PhD position on the theory of quantum networks

While a quantum internet is being developed, many open questions remain on the power of networked quantum computers: What are their exact capabilities? And for which distributed tasks can new protocols be found?

The MNS group of the Informatics Institute invites you to apply for a PhD position working on these questions.

What are you going to do?

As part of your PhD project, you will develop new multiparty protocols for joint computational tasks on quantum networks, and prove limits on their power. Research directions for your PhD include:

• Joint quantum computation under timing constraints. What if networked quantum computers have to perform a computational task together, but are only allowed limited rounds of communication? Can there be a trade-off between time taken and entanglement?
• Computing on encrypted quantum data. In a quantum network, multiple parties will have to handle quantum data, while not completely trusting each other. To handle this situation, research will have to advance the state-of-the-art in secure quantum computation.

You will be embedded in the MNS group  of the Institute of Informatics of the University of Amsterdam. The group focuses its research on the fundamental architectural problems that arise from the interconnection of systems and of data flows. We look at the emerging architectures that can support the operations of the future Internet.

You will work under the supervision of dr Florian Speelman, who will also serve as your co-promotor, and of dr Paola Grosso as promotor.

You will also work in close collaboration with QuSoft , the Dutch research institute for quantum software, which houses experts on all topics in quantum computing. Together, the local institutes form a rich research ecosystem with opportunities to work together with computer scientists, physicists and mathematicians from the various groups situated at the Amsterdam Science Park.

You will start your PhD project concurrently with a PhD student who will work on theoretical questions directly associated with the Quantum Delta CAT-2 project . This gives the opportunity to work together on shared research questions concerning applications on the prototype quantum network that is being developed.

You will:

• research quantum networks, by developing new protocols for multi-partite quantum computation tasks, and by developing proofs that show the impossibility of some tasks;
• publish and present your work in international conferences and journals;
• be an active part of the local research groups at MNS and QuSoft;
• assist in educational activities and supervision of bachelor and master students.