Motivation for pursuing a Ph.D. in Quantum Information and Computing

I came across quantum mechanics and quantum statistical mechanics as one of my core courses and advanced quantum mechanics and quantum field theory as my professional electives during my undergrad and postgrad. Thus, I got exposure to some problems and research in quantum information and computing. The most promising application that attracted me was in Computational Chemistry to provide immense power to the machine to successfully map the molecules, which, in turn, potentially opens opportunities for pharmaceutical research like drug design & development. With the help of artificial intelligence & machine learning, Quantum computing can help develop various techniques to combat cybersecurity threats. I found problems related to decoherence/noise affecting qubits most interesting. However, as the number of applications increased, it became challenging for traditional computers to match the accuracy and speed.

Decoherence is a concept in quantum mechanics that refers to the process by which a quantum system loses coherence and becomes more classical or, in other words, more like a classical probability distribution. When a quantum system interacts with its environment, the entanglement between the system and its surroundings can lead to decoherence. The environment effectively monitors the quantum system, causing it to lose its delicate quantum superposition and become entangled with the environment instead. This results in the emergence of classical behaviour and a loss of distinct quantum features. Understanding and controlling decoherence is essential for developing quantum technologies, such as quantum computing and quantum information processing, where maintaining quantum coherence is necessary for the proper functioning of quantum algorithms and protocols.

Moreover, quantum computing can help in processing complex problems in significantly less time with quality, even though all my past work experience was in gravity. Now I want to work more on technological-driven problems. Lastly, I did not had any professors and projects in my undergrad and postgrad institute related to quantum information and computing. Honestly, I did not enjoy gravity as much as quantum computing. Thus I ended up interested in learning Quantum Information and Computing. My broad research interests are Quantum Error correction and Quantum cryptography as a tool to explore nature's most beautiful and elegant structures.