We are on the verge of a new technological revolution as the strange and unique properties of quantum physics become relevant and exploitable in the context of information science and technology.

Our ability to exploit quantum phenomena is still at a very primitive stage, analogous to the demonstration of the first transistor. A challenging goal is to learn how to scale up from simple few-component systems to the sizes necessary for applications. As an example, it has been shown that a quantum computer can in principle rapidly factor large numbers, a mathematical problem whose difficulty provides the security of our currently used public key encryption algorithms. To construct a quantum computer will require numerous advances in the areas of coherent quantum phenomena as we learn how to preserve the "quantumness" of systems while still exerting control over them. Unfortunately, the properties that make a quantum computer powerful are difficult to maintain in large systems. We have much to learn about individual quantum systems, how to connect them, how to control them, how to measure them, and how to fix the inevitable errors.

The Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) will gather scientists from the Department of Physics of the University of Maryland (UMD), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS). UMD, NIST, and LPS bring to the JQI major experimental and theoretical research programs which are dedicated to the goals of controlling and exploiting quantum systems. Some of the topics being studied are listed here, with the institutions which are currently involved; these topics form the research basis of the JQI:

1. Quantum properties of superconducting qubits (Experiments currently at UMD, theory currently at UMD and NIST).
2. Quantum entanglement, control, and transport of atoms in cavities and optical lattices (UMD and NIST).
3. Decoherence studies with atoms and condensed matter systems (UMD, NIST, and LPS).
4. Spin- and charge-based quantum computing (UMD, NIST, and LPS).
5. Topological quantum computing (UMD).
6. Quantum coherence and entanglement (UMD, NIST, and LPS).
7. The quantum-classical interface (UMD, NIST, and LPS).
8. Quasi-one-dimensional superconductors as optical lattices (UMD).
9. Quantum computing with the fractional quantum Hall effect (UMD).

With the participation of scientists from UMD, NIST and LPS, the JQI will become the international center for excellence in the study of quantum mechanics. The three institutions provide a unique combination of strengths in atomic, molecular and optical physics and condensed matter physics.