Compactifications of deformed conifolds, branes and the geometry of qubits

We present three families of exact, cohomogeneity-one Einstein metrics in (2n + 2) dimensions, which are generalizations of the Stenzel construction of Ricci-flat metrics to those with a positive cosmological constant. The first family of solutions are Fubini-Study metrics on the complex projective spaces CPn+1, written in a Stenzel form, whose principal orbits are the Stiefel manifolds V-2(Rn+2) = SO(n+2)/SO(n) divided by Z(2). The second family are also Einstein-Kahler metrics, now on the Grassmannian manifolds G(2)(Rn+3) = SO(n+3)/((SO(n+1)xSO(2)), whose principal orbits are the Stiefel manifolds V-2(Rn+2) (with no Z(2) factoring in this case). The third family are Einstein metrics on the product manifolds Sn+1 x Sn+1, and are Kahler only for n = 1. Some of these metrics are believed to play a role in studies of consistent string theory compactifications and in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We also elaborate on the geometric approach to quantum mechanics based on the Kahler geometry of Fubini-Study metrics on CPn+1, and we apply the formalism to study the quantum entanglement of qubits