What sub-field of quantum information should I focus on for my research?

[PaulDirac]

Hi everyone,

Recently I read an introduction to quantum information and got interested to begin a research work on it. I am now reading Neilsen's Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. There are a lot of things but I don't know how I can find a suitable issue and start writing an article on. Any attempt to help and advise is appreciated.

thanks

 

[wle]

There are a lot of things but I don't know how I can find a suitable issue and start writing an article on.

I don't know of any easy way to do this. You'd need to build up enough familiarity and experience with a particular sub-field of quantum information research to get a sense of what people are interested in, what has and hasn't already been done, and what you could reasonably work on yourself. By far the best way to do that is to do a research project, PhD, or postdoc in a good QI research group, depending on your education and experience level.

If actually working in a QI research group isn't an option, there are other ways of getting a sense of what's going on in the field, but my suspicion is that they'd require a lot of patience and self-motivation to see it through:

• Look up some well known research groups or key researchers in QI and look up what they're working on. Group websites and personal homepages may offer lecture notes online. Quite a few QI researchers also maintain their own blogs.
• If you have the time and funds, consider attending schools/workshops/conferences. (The biggest QI conference I know of is QIP, which is held annually, but there are many more.)
• Check the quant-ph section of ArXiv regularly. For this, there's a website called SciRate that I think has a nicer interface. It's also got the advantage that users can log on and "vote" and comment on preprints, which can give you a sense of which work is catching people's eye. (SciRate was originally started by and for the QI community and was extended to cover everything announced on ArXiv not too long ago. There's an option to restrict to just the quant-ph or any other section of ArXiv.)
• If a particular topic gets your attention or interest, try to see if there's a recent review article on the subject.

 

[PaulDirac]

I don't know of any easy way to do this. You'd need to build up enough familiarity and experience with a particular sub-field of quantum information research to get a sense of what people are interested in, what has and hasn't already been done, and what you could reasonably work on yourself. By far the best way to do that is to do a research project, PhD, or postdoc in a good QI research group, depending on your education and experience level.

If actually working in a QI research group isn't an option, there are other ways of getting a sense of what's going on in the field, but my suspicion is that they'd require a lot of patience and self-motivation to see it through:

• Look up some well known research groups or key researchers in QI and look up what they're working on. Group websites and personal homepages may offer lecture notes online. Quite a few QI researchers also maintain their own blogs.
• If you have the time and funds, consider attending schools/workshops/conferences. (The biggest QI conference I know of is QIP, which is held annually, but there are many more.)
• Check the quant-ph section of ArXiv regularly. For this, there's a website called SciRate that I think has a nicer interface. It's also got the advantage that users can log on and "vote" and comment on preprints, which can give you a sense of which work is catching people's eye. (SciRate was originally started by and for the QI community and was extended to cover everything announced on ArXiv not too long ago. There's an option to restrict to just the quant-ph or any other section of ArXiv.)
• If a particular topic gets your attention or interest, try to see if there's a recent review article on the subject.

thank you very much. That helped a lot.

 

[Zarqon]

You haven't stated which part of quantum information you want to work in. You should know that quantum information in particular is a very broad field as far as physics go. Since no one really knows which type of implementation will work the best for quantum information processing yet, it's being investigated on an extremely broad front. This means you will need to read up on more specific physics as well, such as ion traps, superconducting qubits or defect centers. You will need to limit yourself to a specific sub-field, and for doing that I can recommend searching for focused review papers, the ones in Reviews of Modern Physics (RMP) are usually a good place to start.

 

[PaulDirac]

You haven't stated which part of quantum information you want to work in. You should know that quantum information in particular is a very broad field as far as physics go. Since no one really knows which type of implementation will work the best for quantum information processing yet, it's being investigated on an extremely broad front. This means you will need to read up on more specific physics as well, such as ion traps, superconducting qubits or defect centers. You will need to limit yourself to a specific sub-field, and for doing that I can recommend searching for focused review papers, the ones in Reviews of Modern Physics (RMP) are usually a good place to start.

Thanks. Yes I know that I should concentrate on a specific sub-field as it is being a broad area of physics. I am reading a book now but have heard of quantum-error correction which is under research by many groups in the world. I think I will intensively focus on that sub-field as soon as I reach the topic in the book. I'm now reading the introductions and reviewing introductory chapters such as history of QI and some required quantum physics postulates that are regarded as compulsory materials before heading the field. so do you think that it is worthwhile putting time and energy on it?