Roger Colbeck

Research Interests

My research involves many aspects of quantum information theory, with a bias towards cryptography, and how it interfaces with quantum foundations. The central motivation is to discover what the laws of physics give us in terms of information processing power. Only relatively recently we have begun to realise some of the power given to us by quantum mechanics and one of the most promising applications is to cryptography, where protocols based on quantum information allow us to do things that are impossible using classical information alone. Which features of quantum theory are responsible for these cryptographic protocols? and what would the world look like if we were to take them away or modify them within a new theory?

Recent Publications

• Roger Colbeck and Renato Renner. No extension of quantum theory can have improved predictive power, Nature Communications 2, 411, 2011, (doi:10.1038/ncomms1416), arxiv: 1005.5173
• Robert Prevedel, Deny R. Hamel, Roger Colbeck, Kent Fisher and Kevin J. Resch. Experimental investigation of the uncertainty principle in the presence of quantum memory and its application to witnessing entanglement, Nature Physics, 2011, (doi:10.1038/nphys2048), arxiv: 1012.0332
• Roger Colbeck and Adrian Kent. Private randomness expansion with untrusted devices, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical 44(9), 095305, 2011, (doi:10.1088/1751-8113/44/9/095305) (summary at http://iopscience.iop.org/1751-8121/labtalk-article/45173), arxiv: 1011.4474
• Mario Berta, Matthias Christandl, Roger Colbeck, Joseph M. Renes and Renato Renner. The uncertainty principle in the presence of quantum memory, Nature Physics 6, 659--662, 2010 (doi:10.1038/nphys1734) (see also "News and Views" article Nature Physics 6, 640--641, 2010 (doi:10.1038/nphys1771)), arxiv: 0909.0950
• David Gross, Markus Mueller, Roger Colbeck and Oscar C. O. Dahlsten. All reversible dynamics in maximally non-local theories are trivial, Physical Review Letters 104, 080402, 2010 (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.080402), arxiv: 0910.1840
• Jonathan Barrett, Roger Colbeck and Adrian Kent Prisoners of their own device: Trojan attacks on device-independent quantum cryptography, arxiv: 1201.4407
• Patrick J. Coles, Roger Colbeck, Li Yu and Michael Zwolak Uncertainty relations from simple entropic properties, arxiv: 1112.0543
• Roger Colbeck and Renato Renner Completeness of quantum theory implies that wave functions are physical properties, arxiv: 1111.6597
• Roger Colbeck and Renato Renner. Free randomness can be amplified, arxiv: 1105.3195
• Terence E. Stuart, Joshua A. Slater, Roger Colbeck, Renato Renner and Wolfgang Tittel. An experimental test of all theories with predictive power beyond quantum theory, arxiv: 1105.0133