Title: Probing Quantum Reality
Speaker: Roberto Giuntini (University of Cagliari)
Time: Jan. 30th (Friday), 15:00 - 17:00
Location: Room 106, Lee Shau Kee Humanities Buildings No.2 (李兆基人文学苑2号楼106)
Abstract:
Recent claims of quantum advantage invite rigorous methodologies for evaluating the nonclassical resources exploited by quantum computers. While entanglement is undeniably a hallmark of quantum mechanics, results such as the Gottesman-Knill Theorem suggest that it may not fully account for the computational power of quantum computers, leaving open the possibility that entanglement is only part of the quantumness game. In this talk, we propose a benchmarking strategy for near-term quantum devices based on Svetlichny inequalities, which are capable of detecting genuine multipartite nonlocality, a stronger quantum resource than bipartite entanglement. Starting from the metatheoretical assumption that foundational notions like locality and separability have operational relevance, we reinterpret these inequalities as resource witnesses and experimentally test them on actual quantum hardware, including IQM superconducting and AQT ion-trap devices. By comparing theoretical and experimental violations of Svetlichny inequalities on large samples of randomly generated states, we assess the capacity of quantum platforms to preserve nonlocal correlations. This method offers a scalable, device-independent, and algorithm-free benchmarking framework rooted in the logical and physical structure of quantum theory. The talk concludes with open questions on contextuality and the metaphysical implications of resource-based benchmarks.
Biography:
Professor Roberto Giuntini is Full Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cagliari, and serves as Philosopher in Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study of the Technische Universität München (TUM-IAS).
His research focuses on the logico-algebraic structures of quantum mechanics, quantum information and computation, and non-classical logics—particularly quantum logic and fuzzy logic. In recent years, he has been engaged in the applications of quantum logic to machine learning and artificial intelligence.
He has received several prestigious awards and recognitions, including the Birkhoff–von Neumann Prize from the International Quantum Structures Association (1998) for his studies on the logical-algebraic foundations of quantum mechanics, and the Prize Jur Hronek from the Slovak Academy of Sciences for his achievements in mathematical sciences (2020). In 2023, he was elected Corresponding Members of the Academie Internationale de Philosophie de Sciences (AIPS). In 2024, he was elected Ordinary Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.
He has held leadership roles in major academic organizations, serving as President of the International Quantum Structures Association (IQSA) from 2010 to 2012 and as President of the Italian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science (SILFS) from 2017 to 2020.
In quantum logic, he is renowned as one of the initiators of the unsharp approaches to quantum logics and quantum computational logic. He is a co-author of the influential monograph Reasoning in Quantum Theory: Sharp and Unsharp Quantum Logics (with M. L. Dalla Chiara and R. Greechie), and also co-authored the comprehensive chapter “Quantum Logics” in Volume 6 of the Handbook of Philosophical Logic (edited by D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner), which has become a standard reference in the field.