /> <em>The quantum and classical complexity of translationally invariant tiling and Hamiltonian problems</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.2419">arXiv:0905.2419</a><br /> </li><li>Rahul Jain, Iordanis Kerenidis, Greg Kuperberg, Miklos Santha, Or Sattath, and Shengyu Zhang<br /> <em>On the power of a unique quantum witness </em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.4425">arXiv:0906.4425</a><br /> </li><li>Scott Aaronson and Andrew Drucker<br /> <em>A full characterization of quantum advice</em><br /> No paper found<br /> </li><li>Rahul Jain (invited talk)<br /> <em>QIP = PSPACE</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.4737">arXiv:0907.4737</a><br /> </li><li>Antonio Acin, Antoine Boyer de la Giroday, Serge Massar, and Stefano Pironio<br /> <em>Random numbers certified by Bell's theorem</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.3427">arXiv:0911.3427</a><br /> </li><li>Dave Bacon and Steve Flammia<br /> <em>Adiabatic gate teleportation</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0901">arXiv:0905.0901</a> (see also <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.2098">arXiv:0912.2098</a>)</li></ul><h3>Tuesday</h3><ul><li>Ben Reichardt (invited talk)<br /> <em>Span programs and quantum algorithms</em><br /> A series of papers, including the 70 pager <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.2759">arXiv:0904.2759</a><br /> </li><li>David Gross, Yi-Kai Liu, Steven Flammia, Stephen Becker, and Jens Eisert<br /> <em>Non-commutative compressed sensing: theory and applications for quantum tomography</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.3304">arXiv:0909.3304</a> (see also the followup <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.1879">arXiv:0910.1879</a>)<br /> </li><li>Norbert Schuch, J. Ignacio Cirac, Dorit Aharonov, Itai Arad, and Sandy Irani<br /> <em>An efficient algorithm for finding Matrix Product ground states</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.5055">arXiv:0910.5055</a> and <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.4264">arXiv:0910.4264</a><br /> </li><li>Dominic W. Berry and Andrew M. Childs<br /> <em>The query complexity of Hamiltonian simulation and unitary implementation</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.4157">arXiv:0910.4157</a><br /> </li><li>Maarten Van den Nest<br /> <em>Simulating quantum computers with probabilistic methods</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.1624">arXiv:0911.1624</a><br /> </li><li>Philippe Corboz (invited talk)<br /> <em>Simulation of fermionic lattice models in two dimensions with tensor network algorithms</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.0646">arXiv:0912.0646</a><br /> </li><li>Boris Altshuler, Hari Krovi, and Jérémie Roland<br /> <em>Adiabatic quantum optimization fails for random instances of NP-complete problems</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.2782">arXiv:0908.2782</a><br /> </li><li>Kristan Temme, Tobias Osborne, Karl Gerd Vollbrecht, David Poulin, and Frank Verstraete<br /> <em>Quantum metropolis sampling</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.3635">arXiv:0911.3635</a><br /> </li><li>Sergey Bravyi, David Poulin, and Barbara Terhal<br /> <em>Tradeoffs for reliable quantum information storage in 2D systems</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.5200">arXiv:0909.5200</a></li></ul><h3>Wednesday</h3><ul><li>André Chailloux (invited talk)<br /> <em>Quantum coin flipping</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.1511">arXiv:0904.1511</a><br /> </li><li>Matthias Christandl, Norbert Schuch, and Andreas Winter<br /> <em>Highly entangled states with almost no secrecy</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.4151">arXiv:0910.4151</a><br /> </li><li> Anindya De and Thomas Vidick<br /> <em>Improved extractors against bounded quantum storage </em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.4680">arXiv:0911.4680</a><br /> </li><li>Ivan Damgård, Serge Fehr, Carolin Lunemann, Louis Salvail, and Christian Schaffner<br /> <em>Improving the security of quantum protocols via commit-and-open </em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0902.3918">arXiv:0902.3918</a><br /> </li><li>Robert Koenig, Stephanie Wehner, and Juerg Wullschleger<br /> <em>Unconditional security from noisy quantum storage</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.1030">arXiv:0906.1030</a><br /> </li><li>Pablo Arrighi, Vincent Nesme, and Reinhard Werner<br /> <em>Unitarity plus causality implies localizability</em> <br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.3975">arXiv:0711.3975</a></li></ul><h3>Thursday</h3><ul><li>Aram Harrow (invited talk)<br /> <em>Quantum algorithms for linear systems of equations </em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3171">arXiv:0811.3171</a><br /> </li><li>Stefano Chesi, Beat Röthlisberger, Daniel Loss, Sergey Bravyi, and Barbara M. Terhal<br /> <em>Stability of topological quantum memories in contact with a thermal bath</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.2807">arXiv:0907.2807</a><br /> </li><li>Robert Koenig, Greg Kuperberg, and Ben Reichardt<br /> <em>Quantum computation with Turaev-Viro codes</em><br /> No paper found<br /> </li><li>Mark Howard and Wim van Dam<br /> <em>Tight noise thresholds for quantum computation with perfect stabilizer operations</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.3189">arXiv:0907.3189</a><br /> </li><li>Prabha Mandayam and Hui Khoon Ng<br /> <em>A simple approach to approximate quantum error correction</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.0931">arXiv:0909.0931</a><br /> </li><li>Sergey Bravyi, Cristopher Moore, Alexander Russell, Christopher Laumann, Andreas Läuchli, Roderich Moessner, Antonello Scardicchio, and Shivaji Sondhi<br /> <em>Random quantum satisfiability: statistical mechanics of disordered quantum optimization </em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.1904">arXiv:0903.1904</a> and <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.1297">arXiv:0907.1297</a><br /> </li><li>Julia Kempe (invited talk)<br /> <em>A quantum Lovász Local Lemma</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.1696">arXiv:0911.1696</a></ul><h3>Friday</h3><ul><li>Marcin Pawlowski <br /> <em>Information causality</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.2292">arXiv:0905.2292</a><br /> </li><li>Salman Beigi, Sergio Boixo, Matthew Elliot, and Stephanie Wehner<br /> <em>Local quantum measurement and relativity imply quantum correlations</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.3952">arXiv:0910.3952</a><br /> </li><li>David Gross, Markus Mueller, Roger Colbeck, and Oscar Dahlsten<br /> <em>All reversible dynamics in maximally non-local theories are trivial</em> <br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.1840">arXiv:0910.1840</a><br /> </li><li>Michael Wolf, David Perez-Garcia, and Carlos Fernandez<br /> <em>Measurements incompatible in quantum theory cannot be measured jointly in any other no-signaling theory</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.2998">arXiv:0905.2998</a><br /> </li><li>Toby Cubitt, Jens Eisert, and Michael Wolf<br /> <em>Laying the quantum and classical embedding problems to rest</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.2128">arXiv:0908.2128</a><br /> </li><li>Salman Beigi, Peter Shor, and John Watrous<br /> <em>Quantum interactive proofs with short messages</em><br /> No paper found.<br /> </li><li>Scott Aaronson (invited talk)<br /> <em>New evidence that quantum mechanics is hard to simulate on classical computers</em><br /> No paper found.<br /> </li><li>Julia Kempe and Oded Regev<br /> <em>No strong parallel repetition with entangled and non-signaling provers</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.0201">arXiv:0911.0201</a><br /> </li><li>Toby Cubitt, Debbie Leung, William Matthews, and Andreas Winter<br /> <em>Zero-error channel capacity and simulation assisted by non-local correlations</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.5300">arXiv:0911.5300</a><br /> </li><li>Jianxin Chen, Toby Cubitt, Aram Harrow, and Graeme Smith<br /> <em>Super-duper-activation of the zero-error quantum capacity</em><br /> <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.2547">arXiv:0906.2547</a> and <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.2737">arXiv:0912.2737</a><br /> </ul></p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/qip_talks_that_have_arxiv_pape.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/hOAyfggsXAU" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/hOAyfggsXAU/qip_talks_that_have_arxiv_pape.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/qip_talks_that_have_arxiv_pape.php Quantum Computing Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:19:58 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/qip_talks_that_have_arxiv_pape.php <p>Jorge sends along an almost timely <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1240932/Bacon-eggs-help-pregnant-women-boost-babys-intelligence.html">piece</a>:<blockquote>The traditional English breakfast is not normally associated with good health.</p> <p>But scientists have found that eating a plate of bacon and eggs could help pregnant women boost the intelligence of their unborn child.</p> <p>Women are usually given a list of foods to avoid during pregnancy and it is well documented that a pregnant woman's diet can affect her unborn baby.</p> <p>Scientists have found that eating a plate of bacon and eggs could help pregnant women boost the intelligence of their unborn child</blockquote>Does baby Bacon get the benefits by just being a Bacon? (When I was growing up every time we had bacon my father would say "check your toes!")</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/bacon_brains.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/8Zn53--zf44" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/8Zn53--zf44/bacon_brains.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/bacon_brains.php Bacon Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:54:21 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/bacon_brains.php <p><del>Bad</del> New Scientist has an article up today entitled <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18371-brain-entanglement-could-explain-memories.html">Brain 'entanglement' could explain memories</a>, which certainly must have sent Roger Penrose's brain into a state of multiple correlated back-flips (twistor flips?) However, from the article:<blockquote>Subatomic particles do it. Now the observation that groups of brain cells seem to have their own version of quantum entanglement, or "spooky action at a distance", could help explain how our minds combine experiences from many different senses into one memory.</blockquote>First of all, damnit New Scientist, entanglement is not just between "subatomic particles." Second of all, the effect described is as similar to spooky action at a distance as the fact that when you look at my feet you'll most likely see that I have the same color sock on both of my feet. To suggest that the effect described in <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000278">this PLOS biology paper</a> where they observed correlated local field potential mesurements in a monkey's brain has got anything to do with quantum entanglement is...well...just plain wrong.</p> <p><br /> (Which is not to say that quantum effects might not arise in the brain: we simply don't have any evidence of such effects and speculations about such effects arising are, so far, physically implausible. I.e. that's how a scientist says: probably not, but I'm always ready to change my opinion with some good hard evidence.)</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/entangled_in_the_membrane_enta.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/1c_6CiLBvP8" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/1c_6CiLBvP8/entangled_in_the_membrane_enta.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/entangled_in_the_membrane_enta.php Biology Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:34:39 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/entangled_in_the_membrane_enta.php <p>Missed this over the break: a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=254194912641&comments&ref=mf">facebook note</a> about the future of funding of the arXiv. The post points to two documents of interest, the first a statement about <a href="http://arxiv.org/help/support/">support</a>:<blockquote>...We intend to establish a collaborative business model that will engage the institutions that benefit most from arXiv -- academic institutions, research centers and government labs -- by asking them for voluntary contributions.</blockquote>and also a handy dandy <a href="http://arxiv.org/help/support/faq">FAQ</a> about the changes.</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/arxiv_funding.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/fJsqAW3V4-A" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/fJsqAW3V4-A/arxiv_funding.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/arxiv_funding.php Open Science Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:06:38 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/arxiv_funding.php <blockquote>"The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve." <br>- <em>E. P. Wigner</em></blockquote>Our universe, or at least our understanding of the universe, appears to allow us to see its naked underbelly only through the use of mathematical reasoning. As Wigner says about this state of affairs, we neither understand nor deserve this. On the other hand, I've come to believe, this observation can also be a huge aid in describing the world of theoretical computer science. There is no doubt in most people's opinion that theoretical computer science is mathematics of a highly sophisticated nature (or, well, sophisticated to this lowly physicist.) But theoretical computer science, unlike pure mathematics unfettered in its abstract glory, at its core must be concerned with the practical applicability of its reasoning. Here by practical I do not mean contributing to the better good of software development (though this may be important for the well being, read salary, of the practioners) but that at its core theoretical computer science must be about computers that exist in the real world. On the one hand, this observation leads direction to quantum computing. To paraphrase Feynman: the universe is quantum, damnit, so we better make our models of computing quantum. But it also should influence even our most basic classical computational models. In this vein, then, I would like to attack one of the most sacred holy cows of computer science, the holy mother cow of them all, the Turing machine. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/on_the_turing_away.php">Read the rest of this post...</a> | <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/on_the_turing_away.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/wRfTWvryQZ4" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/wRfTWvryQZ4/on_the_turing_away.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/on_the_turing_away.php Computer Science Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:29:54 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/on_the_turing_away.php <p>As you can imagine, due to extenuating circumstances, I won't be able to attend <a href="http://www.qip2010.ethz.ch/">QIP</a> in Zurich. Luckily my collaborator Steve Flammia will be there to give the talk on our recent work on adiabatic protocols (<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.0901">arXiv:0905.0901</a> and <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.2098">arXiv:0912.2098</a>.) I know there will probably be a few bloggers attending QIP, but if anyone is interested in making guest posts here on the Pontiff about the conference (anonymously, using your real name, or any combination thereof) please send me an email (see contact tab above).</p> <p>Anyone know if the conference talks will be taped? Enjoy Zurich all, but make sure to bring enough money :)</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/qip_2010_coming_up.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/mUFGijZCjoQ" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/mUFGijZCjoQ/qip_2010_coming_up.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/qip_2010_coming_up.php Quantum Computing Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:20:02 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/qip_2010_coming_up.php <p>Richard, a long while back (yes, I'm cleaning my inbox!), sent me some cartoons that were apparently floating around in the 70s when he did his BS in Chemistry that are quite amusing:<br /> <img src="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/upload/2010/01/quantum_cartoons/quant1b.jpg" width="510" height="680" alt="quant1b.jpg"/><br /> <img src="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/upload/2010/01/quantum_cartoons/quant2b.jpg" width="510" height="702" alt="quant2b.jpg"/></p> <p><br /> </p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/quantum_cartoons.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/JoGHXluLiZM" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/JoGHXluLiZM/quantum_cartoons.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/quantum_cartoons.php Physics Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:09:50 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/quantum_cartoons.php <p>Another one from Michael, who spotted an article about one of my favorite mathematical words to use in everyday speech (much the chagrin of non-scientists) used in the Supereme Court of the United States:<blockquote>Supreme Court justices deal in words, and they are always on the lookout for new ones.</p> <p>University of Michigan law professor Richard D. Friedman discovered that Monday when he answered a question from Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, but added that it was "entirely orthogonal" to the argument he was making in Briscoe v. Virginia.</p> <p>Friedman attempted to move on, but Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. stopped him.</p> <p>"I'm sorry," Roberts said. "Entirely what?"</p> <p>"Orthogonal," Friedman repeated, and then defined the word: "Right angle. Unrelated. Irrelevant."</p> <p>"Oh," Roberts replied.</p> <p>...</p> <p>"What was that adjective?" Scalia asked Monday. "I liked that."</p> <p>"Orthogonal," Friedman said.</p> <p>"Orthogonal," Roberts said.</p> <p>"Orthogonal," Scalia said. "Ooh."</p> <p>Friedman seemed to start to regret the whole thing, saying the use of the word was "a bit of professorship creeping in, I suppose," but Scalia was happy.</p> <p>"I think we should use that in the opinion," he said.</p> <p>"Or the dissent," added Roberts, who in this case was in rare disagreement with Scalia.</blockquote>Of course last time I commented on using mathematical words outside of their natural habitat it spawned a comment thread with <a href="http://dabacon.org/pontiff/?p=1261">over 2000 comments</a>.</p> <p>Other favorites that I like to sneak into casual conversation are "canonical", "dual", and "asymptotic." Other good scientific / math words that you like to use in everyday conversation?</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/everday_orthogonality.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/KK2Y25xpZlI" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/KK2Y25xpZlI/everday_orthogonality.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/everday_orthogonality.php Words Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:41:17 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/everday_orthogonality.php <p>Michael sends along an entry in the best title ever competition, this time a special <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/about_the_ubc_talk.php">baby Bacon</a> edition:<blockquote> <a href="http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476%2879%2980717-9/abstract">The pulse wave arrival time (QKd interval) in normal children</a><br /> The Journal of Pediatrics, Volume 95, Issue 5, Pages 716-721<br /> B. Bercu, R. Haupt, R. Johnsonbaugh, D. Rodbard</blockquote>"In this household, young man, we will keep our quantum key distribution pulses above the rate of 1000 keys per second!"</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/childish_qkd.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/49YjtgyUpFU" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/49YjtgyUpFU/childish_qkd.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/childish_qkd.php Best Title Ever Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:37:30 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/childish_qkd.php <p>A while back I posted a short, hopefully jocular, note about the machine learning algorithm for catching <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2009/10/machine_learning_ruins_blackja.php">card counters at blackjack.</a> <a href="http://www.casinoonline.co.uk/casino-experts-interviews/card-counting-interview-kris-zutis">Here</a> is a more substantial article about the system. I wonder if systems like these will find use outside of gambling: anywhere an employee performs a repeated physical task (think a grocery store clerk?) and the company want to catch the errors. Boy those jobs are going to stink it up kind of rotten: "Johnny, if you make one more computer detected error tomorrow at the check stand, we're going to have to let you go!" Is it better to be fired by a computer or by a human? </p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/more_human_than_a_human.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/YqThrAeYW6U" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/YqThrAeYW6U/more_human_than_a_human.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/more_human_than_a_human.php Technology Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:43:17 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/more_human_than_a_human.php <p>Katherine passes along an amusing <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/caitlin_moran/article6858892.ece">article</a> about Bacon:<blockquote>As America's bacon-frenzy illustrates, when culture, technology and economy allow mankind the option of unlimited bacon -- for bacon to fill every moment and aspect of its life -- Mankind will hit the "Bacon Me" button like an unhinged mandrill. In David Lynch's Dune, when Kyle gnomically insisted: "The spice is the worm! The worm is the spice!" we can see, now, that both worm and spice were, in fact, bacon. Bacon is the Dark Matter that holds together the Universe. Richard Bacon has just taken over from Simon Mayo on BBC 5 Live*. We are stardust. We are bacon.</blockquote></p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/we_are_stardust_we_are_bacon.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/Vw0sXWCx3hY" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/Vw0sXWCx3hY/we_are_stardust_we_are_bacon.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/we_are_stardust_we_are_bacon.php Bacon Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:47:35 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/we_are_stardust_we_are_bacon.php <p>About that talk at UBC which <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/talk_at_ubc_monday.php">I posted about on</a> Sunday...<br /> <blockquote>Q: How'd the talk in Vancouver go Monday, Dave?<br /> D: The slides were awesome and the animations dazzling.<br /> Q: So the talk went well?<br /> D: Don't know. I didn't give the talk.<br /> Q: Didn't give the talk? Why not?<br /> D: Well at the time I was supposed to be giving the talk I was on the US / Canada border.<br /> Q: Oh so you were late for your talk ...due to being stuck at the border crossing?<br /> D: Actually I was heading back into the US at the time.<br /> Q: Huh? Why were you heading the wrong direction?<br /> D: Well because the fireman called.<br /> Q: The fireman? Why did the fireman call you?!?<br /> D: Well he called me to tell me I needed to call my wife.<br /> Q: Why in earth would the fireman call you to tell you to call your wife?<br /> D: Well he called to tell me to pick up my wife's call. Oh and he called on account of the mess in the bathroom.<br /> Q: Mess what mess?<br /> D: Oh well the mess was from the boy.<br /> Q: Boy? Your little boy made a mess in the bathroom and the fireman had to call you?<br /> D: Well the boy himself really didn't make a mess, because well he wasn't quite mobile at the time.<br /> Q: Not mobile? But how was he involved in the mess?<br /> D: Well he was the one who made my wife call the fireman on account of deciding to be born today.<br /> Q: Born today! Well I'll be.... So the talk went well?</blockquote>Mrs. Pontiff and Baby Bacon are both doing well and soon we will be heading home from the hospital (bringing home the Bacon, so to speak.) This sleep deprivation brings back fond memories of handing in my homework(s!) after an all nighter at Caltech. But at Caltech only a few of my fellow techers spit up quite this much.</p> <p><span class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><img alt="photo(3).jpg" src="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/photo%283%29.jpg" width="400" class="mt-image-none" style="" /></span></p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/about_the_ubc_talk.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/lOmR6HR2dB8" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/lOmR6HR2dB8/about_the_ubc_talk.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/about_the_ubc_talk.php Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:58:13 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/about_the_ubc_talk.php <p>Late notice, but I'm giving the <a href="<br /> http://www.physics.ubc.ca/events/theory/Bacon2010-01-04.html">theory seminar</a> at UBC tomorrow, January 4, 2010 at noon:<blockquote>Title: Adiabatic Cluster State Quantum Computing<br /> Location: Hennings 318<br /> Abstract: <br /> Models of quantum computation are important because they change the physical requirements for achieving universal quantum computation. For example, one-way quantum computing requires the preparation of an entangled state followed by adaptive measurement on this state, a set of requirements which is different from the standard quantum circuit model. Here we introduce a model based on one-way quantum computing but without measurements (except for the final readout), instead using adiabatic deformation of a Hamiltonian whose initial ground state is the cluster state. This opens the possibility to use the copious results from one-way quantum computing to build more feasible adiabatic schemes. In this talk I will discuss this and other new adiabatic quantum computing protocols. This is joint work with Steve Flammia (Perimeter Institute). </blockquote>Always great to visit Vancouver, let's just hope <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2008/03/broken_glass_everywhere_if_it.php">this time</a> I come back with my passport!</p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/talk_at_ubc_monday.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/Gb8jB1n-eo8" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/Gb8jB1n-eo8/talk_at_ubc_monday.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/talk_at_ubc_monday.php Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:45:52 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/talk_at_ubc_monday.php <p>May the teens be even better than the naughties! </p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/happy_new_year_1.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/dkav199flMo" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/dkav199flMo/happy_new_year_1.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/happy_new_year_1.php Self: Meet Center. Center: Meet Self. Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:18:52 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2010/01/happy_new_year_1.php <p><a href="http://www.baconorbeercan.com/">Bacon or Beer Can</a>?</p> <p>Merry Chistmas Eve! </p> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2009/12/put_them_together_then_youve_g.php#commentsArea">Read the comments on this post...</a><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~4/YhDatn0cBrE" height="1" width="1"/> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheQuantumPontiff/~3/YhDatn0cBrE/put_them_together_then_youve_g.php http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2009/12/put_them_together_then_youve_g.php Bacon Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:03:42 -0500 http://scienceblogs.com/pontiff/2009/12/put_them_together_then_youve_g.php