Current graduate students

The theory of quantum information: Channels, Capacities, and all that

Graeme Stewart Baird Smith, University of Colorado, Boulder

 Information theory offers mathematically precise theory of communication and data storage that guided and fueled the information age.  Initially, quantum effects were thought to be an annoying source of noise, but we have since learned that they offer new capabilities and vast opportunities. Quantum information theory seeks to identify, quantify, and ultimately harness these capabilities.

Tensor Methods for Quantum Systems and Beyond

Edgar Solomonik, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Tensors are an effective numerical representation for both computation with and analysis of multidimensional datasets and operators. In this talk, we review and motivate how tensor rank, decompositions, and eigenvalues can be used for computational simulation and for hardness measures, such as bilinear complexity and quantum entanglement. We then survey algorithms for computing low-rank decompositions of tensors.

From quantum circuit complexity to quantum information thermodynamics

Philippe Faist, Freie Universität Berlin

Quantifying quantum states' complexity is a key problem in various subfields of science, from quantum computing to black-hole physics. My talk will focus on two approaches to understand the behavior and the operational significance of quantum complexity in a many-body physical quantum system. First, I'll consider a simple model on n quantum bits: We create a random quantum circuit by randomly sampling the gates that compose it.

In Person & Virtual

In “Quantum Steampunk”, the exciting new book from Harvard physicist Dr. Nicole Yunger Halpern, the industrial revolution meets the quantum-technology revolution. While readers follow the adventures of a rag-tag steampunk crew on trains, dirigibles, and automobiles, they explore questions such as, “Can quantum physics revolutionize engines?” and “What deeper secrets can quantum information reveal about the trajectory of time?” Join Dr.

IQC Alum Lecture Series: Robin Kothari, Microsoft Quantum

Join alum Robin Kothari as he shares his career journey and talks about current research.

Interactive Proofs for Synthesizing Quantum States and Unitaries

Gregory Rosenthal, University of Toronto

Whereas quantum complexity theory has traditionally been concerned with problems arising from classical complexity theory (such as computing boolean functions), it also makes sense to study the complexity of inherently quantum operations such as constructing quantum states or performing unitary transformations.

Communication networks are an essential part of our world today, used in transactions from banking to education, global business exchanges to defence. What happens when our private information is no longer private? Powerful quantum computers will have the ability to crack the encryption of public keys that we currently use to secure our data, putting our privacy at risk.

Universal efficient compilation: Solovay-Kitaev without inverses

Tudor Giurgica-Tiron, Stanford University

The Solovay-Kitaev algorithm is a fundamental result in quantum computation. It gives an algorithm for efficiently compiling arbitrary unitaries using universal gate sets: any unitary can be approximated by short gates sequences, whose length scales merely poly-logarithmically with accuracy. As a consequence, the choice of gate set is typically unimportant in quantum computing. However, the Solovay-Kitaev algorithm requires the gate set to be inverse-closed.

In celebration of World Quantum Day, join IQC's Senior Manager of Scientific Outreach, John Donohue, for some fun light experiments with Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants.

Dequantizing the Quantum Singular Value Transformation: Hardness and Applications to Quantum Chemistry and the Quantum PCP Conjecture

Sevag Gharibian, Paderborn University

The Quantum Singular Value Transformation (QSVT) is a recent technique that gives a unified framework to describe most quantum algorithms discovered so far, and may lead to the development of novel quantum algorithms. In this paper we investigate the hardness of classically simulating the QSVT.