The theory of operator systems grew out of the development of operator algebras in the mid 20th century, mainly through the pioneering work of Arveson and Stinespring on completely positive maps. Although important subsequent developments were made, the general theory of operator systems and their applications have only recently gained traction.

In the course of the past two decades, quantum information theory has emerged as an exciting new research area. It has been shown, through a number of different applications, that one can systematically harness the laws of quantum mechanics in order to perform information processing tasks that lie far beyond the realm of existing technologies. The most prominent examples include simulation of quantum mechanical systems, quantum cryptography, and quantum computation.

Operator systems and their morphisms provide the theoretical underpinnings of the most fundamental notions in quantum information: states, measurements, and channels. The recent development of operator system tensor products has also shed incredible new insight into the nature of quantum entanglement, one of the main resources for quantum computation. In particular, a deep connection has been revealed between the structural foundations of quantum entanglement and one of the biggest open problems in operator algebras: Connes’ Embedding Problem. It is therefore of great interest to explore further connections between these two important areas of research.

In this workshop, we aim to bring together functional analysts, operator algebraists, and quantum information theorists who are interested in the connections between operator systems and quantum information. They will be encouraged to discuss recent developments as well as open problems.

It will also be an ideal workshop to discuss and set new directions for future studies, and give students and postdocs a unique opportunity to interact with different scientists at the ground level of new potential research directions. Indeed, another focus of this workshop is the training of highly qualified personnel.

Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Chi-Kwong Li (College of William & Mary)
• Vern Paulsen (IQC, University of Waterloo)
• Mary Beth Ruskai (Tufts University)
• Ivan Todorov (Queen’s University Belfast)

INVITED SPEAKERS

• Michael Brannan (Texas A&M University)
• Douglas Farenick (University of Regina)
• Gilad Gour (University of Calgary)
• Nathaniel Johnston (Mount Allison University)
• Rupert Levene (University College Dublin)
• Sarah Plosker (Brandon University)
• Jeremy Levick (University of Cape Town)
• Michael Nathanson (Saint Mary's College)
• Gareth Boreland (Queen's University Belfast)