Talks

A universal and well-motivated notion of classicality for an operational theory is explainability by a generalized-noncontextual ontological model. I will here explain what notion of classicality this implies within the framework of generalized probabilistic theories. I then prove that for any locally tomographic theory, every such classical model is given by a complete frame representation. Using this powerful constraint on the space of possible classical representations, I will then prove that the stabilizer subtheory has a unique classical representation—namely Gross's discrete Wigner function. This provides deep insights into the relevance of Gross's representation within quantum computation. It also implies that generalized contextuality is also a necessary resource for universal quantum computation in the state injection model.

Quantum Darwinism proposes that the proliferation of redundant information plays a major role in the emergence of objectivity out of the quantum world. Is this kind of objectivity necessarily classical? We show that if one takes Spekkens’s notion of noncontextuality as the notion of classicality and the approach of Brandão, Piani, and Horodecki to quantum Darwinism, the answer to the above question is “‘yes,” if the environment encodes the proliferated information sufficiently well. Moreover, we propose a threshold on this encoding, above which one can unambiguously say that classical objectivity has emerged under quantum Darwinism.

We give a simple description of rectangular matrices that can be implemented by a post-selected stabilizer circuit. Given a matrix with entries in dyadic cyclotomic number fields $\mathbb{Q}(\exp(i\frac{2\pi}{2^m}))$, we show that it can be implemented by a post-selected stabilizer circuit if it has entries in $\mathbb{Z}[\exp(i\frac{2\pi}{2^m})]$ when expressed in a certain non-orthogonal basis. This basis is related to Barnes-Wall lattices. Our result is a generalization to a well-known connection between Clifford groups and Barnes-Wall lattices. We also show that minimal vectors of Barnes-Wall lattices are stabilizer states, which may be of independent interest. Finally, we provide a few examples of generalizations beyond standard Clifford groups. Joint work with Sebastian Schonnenbeck

Ground states as well as Gibbs states of many-body quantum Hamiltonians have been studied extensively since the inception of quantum mechanics. In contrast, the landscape of many-body quantum states that are not in thermal equilibrium is relatively less explored. In this talk I will discuss some of the recent progress in understanding decohered or dissipative quantum many-body states. One of the key ideas I will employ is that of "separability", i.e., whether a mixed state can be expressed as an ensemble of short-range entangled pure states. I will discuss several quantum phase transitions in topological phases of matter subjected to Markovian environmental noise from a separability viewpoint, and argue that such a framework also subsumes our understanding of pure quantum states as well as Gibbs states. Time permitting, I will also provide a brief overview of quantum spin-systems subjected to non-Markovian noise originating from an electronic bath, and discuss a new critical phase of matter where quantum coherence coexists with dissipation.

References: 2307.13889, 2309.11879, 2310.07286

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Quantum mechanics forbids the creation of ideal identical copies of unknown quantum systems and, as a result, copying quantum information. This fundamental and non-classical 'unclonability' feature of nature has played a central role in quantum cryptography, quantum communication and quantum computing ever since its discovery. However, unclonability is a broader concept than just the no-cloning theorem. In this talk, I will go over different notions of quantum unclonability and show how they link to many important questions and topics in quantum applications both in quantum machine learning and quantum cryptography. I will also broadly cover the link between unclonability and other fundamental concepts, such as randomness, pseudorandomness and contextuality.

This talk will present work-in-progress towards a new programming methodology for Cliffords, where n-ary Clifford unitaries over qudits can be expressed as functions on compact Pauli. Inspired by the fact that projective Cliffords correspond to center-fixing automorphisms on the Pauli group, we develop a type system where well-typed expressions correspond to symplectic morphisms---that is, linear transformations that respect the symplectic form. This language is backed up by a robust categorical and operational semantics, and well-typed functions can be efficiently simulated and synthesized into circuits via Pauli tableaus.

Fault-tolerant protocols and quantum error correction (QEC) are essential to building reliable quantum computers from imperfect components that are vulnerable to errors. Optimizing the resource and time overheads needed to implement QEC is one of the most pressing challenges that will facilitate a transition from NISQ to the fault tolerance era. In this talk, I will discuss two intriguing ideas that can significantly reduce these overheads. The first idea, erasure qubits, relies on an efficient conversion of the dominant noise into erasure errors at known locations, greatly enhancing the performance of QEC protocols. The second idea, single-shot QEC, guarantees that even in the presence of measurement errors one can perform reliable QEC without repeating measurements, incurring only constant time overhead.

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Whilst tomography has dominated the theory behind reconstructing/approximating quantum objects, such as states or channels, conducting full tomography is often not necessary in practice. If one is interested in learning properties of a quantum system, side-stepping the exponential lower bounds of tomography is then possible. In this talk, we will introduce various learning models for approximating quantum objects, survey the literature of quantum learning theory and explore instances where learning can be fully time- and sample efficient.