Jan-Åke Larsson

Head of Department, Professor

Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering.

I am a researcher and teacher with a background in mathematics. I am also head of the department of Electrical Engineering.

My main research interests are connected in various ways with quantum mechanics, and I teach cryptology, quantum information theory, foundations of quantum theory, and effective communication in mathematics, science and engineering.

My current main research project is a study of the security of Quantum Cryptography, specifically the classical subsystems needed in the various proposed systems. Another active research interest is the foundations of quantum mechanics, related to questions of locality and contextuality. See the publication list for more information.

I teach communication of mathematical, scientific and engineering results, how to talk before an audience, how to present results, how to write your papers, and so on. There is a voluntary course in the first year of the Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering Masters program, but I have also given a PhD-level course in the Mathematics Department.

If you are interested in doing your Masters or Bachelors thesis with me, contact me. There may be an appropriate project.

Supervision:

Jonathan Fors, PhD student, 2012 -
Aysajan Abidin, PhD student, defense at May 17, 2013: Authentication in Quantum Key Distribution: Security Proof and Universal Hash Functions
Martin Krisell, MSc, Elliptic Curve Digital Signatures in RSA Hardware
Johan Brandhorst-Satzkorn, BSc, A Review of Freely Available Quantum Computer Simulation Software (now at Cisco Systems, Guildford, UK)
Bo Sahl, MSc, Relative measurement probabilities by Grover search modification, 2011
Karl Vestgöte, BSc, Quantum Key Distribution - current state of the technology and prospects in the near future, 2009 (now at Combitech AB, Linköping)
Jörgen Cederlöf, MSc, Authentication in Quantum Key Growing, 2005 (now at Google Inc., San Fransisco)

Docent

2003 in Applied Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, Linköping University

PhD degree:

November 2000 in Applied Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, Linköping University, Sweden.

Current and earlier positions:

Associate Professor (Swedish title: Universitetslektor) at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Linköping University: July 1 2010-
Associate Professor (Swedish title: Universitetslektor) at the Department of Mathematics, Linköping University: January 1 2003-June 30 2010.
Head of the Research School of Interdisciplinary Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, LiU, 2007-2009
Research Associate (Swedish title: Forskarassistent) at the Department of Mathematics, Linköping University: July 1 2002-Sept 30 2004.
Postdoc at MaPhySto (Centre for Mathematical Physics and Stochastics) and QuantOp (Centre for Quantum Optics), Aarhus University, Denmark, July 1 2001-Jun 30 2002
Temporary Lecturer (Swedish title: Vik. Universitetslektor) at the Department of Mathematics, Linköping University: Jan 1 2001-Jun 30 2001

Publications
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2019

2018

News
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The results of the Big Bell Test are in

3,283 people in Sweden, among them pupils at Katedralskolan in Linköping, participated in a huge experiment that challenged Einstein’s ideas about how the world works on the scale of quantum mechanics. The results have now been published in Nature.

Jan-Åke Larsson, professor i informationskodning

The Big Bell Test

The experiment of the century is to be repeated, but this time using people as random number generators and at the same time in many places around the world. It will now be decided once and for all whether Albert Einstein or Niels Bohr was right.

'Spooky action at a distance' exists

Jan-Åke Larsson, professor of information coding at LiU, is part of the research group that proved that what Albert Einstein dismissed as ‘spooky action at a distance’ actually exists. “This is the experiment of the century,” he says.

Research
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Quantum Information Theory

About the department
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Department of Electrical Engineering

The department is central to the engineering education at the Institute of Technology, one of four faculties at Linköping University, and this regards both basic and applied knowledge.