Quantum Revolution
U.S. Department of Defense funds LSU physicist’s quantum sensing research
04/09/2018
The U.S. Department of Defense recently awarded LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy
Professor Jonathan Dowling and his collaborators a grant to develop quantum technologies
related to sensing. Photo Credit: LSU.
BATON ROUGE – As quantum computers built by Google, IBM, Microsoft and others are
coming online, it is imperative to develop quantum control methods to allow these
producers to scale up to thousands or millions of transistors.
“We are currently in the midst of a second quantum revolution,” said Jonathan P. Dowling,
LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy professor. “The first quantum revolution gave
us new rules that govern physical reality. The second quantum revolution will take
these rules and use them to develop new technologies.”
Dowling and collaborators have been awarded more than $7 million from the U.S. Army
Research Office to develop quantum technologies related to sensing. Their recently
received grant titled, “Quantum control based on real-time environment analysis by
spectator qubits,” is funded for three years, with the possibility of a two-year extension
for a total of $7.05 million. The purpose of the grant is to develop feedback and
control techniques on quantum systems that will be used to improve the performance
of quantum computers and sensors.
Dowling’s team is one of 24 academic research teams to receive this competitive funding.
LSU will receive nearly $1 million over the next five years as part of the DoD Multidisciplinary
University Research Initiative program, or MURI grant.
“Successful implementation for spectator qubits will allow for higher fidelity and
more robust quantum operations,” Dowling said. “DoD applications of quantum computers
for cryptography, materials simulations and optimization will benefit greatly from
increased circuit depth.”
Dowling, co-chair of LSU’s Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Hearne
Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics in the LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy,
is participating on a team of researchers from University of California, Berkeley;
Dartmouth University; Duke University; Johns Hopkins University Applied Research Lab;
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the University of Oregon, as part of the
DoD MURI program. MURI projects involve teams of researchers investigating high priority
topics that range across a wide variety of disciplines.
“MURI supports research by funding teams of investigators that include more than one
traditional science and engineering discipline in order to accelerate the research
progress,” said Dale Ormond, principal director for research, in the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. “MURI awards also support
the education and training of graduate students in cutting-edge research areas.”
The highly competitive MURI program complements other DoD basic research initiatives
that support traditional, three-year, single-investigator university research grants.
By supporting multidisciplinary teams with larger, longer awards in carefully chosen
and relevant research topics, DoD and the Services enhance the potential for significant
and sustained advancement of research in critical areas of importance to National
Security and the DoD’s mission.
The Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office
of Naval Research solicited proposals in 24 topic areas important to the DoD and the
Services. After two rounds of merit-based reviews, a panel of DoD scientists and experts
narrowed the proposals to 100 from which the 24 final awards were selected. Based
on the proposals selected in the competition, 64 U.S. academic institutions are expected
to participate in the 2018 MURI program. In addition, this year, for the first time,
Australia has funded research teams to work together with two U.S. MURI teams.
Over the past 30 years, DoD’s MURI program resulted in significant capabilities for
the military forces and opened up entirely new lines of research. Notable examples
include foundations in the fabrication of nanoscale and microscale structures by the
processes of self-assembled materials, or SAM, and microcontact printing, the integration
of vision algorithms with sensors to create low-power, low-latency, compact adaptive
vision systems and advances in fully optical data control and switching. These and
other important technological advances from the MURI program have impact on current
and future military capabilities.
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Contact Mimi LaValle
LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy
225-439-5633
mlavall@lsu.edu
Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
225-578-3870
asatake@lsu.edu