John Preskill

Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics
Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy
California Institute of Technology

Curriculum Vitae, publication list, and biographical sketch

Home Page for Physics 219, a course on quantum computation.

Field Theory Lecture Notes.

The Institute for Quantum Information and Matter.

IQIM Blog: Quantum Frontiers.

Follow me on Twitter.

The Caltech Particle Theory Home Page.

Workshop on Quantum Information Science, April 23-25, 2009. Workshop Report.

My Students: Where are they now?

60^th Birthday.

I am a theoretical physicist. Topics I have worked on in the past include the connections between particle physics and cosmology, properties of topological defects, nonperturbative phenomena in quantum field theory, and quantum aspects of the early universe and of black holes . For several years, my central interest has been in the theory of quantum information, quantum computing, and quantum error correction.

Broadly speaking, quantum information science addresses how the principles of quantum physics can be harnessed to improve the acquisition, transmission, and processing of information. A quantum computer would be a new type of machine that, by exploiting the unusual quantum properties of information, could perform certain types of calculations far more efficiently than any foreseeable classical computer. I'm particularly interested in developing new schemes for protecting intricate quantum systems from decoherence and other sources of error.

For further information about quantum computation, and other useful links, see the Physics 219 home page.

In 2000 I founded the Institute for Quantum Information (IQI), as part of the initiative in Information Technology Research launched by the National Science Foundation. In 2011 the IQI become a part of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), an NSF Physics Frontiers Center with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Contact Information:

Caltech 305-16
Pasadena, CA 91125

email: preskill@theory.caltech.edu
Office: 206 Annenberg
Phone: 626-395-6691
Fax: 626-568-8473

Papers and Talks:

Some of my publications can be found an the electronic ArXiv. Another useful list of my publications can be found on google scholar. Here is a complete publication list, with links to most of the articles.

With colleagues, I prepared the report of workshop on quantum information science in 2009, and also this earlier report on quantum information science for the National Science Foundation. [A pdf version is also available.]

Below are a few papers that are not readily available elsewhere on the Internet. Some are transcripts of informal talks I have given.

• A colloquium on black holes and the information paradox. -- 21 November 1994
• A colloquium on the non-abelian Aharonov-Bohm effect. -- 15 April 1993
• Foreword to The Feynman Lectures on Gravitation (with Kip Thorne) -- May 1995, 27 pages
• A public lecture about quantum information and quantum computation. -- 15 January 1997
• And a similar talk from Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference. -- 23 March 1998
• A paper on topological quantum computation (with Walt Ogburn), based on a talk at the 1st Nasa International Conference on Quantum Computing and Quantum Communications -- 18 February 1998 (ps format), and published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1509: 341-356 (1999)
• A talk on the future of quantum information science. -- 28 October 1999, from the NSF Worshop on Quantum Information Science
• A "News and Views" piece about robust solutions to hard problems, published in Nature 391, 631-632 (1998)
• A "News and Views" piece about quantum software , published in Nature 402, 357-358 (1999)
• My commentary on the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics – 5 October 2004
  
  

Here are links to the slides for some talks I have given. In some cases, the audio for the talk is also available.

• A talk on topological quantum memory , delivered at the ITP Conference on Quantum Information. -- 3 December 2001 (html and audio)
• A talk on quantum computation and the future of physics, delivered at the Berkeley Workshop on Theory of Computation and the Sciences. – 10 May 2002 (pdf)
• A talk on security of quantum key distribution , delivered at QIP 2003. – 16 December 2002 (pdf and audio)
• A talk on how more is different, delivered at the KITP conference on glassy states. – 23 May 2003 (html and audio)
• A talk on superselection rules and quantum protocols, delivered at the Gordon Research Conference on Quantum Information Science. – 23 February 2004 (pdf)
• A talk on topological quantum computing, delivered at the KITP conference on exotic order. – 7 June 2004 (html and audio)
• A talk on the cost of quantum fault tolerance, delivered at QIP 2005. – 14 January 2005 (pdf)
• A colloquium on quantum key distribution, University of Texas at Austin. – 8 September 2005 (pdf)
• A talk on topological quantum computation, University of Texas at Austin. – 15 September 2005 (pdf)
• A “pedagogical” talk on fault-tolerant quantum computation, KITP. – 30 March 2006 (html and audio)
• A public lecture on quantum information science, KITP. – 3 May 2006 (html and audio)
• A talk on black holes as mirrors, KITP. – 27 September 2007 (audio and video),
  and slides for a related talk at the APS March Meeting – 12 March 2009 (pdf)
• A talk on fault-tolerant quantum computation against realistic noise, delivered at QEC07. – 19 December 2007 (pdf)
• A talk on fault-tolerant quantum computation, delivered at the Workshop on Quantum Information Science. – 23 April 2009 (pdf)
• A talk on protected gates for robust superconducting qubits, KITP. – 3 December 2009 (audio and video),
  and slides for a related talk at the Gordon Research Conference – 15 August 2012 (pdf)
• A talk on quantum computing and the entanglement frontier, Solvay Conference on Physics – 19 October 2011 (pdf)
  and a related talk at QuEST – 28 Marck 2011 (pdf)
• Address to annual meeting of the APS Topical Group on Quantum Information (GQI) – 29 February 2012 (pdf)
• Introduction to Quantum Information, Canadian Summer School on Quantum Information – 11 June 2012 (slides, lecture 1 video, lecture 2 video)
• Quantum error correction and fault tolerance, QIS Workshop in Computer and Natural Sciences, 29 September 2012 (pdf)

Teaching:

Information about Physics 219 , a course about quantum information and computation.
Field Theory Lecture Notes, from Ph 230, Ph236, Ph 205
Information about Physics 230 , a course about elementary particle theory.
Information about Physics 106 , a course about classical mechanics.
Information about Physics 12b , a course about quantum physics.
Information about Physics 12c , a course about statistical physics.

Betting:

I was once briefly almost famous for winning a bet .  Alas, this only encouraged me to make more bets.   Details are on the black hole bets page .
Update (24 July 2004): My comments about Stephen Hawking’s concession.

Other Stuff:

• Ten Physics Problems for the Next Millennium (selected at Strings 2000)
• Millennium Prize Problems in Mathematics   (from the Clay Mathematics Institute)
• Words of Wisdom: “All I really need to know” by David P. Stern.
• Physics Colloquium Poems: Erik Winfree , Craig Hogan , Hirosi Ooguri , John Schwarz, Quantum Cryptography, Spin is In, arXiv.org, Lene Hau , Let’s Play CA! , On Quantum Compression, Leon Balents, Eddie Farhi, Jeff Kimble
• Baseball: ESPN Sportszone
• A-hats Team Song (Caltech quantum optics softball team)
• My Dog (photo and poem)
• My New Dog (photo)
• CPI (poem)

preskill@theory.caltech.edu