Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Emerging quantum technologies will revolutionize the way we share and process information. They promise widespread societal impact by addressing some of the most challenging and important problems today in sectors as diverse as: medical imaging and pharmaceuticals, navigation, materials development, electronics, communication, and security. Quantum breakthroughs are powered by a chain of innovation beginning with advances in identifying and understanding quantum resources, then developing new control and characterization techniques, leading to practical implementation. The components of this chain complement each other with advances in one link spurring advances in the others. Optical systems are a critical platform for quantum technologies due to the unique properties of light. Photons travel as fast as nature allows and interact very weakly with their surroundings making them ideal carriers of quantum information over long distances. They have several degrees of freedom that enable different encodings of quantum information that can be tailored to optimize performance for a specific task. And high-quality light sources, optical components, and detectors are available due to the widespread application of optics in other fields. We request support for a research program that will advance optical quantum technologies through three streams that span the innovation chain: quantum causality, ultrafast entanglement, and photonic simulation. Quantum causality investigates the influence that each component has in a composite quantum system. Very recent discoveries have shown that causality in quantum systems requires radical new concepts important for our understanding of nature and can serve as new resources in applications. In this stream we will use causal inference and model selection techniques to rule out competing explanations for quantum experiments and enable new experimental tests of the composite nature of physical systems. The ultrafast entanglement stream will develop rapid characterization methods of entangled photon wavefunctions with sub-picosecond resolution. This is essential for control over these properties of light for quantum technologies that rely on energy-time entanglement, such as quantum-enhanced medical imaging and clock synchronization. In the quantum simulation stream we will build a photonic simulator of so-called lattice models that will enable simulation of the behaviour of quantum materials, many-body physics, and high-energy quantum chromodynamics. Through experimental parameters in this simulator, we will explore of the physics of both realistic materials and exotic systems that do not exist in nature. This proposal will support the training and careers of highly-qualified undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral researchers. Canada's industrial and research sectors will directly benefit from their training and the discoveries they make along the way.