Dr Adrian Kent

Career

Reader in Quantum Physics, DAMTP, University of Cambridge

Associate Member, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario

Research

Adrian Kent is a member of the Centre for Quantum Information and Foundations in DAMTP.  His current research interests include (in no particular order):

* the relationships between fundamental principles of quantum theory and other physical theories
and information theoretic tasks. An example is the Barrett-Hardy-Kent quantum key distribution protocol, the first secure key distribution scheme based on the no-signalling principle.

* the quantum reality problem, and specifically finding theories that respect special relativity and quantum theory and that also supply an explicitly realist ontology.

* the physics of decoherence and its implications for fundamental physics

* novel tests of quantum theory and alternative theories

* new cryptographic applications of quantum information

* new scientific applications of quantum information.




Recently co-edited "Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory and Reality", published by Oxford University Press in June 2010, and contributed a chapter comparing and contrasting one-world and many-worlds quantum theory. It shows that we can (despite the claims of many Everettians) find a satisfactory account of the scientific treatment of one-world theories involving apparently random data, while that there is no satisfactory parallel treatment of many-worlds theories. It also points out some apparently insuperable problems with recent attempts to describe how many-worlds theories can be confirmed or disconfirmed by evidence, and explains why recent attempts to derive the Born rule from Everettian quantum theory fail.

More details of past and present research can be found on Adrian's personal website.

Selected Publications

See personal website.