Quantum Information Theory via Decoupling
by Patrick Hayden, McGill University Montreal

Abstract:
Quantum information theorists are lucky. If a classical information theorist wants to send bits through a noisy channel, (s)he has little choice but to specify in detail matching encoding and decoding procedures that will protect the data from noise. Quantum information theorists only have to work half as hard: they need to specify the encoding but then the decoding comes for free. This "free lunch" is a consequence of the no-cloning theorem: if no information leaks to the environment, then the quantum information theorist can conclude that a decoding exists without having to worry about the details. Of course, the free lunch may be a bit hard to digest. Casual readers of papers on quantum channel capacities are often put off by what look like formidable technicalities. The tutorial will teach participants how to prove some key capacity theorems from start to finish, breaking the technicalities into bite-sized chunks. The end of the tutorial will be devoted to discussing potential consequences of the results to information leakage from black holes.

(Lecture as pdf-file)

Anything Goes, or Everything Fails: Quantum Simulators
by Maciej Lewenstein, ICFO Barcelona
*notice: there is a change in the tutorial schedule.

Abstract:
"Anything goes" is a musical by Cole Porter. The title song of it was used in the beginning of Steven Spielberg's movie "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Here it applies to a concept of so-called quantum simulators, that is simple physical systems that are supposed to mimic other not so simple physical systems, i.e. serve as quantum computers of special purpose. In recent years most of such quantum simulators have been proposed in the area of quantum optics and atomic physics using ultracold atoms and ions. In this tutorial I will review the fundamentals of quantum simulators based on ultracold matter, and argue that although in principle "anything goes", sometimes "everything might fail".

Quantum Query Complexity
by Ben Reichardt, IQC, University of Waterloo

Abstract:
The general adversary bound is a lower bound on quantum query complexity that can also be used to design quantum algorithms with a very simple form. In this tutorial, we will study the adversary bounds and how to design quantum algorithms based upon them.

(Lecture as pdf-file)