The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Gordon Research Conference on Quantum Control of Light and Matter -August 3-8, 2003 was held at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, August 3-8, 2003.The Conference was well-attended with 126 participants (attendees list attached).The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students.In designing the formal speakers program, emphasis was placed on current unpublished research and discussion of the future target areas in this field.There was a conscious effort to stimulate lively discussion about the key issues in the field today.Time for formal presentations was limited in the interest of group discussions.In order that more scientists could communicate their most recent results, poster presentation time was scheduled.Attached is a copy of the formal schedule and speaker program and the poster program.In addition to these formal interactions, "free time" was scheduled to allow informal discussions.Such discussions are fostering new collaborations and joint efforts in the field.I want to personally thank you for your support of this Conference.As you know, in the interest of promoting the presentation of unpublished and frontierbreaking research, Gordon
Quantum control of light and matter is the quest to steer a physical process to a desirable outcome, employing constructive and destructive interference. Three basic questions address feasibility of quantum control: (1) The problem of controllability, does a control field exist for a preset initial and target state; (2) Synthesis, constructively finding the field that leads to the target; and (3) Optimal Control Theory - optimizing the field that carries out this task. These continue to be the fundamental theoretical questions to be addressed in the conference. How to realize control fields in the laboratory is an ongoing challenge. This task is very diverse viewing the emergence of control scenarios ranging from attoseconds to microseconds. How do the experimental observations reflect on the theoretical framework? The typical arena of quantum control is an open environment where much of the control is indirect. How are control scenarios realized in dissipative open systems? Can new control opportunities emerge? Can one null decoherence effects? An ideal setting for control is ultracold matter. The initial and final state can be defined more precisely. Coherent control unifies many fields of physical science. A lesson learned in one field can reflect on another. Currently quantum information processing has emerged as a primary target of control where the key issue is controlling quantum gate operation. Modern nonlinear spectroscopy has emerged as another primary field. The challenge is to unravel the dynamics of molecular systems undergoing strong interactions with the environment. Quantum optics where non-classical fields are to be generated and employed. Finally, coherent control is the basis for quantum engineering. These issues will be under the limelight of the Gordon conference on Quantum Control of Light and Matter.