Research

The close relation between information and the laws of physics has two reasons:

First, any information processing, such as transmission, storage, or computation, ultimately boils down to a physical process. It is therefore natural to ask what information-processing possibilities quantum-mechanical laws offer. 

Second, it has turned out that a wide range of physical phenomena can be understood more deeply when studied from the point of view of information. Examples include non-local correlations from quantum physics and the second law of thermodynamics. In this spirit, the results of our research should have implications for both technology and fundamental science.

Implications for technology

Our goal is to implement important information processing primitives, for instance in cryptography, by harnessing elementary effects occurring in nature. An important example of such a phenomenon is non-local correlations, the existence of which is a direct consequence of the laws of quantum physics. Such correlations have been experimentally verified in measurements of the parts of an entangled quantum state, revealing that they display joint behaviour. Non-local correlations, have proven useful in principle for information processing such as cryptography. We aim to extend the range of their possible applications, such as the efficient and practical generation of randomness, which is a central resource in computer science.

Fundamental implications

We also strive to gain deeper insight into physical laws by studying them from the point of view of information. This standpoint has turned out to be fruitful in a number of examples pertaining to quantum physics and thermodynamics. Both of those theories have a statistical character, with entropy and randomness as core concepts. It is therefore natural to apply tools and concepts from information theory in those settings.

For more information, please see our research publications and following sub-pages: