John A. Smolin
Encyclopedia
John A. Smolin is an American
physicist
at IBM
's Thomas J. Watson Research Center
.
Smolin is best known for his work in quantum information
theory, where, with collaborators, he introduced several important techniques, including entanglement distillation
, for quantum error-correction and the faithful transmission of quantum information through noisy quantum channel
s, as well as for entanglement-assisted transmission of classical information. He helped elucidate the complex relations between classical and quantum capacities of various channels as well as phenomena such as data hiding and data unlocking that have no analog in classical information theory. Together with Charles H. Bennett
he built the world's first working demonstration of quantum cryptography
in 1989, driven by software written by Francois Bessette, Gilles Brassard
and Louis Salvail and implementing the BB84
quantum key distribution protocol.
Smolin coined the term "Church of the Larger Hilbert Space" to describe the habit of regarding every mixed state of a quantum system as a pure entangled state of a larger system, and every irreversible evolution as a reversible (unitary
) evolution of a larger system.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
at IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Thomas J. Watson Research Center
The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division.The center is on three sites, with the main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, 38 miles north of New York City, a building in Hawthorne, New York, and offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts.- Overview :The...
.
Smolin is best known for his work in quantum information
Quantum information
In quantum mechanics, quantum information is physical information that is held in the "state" of a quantum system. The most popular unit of quantum information is the qubit, a two-level quantum system...
theory, where, with collaborators, he introduced several important techniques, including entanglement distillation
Entanglement distillation
Entanglement distillation is the transformation of N copies of an arbitrary entangled state \rho into some number of approximately pure Bell pairs, using only local operations and classical communication...
, for quantum error-correction and the faithful transmission of quantum information through noisy quantum channel
Quantum channel
In quantum information theory, a quantum channel is a communication channel which can transmit quantum information, as well as classical information. An example of quantum information is the state of a qubit...
s, as well as for entanglement-assisted transmission of classical information. He helped elucidate the complex relations between classical and quantum capacities of various channels as well as phenomena such as data hiding and data unlocking that have no analog in classical information theory. Together with Charles H. Bennett
Charles H. Bennett (computer scientist)
Charles H. Bennett is an IBM Fellow at IBM Research. Bennett's recent work at IBM has concentrated on a re-examination of the physical basis of information, applying quantum physics to the problems surrounding information exchange...
he built the world's first working demonstration of quantum cryptography
Quantum cryptography
Quantum key distribution uses quantum mechanics to guarantee secure communication. It enables two parties to produce a shared random secret key known only to them, which can then be used to encrypt and decrypt messages...
in 1989, driven by software written by Francois Bessette, Gilles Brassard
Gilles Brassard
Gilles Brassard was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1955. He received a Masters degree from the Université de Montréal in 1975, and obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University in 1979, working in the field of cryptography with John Hopcroft as his advisor...
and Louis Salvail and implementing the BB84
BB84
BB84 is a quantum key distribution scheme developed by Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard in 1984. It is the first quantum cryptography protocol. The protocol is provably secure, relying on the quantum property that information gain is only possible at the expense of disturbing the signal if the...
quantum key distribution protocol.
Smolin coined the term "Church of the Larger Hilbert Space" to describe the habit of regarding every mixed state of a quantum system as a pure entangled state of a larger system, and every irreversible evolution as a reversible (unitary
Unitary transformation
In mathematics, a unitary transformation may be informally defined as a transformation that respects the inner product: the inner product of two vectors before the transformation is equal to their inner product after the transformation....
) evolution of a larger system.