Quantum Group

We explore the structural connections between physics and computer science, with applications in quantum information and computation, and also in the foundations of physics. We rely in particular on category theory and logic. An international community is forming, with our group playing a leading role. A main activity within the group is the development of categorical quantum mechanics, which was pioneered by Samson Abramsky and Bob Coecke, an activity which ranges from foundations of physics to software development. There is also activity on the use of topos theory in physics, pure category theory, dynamic epistemic logic and AI including automation and computational linguistics.

Click here to access the Oxford Quantum Talk Archive, our extensive video archive of research talks; enquiries can be send to Chris Heunen or Jamie Vicary. You can also view our group calendar.

Mailing lists

We run an international quantum foundations mailing list. To subscribe, send a blank email to quantum-foundations-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. We also have a separate list to announce local events related to our group's activities; you can subscribe to this by emailing the maintainer.

Joining the group

If you'd like more information about joining the group, please send an email to Samson Abramsky or Bob Coecke. We have supported postdoctoral fellowship applications for strong applicants. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Royal Society have annual fellowship competitions, some of which are open to non-British nationals.

If you're interested in doing a DPhil with us, contact Samson Abramsky or Bob Coecke. The department now awards scholarships each year to the strongest EU (DTA) and overseas (Clarendon) applicants.

If you're already doing a Masters degree in Oxford and might be interested in doing your project with a member of our group, please get in touch as soon as possible, either with Samson Abramsky, Bob Coecke or Jamie Vicary for categorical quantum mechanics, quantum foundations/information, category theory or computer science logic, Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh for dynamic epistemic logic, Bob Coecke and Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh for computational linguistics, and Bob Coecke for automation.

If you're an undergraduate and would like to learn more about the sorts of things we work on, have a look at the MSc in Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science.

Funding

Members of the group are pleased to receive funding from the following sources:

Related seminar series

People

Head of Activity

Samson Abramsky

Bob Coecke

Faculty	Samson Abramsky Bob Coecke Andreas Doering
Visitors
Research	Chris Heunen Matthew Hoban Aleks Kissinger Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh Jamie Vicary
Students	Andrei Akhvlediani Philip Atzemoglou Miriam Backens Carmen Constantin Abhishek Dasgupta Nadish de Silva Edward Grefenstette Dimitri Kartsaklis Aleks Kissinger Raymond Lal Shane Mansfield Yoshihiro Maruyama Alex Merry Hugo Nava Kopp Karl Paulsson Roman Priebe David Quick Rui Soares Barbosa Colin Stephen William Zeng
Administration	Janet Sadler
Past Members	Dmitri Akatov Alexandru Baltag Jacob Biamonte Ed Blakey Rick Blute Ross Duncan William Edwards Dan Ghica Lucien Hardy Peter Hines Clare Horsman Ben Jackson Elham Kashefi Fotini Markopoulou Keye Martin Prakash Panangaden Eric Paquette Dusko Pavlovic Simon Perdrix Daniel Roberts Phil Scott Marni Sheppeard Nikos Tzevelekos Paolo Zuliani Jonathan Zvesper