Research topics
List of publications
from arXiv (only publications with Valerio among the authors)
What excites us now
Certification of quantumness based on dynamics. Had anyone ever thought of using the time evolution of a harmonic oscillator (the boring precession, identical to the classical one) to certify quantumness? Tsirelson did, and we picked it up: the first example of semi-device-independent certification for a single system, based on a time evolution rather than an assumption on the dimension or on the energy. Stay tuned for more to come!
Epistemic approach to the Second Law. We are by far not the first, and we won't be the last, to believe that the Second Law is about our knowledge and control. But how can you transform this philosophical stance into progress? We simplified and generalised fluctuation theorems by understanding the reverse process as logical retrodiction. We are still amazed that nobody had noticed it before... Is there more Bayes at the bottom of thermodynamics?
Gravitational effects due to quantum sources. Many experiments have shown (unsurprisingly) that quantum objects feel gravitation. The next challenge is to observe the effects of the gravity generated by a source that is prepared in a non-classical state. Our first contribution to this ongoing effort is now available.
Past Milestones
Valerio's main contributions, first during his postdoc years in Geneva [*] and then as a group leader in Singapore:
The first paper using collisional models for thermalisation [*]
The first device-independent proof for security against collective attacks [*]
The first study of finite-key effects in quantum key distribution
Hidden influences that simulate entanglement must have infinite speed
Randomness certified by the violation of Bell inequalities with continuous sources.
Books