Institute: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alok Kumar Pan
Co-Principal Investigator: Prof. Guruprasad Kar
Quantum Theory is an astonishing creature. Despite its enormous success as a physical theory, there is still no consensus among physicists about what this theory is saying about the nature of reality. This is one of the many motivations for pursuing research on Quantum Foundations. Another is the development of Quantum Technologies, such as Quantum Computation and Quantum Cryptography by exploiting its peculiar features. A better understanding of the theory facilitates the identification and development of these new technologies and also further the harnessing of the power of Non-Classicality. Another interesting motivation may be singling out some special Non-Classical features that exist in nature providing advantage in some information processing task even if Quantum Theory is replaced by another physical theory in future.
In this boarder perspective, in this project we have chosen four different but interrelated topics which have their root in Quantum Foundations but at the same time provide the Quantum Advantage in developing future technologies. Following are the areas where we shall intensely focus in this project in next five years
All the above mentioned topics use the Conceptual and Theoretical components of both the Quantum Foundations and Quantum Information Theory. The primary goal of QuEST projects is to develop the Quantum Technologies in our country. In this sub-project, we plan to pursue the theoretical research, so that new and practically feasible communication tasks can be proposed and which can be experimentally implementable by other groups involved in QuEST Programme.