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Faculty of Mathematics

 

Career

Professor of Quantum Physics, DAMTP, University of Cambridge

Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge

Director of Studies in Mathematics, Darwin College, Cambridge

Distinguished Visiting Research Chair, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario

Affiliate, Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Ontario

              

Research

Member of the Centre for Quantum Information and Foundations in DAMTP.   Current research interests include:

* the relationships between fundamental principles of quantum theory and other physical theories and information theoretic tasks.  Examples include the Barrett-Hardy-Kent quantum key distribution protocol, the first secure device-independent key distribution scheme based on the no-signalling principle and relativistic quantum protocols for bit commitment based on the no-summoning theorem of relativistic quantum theory.   

* the quantum reality problem, and specifically finding theories that respect special relativity and quantum theory and that also supply an explicitly realist ontology.

* the physics of decoherence and its implications for fundamental physics

* novel tests of quantum theory and alternative theories

* new cryptographic applications of quantum information

* new scientific applications of quantum information.

Co-edited "Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory and Reality",  (Oxford University Press, 2010), and contributed a chapter comparing and contrasting one-world and many-worlds quantum theory. It shows that we can (despite the claims of many Everettians) find a satisfactory account of the scientific treatment of one-world theories involving apparently random data, while that there is no satisfactory parallel treatment of many-worlds theories. It also points out some apparently insuperable problems with recent attempts to describe how many-worlds theories can be confirmed or disconfirmed by evidence, and explains why recent attempts to derive the Born rule from Everettian quantum theory fail.

More details of past and present research can be found on my personal website.

Selected Publications

Most of my publications since 1994 are on the physics arxiv. See my personal website for more information.

Publications

Dualities and Twins: Reflections on Hapgood
A Kent
(2018)
Knowledge-Concealing Evidencing of Knowledge About a Quantum State.
E Adlam, A Kent
– Physical review letters
(2018)
120,
050501
Quantum reality via late-time photodetection
A Kent
– Physical Review A
(2017)
96,
062121
The grasshopper problem.
O Goulko, A Kent
– Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
(2017)
473,
20170494
Secure quantum signatures using insecure quantum channels
R Amiri, P Wallden, A Kent, E Andersson
– Physical Review A
(2016)
93,
032325
Quantum paradox of choice: More freedom makes summoning a quantum state harder
E Adlam, A Kent
– Physical Review A
(2016)
93,
062327
A Quantum Paradox of Choice and Purported Classical Analogues
E Adlam, A Kent
(2015)
Deterministic relativistic quantum bit commitment
E Adlam, A Kent
– International Journal of Quantum Information
(2015)
13,
1550029
Device-independent relativistic quantum bit commitment
E Adlam, A Kent
– Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
(2015)
92,
022315
Lorentzian quantum reality: Postulates and toy models
A Kent
– Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
(2015)
373,
20140241
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Research Groups

Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information
Centre for Quantum Information and Foundations

Room

B0.18

Telephone

01223 760379