Royal Holloway University Of London

Quantum Dynamics Group

    Research

    The research conducted by the quantum dynamics group at Royal Holloway is focussed on two main directions. The first, quantum chaos, concerns the connection between the physics of the very large and the very small. This field is concerned with the study of the transition in the behaviour of small quantum systems as they become larger and more energetic, i.e., more "classical". Three of our members are actively working on understanding this mechanism, namely, Jens Bolte, Francisca Mota-Furtado, and Pat O'Mahony. The second direction investigated by the quantum dynamics group is aimed at explaining the information-theoretic properties of quantum mechanics: it has recently become clear that quantum mechanics allows the existence of many resource-like quantities which can be consumed to perform interesting new tasks. The properties of one of the most important such quantities, quantum entanglement, is the focus of the research of three of our members, namely, Koenraad Audenaert, Tobias Osborne, and Ruediger Schack. Related research on the theory of Bose-Einstein condensates is carried out by Andrew Ho in the Physics Dept.

    Group members are in demand as speakers at international conferences. Koenraad Audeneart was recently invited to speak at the Advanced Workshop on Trends and Developments in Linear Algebra, 22 June - 10 July 2009, ICTP, Miramare - Trieste, Italy. Jens Bolte presented the opening lecture at “Quantum Graphs, their Spectra and Applications”, (Cambridge, 2007). Tobias Osborne was recently invited to speak at the Quantum Theory and Symmetries 6 conference held in Lexington, Kentucky. Ruediger Schack was invited to speak at the 8th Valencia International Meeting on Bayesian Statistics, (Alicante 2006) and was an invited participant at a Dagstuhl workshop on Quantum and Classical Information Assurance in 2009.

    Members of the group sit on the advisory boards of journals such as Journal of Physics A.

    We welcome applications from prospective PhD students at any time and details on how to apply are given here.

    Recent Publications

    • Distinguishing States: The Quantum Chernoff Bound. K.M.R. Audenaert, J. Calsamiglia, R. Muñoz-Tapia, E. Bagan, Ll. Masanes, A. Acin and F. Verstraete,  Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 160501 (2007). Editors’ Suggestion.
    • The trace formula for quantum graphs with general self adjoint boundary conditions. Bolte, Jens; Endres, Sebastian, Ann. Henri Poincaré 10 (2009), no. 1, 189-223.
    • Distribution of Fano parameters in a mesoscopic system with broken time-reversal symmetry. Uski, V.; Mota-Furtado, F.; O'Mahony, P. F., J. Phys. A 40 (2007),no. 22, 5857-5864. 
    • The behaviour of resonances in Hecke triangular billiards under deformation. Howard, P. J.; O'Mahony, P. F.,  J. Phys. A 40 (2007), no. 31, 9275-9295. 
    • Unifying variational methods for simulating quantum many-body systems. Christopher M. Dawson, Jens Eisert, Tobias J. Osborne, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 130501 (2008).
    • A finite de Finetti theorem for infinite-dimensional systems. C. D’Cruz, T. J. Osborne and R. Schack, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 160406 (2007).

    Permanent members and their research interests

    • Koenraad Audenaert (Quantum Information theory, matrix inequalities, additivity problems)
    • Jens Bolte (Quantum Chaos, semi-classical theory, quantum graphs, quantum ergodicity)
    • Francisca Mota-Furtado (Atomic theory, atoms in strong magnetic and electric fields)
    • Pat O'Mahony (Atomic theory, quantum chaos, scattering theory)
    • Tobias Osborne (Quantum Information theory, simulation and renormalisability for quantum spin systems)
    • Rüdiger Schack (Quantum Information theory, quantum Bayesian theory)

    More details on each individual and their research interests, including lists of publications, can be found by following links to their personal webpages.

    Postdoctoral Researchers

    Current Postgraduates

    • Christian Burrell
    • Sarah Leyton

    Recent members

    • Peter Chocian
    • Christian D'Cruz
    • Phil Howard
    • Wolfgang Ihra
    • Jens Jensen
    • Alex Johnson
    • Krassimir Kantchev
    • Tim Mannveille
    • Michael McCormack
    • Ian Moser
    • Marco Rigo
    • Inaki San Pedro
    • Artur Scherer
    • Illana Shah
    • Andrei Soklakov
    • Ville Uski

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