Nicolas J. Cerf
{{Short description|Belgian physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Nicolas Cerf
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| birth_date = 1965
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| nationality = Belgian
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| fields = Physicist
| workplaces = Paris-Sud 11 University
California Institute of Technology
Université libre de Bruxelles
| alma_mater = Université libre de Bruxelles
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| known_for = Negative quantum entropy
Quantum information with continuous variables
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| awards = Caltech President's Fund award (1997)
Alcatel-Bell Science Prize (1999) Wernaers Prize of the FNRS (2000)
Marie Curie Excellence Award (2006)
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Nicolas Jean Cerf (born 1965) is a Belgian physicist. He is a professor of quantum mechanics and information theory at the Université libre de Bruxelles and a member of the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium. He received his Ph.D. at the Université libre de Bruxelles in 1993, and was a researcher at the Université de Paris 11 and the California Institute of Technology. He is the director of the [http://quic.ulb.ac.be/ Center for Quantum Information and Computation] at the Université libre de Bruxelles.
Research
Together with Christoph Adami, he defined the quantum version of conditional and mutual entropies,{{cite journal | title = Negative entropy and information in quantum mechanics| journal = Physical Review Letters| volume = 79| issue = 26| pages = 5194–5197| year = 1997| doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.5194| last1 = Cerf| first1 = N. J.| last2 = Adami| first2 = C.| bibcode = 1997PhRvL..79.5194C| arxiv = quant-ph/9512022| s2cid = 14834430}}{{cite journal | title = Quantum extension of conditional probability| journal = Physical Review A| volume = 60| issue = 2| pages = 893–897| year = 1999| doi = 10.1103/PhysRevA.60.893| last1 = Cerf| first1 = N. J.| last2 = Adami| first2 = C.| last3 = Gingrich| first3 = R. M.| bibcode = 1999PhRvA..60..893C| arxiv = quant-ph/9710001| s2cid = 119451904}} which are basic notions of Shannon's information theory, and discovered that quantum information could be negative (a pair of entangled particles was coined a qubit-antiqubit pair). This has led to important results in quantum information sciences, for example quantum state merging. He is best known today for his work on quantum information with continuous variables. He found a Gaussian quantum cloning transformation {{cite journal | title=Cloning of continuous quantum variables| journal = Physical Review Letters | volume=85| issue=8| pages=1754–1757| year = 2000| doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.1754| pmid=10970606| last1=Cerf| first1=N. J.| last2=Ipe| first2=A.| last3=Rottenberg| first3=X.| bibcode=2000PhRvL..85.1754C| arxiv=quant-ph/9909037| s2cid = 45617871 }} (see no-cloning theorem). He invented a Gaussian quantum key distribution protocol,{{cite journal | title = Quantum distribution of Gaussian keys using squeezed states| journal = Physical Review A | volume = 63| issue = 5| pages = 052311| year = 2001| doi = 10.1103/PhysRevA.63.052311| last1 = Cerf| first1 = N. J.| last2 = Lévy| first2 = M.| last3 = Assche| first3 = G. Van| bibcode = 2001PhRvA..63e2311C| arxiv = quant-ph/0008058| s2cid = 54534610 }} which is the continuous counterpart of the so-called BB84 protocol, making a link with Shannon's theory of Gaussian channels. This has led to the first experimental demonstration of continuous-variable quantum key distribution with optical coherent states and homodyne detection.{{cite journal | title=Quantum key distribution using gaussian-modulated coherent states | journal=Nature | publisher=Nature Magazine | year = 2003 | volume=421 | issue=6920 | pages=238–241 | doi=10.1038/nature01289| pmid=12529636 | last1=Grosshans | first1=Frédéric | last2=Van Assche | first2=Gilles | last3=Wenger | first3=Jérôme | last4=Brouri | first4=Rosa | last5=Cerf | first5=Nicolas J. | last6=Grangier | first6=Philippe | bibcode=2003Natur.421..238G | arxiv=quant-ph/0312016 | s2cid=4334808 }}
Honors
He received the Caltech President’s Fund Award in 1997, and the Marie Curie Excellence Award{{cite news | url=http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp6/mariecurie-actions/news/headline35_en.html| title=2006 Marie Curie Excellence Awards recognise five outstanding researchers | publisher=European Commission |year= 2006 | access-date =2011-12-08}} in 2006.
Works
- {{cite book|first=Nicolas|last=Cerf|author2=Leuchs, G.|author3=E. S. Polzik|title=Quantum information with continuous variables of atoms and light|publisher=World Scientific|year=2007|isbn=978-1-86094-760-5|doi=10.1142/p489|bibcode=2007qicv.book.....C}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{official website}}
- {{Google scholar id}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cerf, Nicolas}}
Category:Vrije Universiteit Brussel alumni
Category:Academic staff of the Université libre de Bruxelles