Quantum Computer Science
The Quantum Computer Science Department pursues foundational research and development to enable creation of quantum information processors (QIPs) that will provide exponential speedups for selected computational problems. We are a team of computer- and computational-physicists whose expertise and pursuits include: computational modeling of physical qubits; theory and design of fault-tolerant QIPs; instruction set architectures for QIPs; evaluation of as-built qubits performance and noise characterization; logical qubit design for real-world noise; performance assessment of many-qubit QIPs; quantum algorithm development; the physics of information; and development of methods and computational simulation capabilities for all of the above pursuits. Additionally, the QCS Department is part of an institution-wide, coordinated program that is focused on realizing near-term quantum sensing capabilities, practical quantum information processing, quantum communications, and distributed quantum computing. The department closely collaborates with researchers in allied areas working on similar pursuits; closely collaborates with experimentalist groups at Sandia working on developing practical qubits in various technologies; has strong working relationships with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offices and other U.S. government agencies interested in quantum information science (QIS); and collaborates, broadly, with academic and commercial colleagues in the external QIS research community.