Introduction to the Theory Symposium

E. Karlsson, Erkki Brändas

This is a short summary of the purpose and the contents of the Nobel Symposium. It serves as an introduction to the original papers presented by the participants. The topics are here organized in a way that does not necessarily follow the order of presentation at the Symposium; they have been arranged in a manner that will hopefully facilitate the reading by a more general audience. Short introductions and explanations of basic concepts and nomenclature are given as well as hints towards open questions in the respective areas. These are followed by short comments which indicate how each speaker's contribution fits into this context. We hope that this will inspire a large readership to share with the participants of the Symposium the excitement over the new developments presented here.

Frank A. Wilczek

This paper records my introductory remarks at Nobel Symposium 148 on Quantum Matter and Graphene at Saltsjöbaden, Sweden, in June 2010. After some broad comments on the quantum theory of matter as a frontier of physics, and some slightly more particular comments on re-quantization, I report on the universal geometry that arises in a refined discussion of quantum-mechanical level crossing.

Mikio Nakahara, Yoshitaka Sasaki

The open research center project Interdisciplinary fundamental research toward realization of a quantum computer has been supported by the Ministry of Education, Japan for five years. This is a collection of the research outcomes by the members engaged in the project. To make the presentation self-contained, it starts with an overview by Mikio Nakahara, which serves as a concise introduction to quantum information and quantum computing. Subsequent contributions include subjects from physics, chemistry, mathematics, and information science, reflecting upon the wide variety of scientists working under this project. These contributions introduce NMR quantum computing and related techniques, number theory and coding theory, quantum error correction, photosynthesis, non-classical correlations and entanglement, neutral atom quantum computer, among others. Each of contributions will serve as a short introduction to these cutting edge research fields.

Kaspar Sakmann