LUBBOCK, Texas— A Texas Tech University professor received more than $1 million to study quantum entanglement.
Lu Wei is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and part of the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering who received “two separate grants to study different aspects of quantum entanglement,” according to a press release.
Additionally with the two grants, Wei hopes to understand the complexities of the phenomena of quantum entanglement.
Entanglement is a physical phenomena where particles of a system can share the same state irrespective of the distance between them.
The release stated the first grant form the National Science Foundation (NSF) will allow Wei to look at entanglement from the “theoretical side.” The second grant will be from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The DOE will be used toward applications to “quantum algorithms and result verification in collaboration with a DOE lab,” said the release.
The NSF awarded Wei $320,057 to target developing a new theoretic framework for the analysis and design of quantum algorithms.
“We need to better understand the nature of entanglement,” Wei said. “This proposal basically states that we’re taking some baby steps towards making the connection between entanglement and algorithms performance,” he added.
The DOE granted $750,000 to focus on applications to quantum information processing. The project will be in collaboration with James Osborn from the DOE Argonne National Laboratory, said the release.
“This kind of research can be risky… but I also appreciate the support from my department and the college in addition to the federal funding agencies,” Wei said.
