Home Page for Howard Wiseman

The Theory Group in the Centre for Quantum Dynamics, shown here in July 2007.

Back row: Jay Gambetta (research fellow), Andy Chia (Ph.D.), Josh Combes (Ph.D.)
Next row: Steve Jones (Ph.D), Byron Booth (Hons), Dominique Moeseneder (Hons), Andrew Scott (research fellow), Ahsan Nazir (research fellow),
Front row: Joan Vaccaro (researcher/Senior Lecturer), David Pegg (Professor), me, Anushya Chandran (visiting student), He-Bi Sun (researcher/Lecturer)

missing: Graham White (M.Sc).

Click here to see previous group photos.

Theory Group News

2009

January
Text-book Quantum Measurement and Control (Wiseman and Milburn) delivered to Cambridge University Press, nine years after submitting the synopsis!

2008

October
ARC Grant success:
1. Discovery Project: Geoff Pryde (GU), Steve Bartlett (USyd), Andrew Doherty (UQ) and me: "Quantum limits in measurement and communication"
2. Postdoctoral Fellowship: Eric Cavalcanti: "Quantum Steering, Nonlocality, and Foundations"

September
Paper accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett. by me and Jay Gambetta, "Pure-state quantum trajectories for general non-Markovian systems do not exist" (arXiv:0806.3101)
Back from long service leave!

August
Steve Jones has sumbited his Ph.D. thesis.

June
We welcome a new postdoc, Dr Austin Lund from UQ. I'm going on long-service leave!

March
I have been elected as FAA (Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science).
Paper accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett. by Josh Combes, me, and Kurt Jacobs, "Rapid Measurement of Quantum Systems using Feedback Control" (arXiv:0712.3620)

2007

October
We say farewell to Dr Jay Gambetta (off to Waterloo), and welcome a new postdoc, Dr Eric Cavalcanti, formerly from the University of Queensland.

September
Paper accepted to Nature! Entitled "Entanglement-Free Heisenberg-Limited Phase Estimation" (quant-ph/0709.2996) it was authored by me, with fellow-theoreticians Steve Bartlett (Sydney) and Dominic Berry (Macquarie) and experimentalists in our Centre for Quantum Dynamics: Geoff Pryde and his student Brendon Higgins. It reports the first-ever experimental demonstration of a phase measurement operating at the fundamental limit allowed by quantum mechanics.

The Centre for Quantum Computer Technology was established as an Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence in 2003. It has research programs at six Australian Universities: New South Wales, Melbourne, Queensland, Macquarie, Griffith, and Sydney, and also ADFA. Its primary aims are to build prototype quantum computers in Silicon (UNSW/UM), and in optics (UQ/GU/ADFA). It also has several other research directions, experimental and theoretical.

Griffith University hosts two programs, a Theory Program headed by me, and an Experimental Quantum Optics Program headed by Dr. Geoff Pryde.

The Theory Program is Measurement and Control for Quantum Computing. It supports wide-ranging theoretical research in quantum measurement, control and information. It comprises me (Program Manager), Prof. David Pegg, Dr. Joan Vaccaro, Dr. He-Bi Sun, Dr. Andrew Scott, Dr. Austin Lund, plus several students. For more information on the program, see the Program Page on the CQCT website.

Federation Fellowship Program: Quantum Information, Measurement, and Control.

Since the beginning of 2005 I have held a Federation Fellowship from the Australian Research Council for my research Program Quantum Information, Measurement, and Control.

As well as supporting wide-ranging theoretical research in this area, the Griffith contribution to my Program funds a trapped ion laboratory for experiments in the area of quantum information, measurement, and control. This is part of the laboratory of Dr. Dave Kielpinski.

Griffith University also hosts and funds another, related, experimental program: the quantum optics laboratory of Dr. Geoff Pryde.

Positions Available

At the moment I am only in a position to offer relatively short-term postdoctoral positions. Please contact me if you are interested. Also the Australian Research council and Griffith University both offer longer term (3-year) research positions. If you are interested please contact me, after consulting http://www.griffith.edu.au/or/grants/content_grants.html

New PhD students interested in studying in my group are welcome. However, overseas students should be aware that in Australia the financial situation is not the same as in the US for example. Students from Australia or New Zealand usually get a scholarship which covers tuition fees and living expenses. It is harder for overseas students to get such scholarships. For details please contact: the Postgraduate Scholarships officer,