My main focus is Quantum Counterfactual Communication – the recently-proposed idea of using quantum mechanics to send messages between two parties without any matter/energy travelling between them. While this novel idea has excited massive interest, both for potential ‘un-hackable’ communications, and insight into the foundations of quantum mechanics, it has also raised a number of problems, from the practical (physical implementation, effects of loss), to the foundational (what carries the information, relation to quantum thermodynamics, implications for wavefunction reality). Further, it poses a ripe area for further development (such as to…
My main focus is Quantum Counterfactual Communication – the recently-proposed idea of using quantum mechanics to send messages between two parties without any matter/energy travelling between them. While this novel idea has excited massive interest, both for potential ‘un-hackable’ communications, and insight into the foundations of quantum mechanics, it has also raised a number of problems, from the practical (physical implementation, effects of loss), to the foundational (what carries the information, relation to quantum thermodynamics, implications for wavefunction reality). Further, it poses a ripe area for further development (such as towards counterfactual quantum teleportation, state preparation, or higher-dimensional counterfactuality). Alongside collaborators, I’m currently pursuing/have pursued research in all of these areas.
Alongside this, my research interests span the foundations and philosophy of quantum mechanics, from counterfactual definiteness (in quantum mechanics, can we really say what the effect would be on the world if we did something differently) to wavefunction reality (is the wavefunction a representation of the world around us, or just our knowledge about it), alongside quantum field theory, and attempts to combine quantum mechanics with general relativity.
