March 17, 2025 Monday 10:00 AM For Zoom link, contact es185@nyu.edu
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726
Broadway, 940 and Zoom
Center for Quantum Phenomena Seminars
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cqp)
Special Colloquium
Arpit Dua
Virginia Tech
Optimizing Quantum Error Correction for Practical Implementation
As quantum computers are inherently susceptible to decoherence and operational errors, robust error correction is essential to preserving quantum information integrity and enabling scalable fault-tolerant computation. Quantum error correction has made significant strides in recent years, yet a key realization is that error-correcting codes should not be developed in isolation from the hardware on which they are implemented. Effective code design requires a holistic approach that accounts for real-world quantum system dynamics, including dominant noise characteristics, as well as architectural constraints such as connectivity and layout. Integrating these factors into the design process can lead to substantial improvements in code performance—for instance, by leveraging structured hardware noise, such as biased dephasing or erasure, or by optimizing measurement-based protocols to better align with hardware capabilities.
In this talk, I will present two advancements that enhance the practical viability of quantum error correction by tailoring code design to realistic hardware capabilities. First, I will introduce a class of codes called Clifford-Deformed Surface Codes, which achieve the best-known memory performance under biased dephasing noise, offering insights into code design strategies for mitigating dominant error sources across various quantum platforms. Second, I will discuss Spacetime Concatenation, a framework that enables the efficient compilation of stabilizer codes into dynamical codes. This approach facilitates the implementation of fault-tolerant protocols with low-weight measurements, making them more compatible with specific hardware architectures.
By designing quantum error correction with hardware constraints in mind, we can bridge the gap between theoretical performance benchmarks and practical implementation, advancing the scalability and feasibility of fault-tolerant quantum computation.
March 17, 2025 Monday 12:30 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Other Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Events
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ccpp)
CCPP Brown Bag
Anthony Pullen
New York University
Probing Dusty Galaxies with FIR Surveys
March 18, 2025 Tuesday 11:15 AM
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726
Broadway, Room 940
Other Physics Department Events
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other)
Carol Cuesta Lazaro
MIT
Beyond the Observable: A Machine Learning Perspective on Modern Cosmology
Our observations have painted a simple portrait of cosmic evolution, yet fundamental questions remain unanswered: What is the nature of dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most of the matter in the Universe? What is driving the accelerated expansion of the cosmos? How did it begin? Addressing these questions demands integrating advances in machine learning, high-performance computing, and astrophysics. In this talk, I will present frameworks that bridge the gap between numerical simulations and increasingly precise astronomical observations to decode these invisible components. I will demonstrate how generative models can analyze astronomical data at its full complexity, while remaining robust to uncertainties in galaxy formation physics. This allows us not only to reconstruct the dark matter distribution and primordial Universe from observed galaxy clustering, but also to identify potential anomalies that might signal new physics beyond our standard cosmological model. These advances come at a pivotal moment, as we enter an era of extremely precise cosmological surveys that may transform current statistical tensions into discoveries of new fundamental physics.
March 18, 2025 Tuesday 12:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 901, Sm Conf
Other Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Events
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ccpp)
Informal HEP Talk
Viewing of Celestial Holography Seminar Series
March 19, 2025 Wednesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
High Energy Physics Seminars
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hep)
Daniel Harlow
MIT
Quantum mechanics and observers for gravity in a closed universe
Recently there have been several arguments given for the seemingly absurd statement that the Hilbert space of quantum gravity in a closed universe is one-dimensional. How can this be consistent with the richness of our daily experience? In this talk I will review the arguments for a one-dimensional Hilbert space, and then present a possible resolution based on the idea that to do quantum mechanics in a closed system it is necessary to explicitly include a classical observer in the system.
March 21, 2025 Friday 1:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Other Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Events
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ccpp)
Informal HEP Talk
Tianli Wang
Harvard University
A CFT Dual for Celestial MHV Amplitudes
I will talk about a 2d CFT dual we constructed for 4d gluon MHV amplitudes in flat space, based on the papers 2403.18896 and 2312.07820. I will start with reviewing relevant basics of celestial holography, in particular, the challenges of understanding the role of translation invariance in the CFT dual. Then I will discuss the central object in my talk, leaf amplitudes, which are smooth functions that bridge usual (singular) flat space amplitudes and our simple CFT dual. I will then introduce the CFT dual, whose correlators reproduce gluon MHV amplitudes. It comprises two sectors, one with free fermions that give a current algebra, the other being Liouville theory. The key step is to show correlators of light operators in the semiclassical limit of Liouville theory are scalar contact Witten diagrams.
March 24, 2025 Monday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, Room 940
Other Physics Department Events
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other)
Rhine Samajdar
Princeton University
Probing Nonequilibrium Matter with Quantum Processors
Today, programmable quantum simulators provide versatile platforms for studying many-body phases and dynamics in strongly interacting quantum systems. In this talk, we present some new insights into nonequilibrium quantum matter inspired by recent experimental advances.
First, focusing on one such platform—neutral atom arrays—we investigate the evolution of closed quantum systems driven through a phase transition and develop a universal theory for the ensuing “coarsening” dynamics. This framework addresses the emergence of long-range order in fundamentally out-of-equilibrium settings, which is crucial for quantum state preparation and adiabatic algorithms.
In the second part of this talk, we examine the spin dynamics of the celebrated one-dimensional Heisenberg model, as realized in a digital implementation with superconducting qubits. Analyzing the full counting statistics of magnetization transfer probabilities, we challenge the conjectured Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality of spin transport and identify a novel dynamical universality class.
Our work showcases how a systematic understanding of quantum dynamics not only holds immense potential for advances in fundamental science but also offers promise for practical applications, including scalable error correction for quantum computers.
March 27, 2025 Thursday 11:00 AM
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726
Broadway, Room 1067
Center for Quantum Information Physics Seminars
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cqip)
Prashant Ramesh
University of Delaware
Extending the versatility and coherence of spin-photon entanglement generation with semiconductor quantum dots.
Measurement-based quantum computing is a promising approach for scalable quantum computing and networking. This relies upon the deterministic generation of graph states composed of many entangled photons. Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are sources of indistinguishable single photons and hosts of solid-state spins, marking them desirable platforms for controlled entanglement generation. Such a platform consisting of a single charged QD coupled to a three dimensional photonic cavity has been proven for the generation of multipartite spin-photon graph states. This talk will present advancements in the versatility and coherence of such entanglement generation. First, the complete toolkit for single photon generation, spin control, and entanglement will be introduced. Then, dynamical decoupling techniques for extending the spin coherence time will be discussed. Finally, recent results will be presented on the generation of four-partite graph states with on-demand reconfigurability of the type of state produced.
March 27, 2025 Thursday 3:00 PM
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726
Broadway, Room 1067
Center for Quantum Information Physics Seminars
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cqip)
Giordano Scappucci
Delft University of Technology
TBA
April 1, 2025 Tuesday 11:00 AM
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726
Broadway, Room 940
Other Physics Department Events
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other)
Bart Ripperda
CITA
Are We There Yet? First-principles Modeling of Multimessenger s\Signals in the Plasma Universe
Astrophysical black holes are surrounded by accretion disks, jets, and coronae consisting of magnetized relativistic plasma. They produce observable multi wavelength and multi messenger signals from near the event horizon and it is currently unclear how this emission is exactly produced. The electromagnetic radiation typically has a non-thermal component, implying a power-law distribution of emitting relativistic electrons. Magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence are viable mechanisms to tap the large reservoir of magnetic energy in these systems and accelerate electrons to extreme energies. The accelerated electrons can then emit high-energy photons that themselves may strongly interact with the plasma, rendering a highly nonlinear system. In some cases the electromagnetic emission is accompanied by a multi messenger signal in the form of neutrinos, cosmic rays, or gravitational waves.
Modeling the emitting systems necessitates a combination of magnetohydrodynamic models to capture the global dynamics of the formation of dissipation regions, and a kinetic treatment of plasma processes that are responsible for particle acceleration, quantum electrodynamics effects like pair creation and annihilation, and radiation. I will present novel studies of accreting black holes and how they radiate in regions close to black hole event horizon, using both first-principles general relativistic kinetic particle-in-cell simulations and global large-scale three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics models. With a combination of models, I determine where and how dissipation of magnetic energy occurs, what kind of emission signatures are typically produced, and what they can teach us about the nature of black holes.
April 2, 2025 Wednesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
High Energy Physics Seminars
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hep)
Csaba Csaki
Cornell University
TBA
April 3, 2025 Thursday 4:00 PM
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Hybrid: 726
Broadway, Room 940 and Zoom
Physics Colloquia
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colloquia)
Alessandra Buonanno
Max Planck Institute
Theoretical Challenges in Gravitational-Wave Astronomy
Analytical and numerical solutions to the relativistic two-body problem have been crucial for the detection and interpretation of
nearly 100 gravitational waves from compact-object binaries. Future experiments will probe the universe at cosmic dawn, test our understanding
of gravity, and reveal the composition of neutron stars with unprecedented precision.
In this talk, I will review the key astrophysical, cosmological, and fundamental physics insights from current observations, highlighting
the theoretical foundations that underpin them. I will then discuss the theoretical challenges that must be addressed (including improvements
of up to two orders of magnitude in precision) to correctly interpret the vast number of gravitational-wave observations expected from
next-generation detectors and to avoid drawing incorrect scientific conclusions. These challenges will arise with the Einstein Telescope and
Cosmic Explorer on the ground, and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna in space.
April 9, 2025 Wednesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
High Energy Physics Seminars
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hep)
Lorenzo Ricci
University of Maryland
TBA
April 10, 2025 Thursday 11:00 AM
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726
Broadway, Room 1067
Center for Quantum Information Physics Seminars
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cqip)
Anthony Sigillito
University of Pennsylvania
TBA
April 10, 2025 Thursday 4:00 PM
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Hybrid: 726
Broadway, Room 940 and Zoom
Physics Colloquia
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colloquia)
Jesse Thaler
MIT
Centaur Science: Particle Physics Meets Machine Learning
Modern machine learning has had an outsized impact on many scientific fields, and particle physics is no exception. What is special about particle physics, though, is the vast amount of theoretical knowledge that we already have about many problems in the field, as well as the daunting deluge of data coming from flagship experiments like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this colloquium, I will explain how one can teach a machine to "think like a physicist" by embedding theoretical principles into advanced machine learning architectures. At the same time, I will advocate that physicists must learn how to "think like a machine" to maximize the physics reach of the LHC. These joint developments are leading to a new kind of "centaur science" that, analogously to the mythical centaur, draws half from particle physics and half from machine learning.
April 15, 2025 Tuesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Astrophysics and Relativity Seminars
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astro)
Julien Lavalle
Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier
TBA
April 16, 2025 Wednesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
High Energy Physics Seminars
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hep)
Michael Baker
University of Massachusetts Amherst
TBA
TBA
April 17, 2025 Thursday 11:00 AM
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726
Broadway, Room 1067
Center for Quantum Information Physics Seminars
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cqip)
Samuel Stein
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
HetEc: Architectures for Heterogeneous Quantum Error Correction Codes
Quantum Error Correction (QEC) is essential for future quantum computers due to its ability to exponentially suppress physical errors. The surface code is a leading error-correcting code candidate because of its local topological structure, experimentally achievable thresholds, and support for universal gate operations with magic states. However, its physical overhead scales quadratically with the number of correctable errors. Conversely, quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) codes offer superior scaling but, on their own, lack a clear path to universal logical computation. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly evident that there are significant advantages to designing architectures using multiple codes. Heterogeneous architectures provide a clear path to universal logical computation as well as the ability to access different resource tradeoffs.
To address this, we propose integrating the surface code and gross code using an ancilla bus for inter-code data movement. This approach involves managing trade-offs, including qubit overhead, a constrained instruction set, and gross code (memory) routing and management. While our focus is on the gross-surface code architecture, our method is adaptable to any code combination and the constraints generated by that specific architecture.
Motivated by the potential reduction of physical qubit overhead, an important feature in the realization of fault-tolerant computation, we perform the first full system study of heterogeneous error-correcting codes, discovering architectural trade-offs and optimizing around them. We demonstrate physical qubit reductions of up to 6.42x when executing an algorithm to a logical error rate, at the cost of up to a 3.43x increase in algorithm time.
April 18, 2025 Friday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 973, CQP Seminar
Center for Quantum Phenomena Seminars
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cqp)
Special CQP Seminar
Pasquale Calabrese
SISSA - International School for Advanced Studies (Trieste, Italy)
The Quantum Mpempa Effect
The Mpemba effect is a striking and counterintuitive phenomenon in which, under certain conditions, hotter water cools more quickly than colder water. Although originally observed in classical systems, recent theoretical and experimental studies have uncovered an analogous effect in extended quantum systems.
A specific manifestation of this quantum effect occurs when the system starts in a state that explicitly breaks a given symmetry, yet the time evolution leads to the eventual restoration of that symmetry, sometimes at an unexpectedly fast rate.
To systematically investigate this phenomenon, we introduce the entanglement asymmetry, a quantity which quantifies the degree of symmetry breaking in a quantum state. This measure is inspired by concepts from entanglement theory in many-body systems and provides a powerful tool to track the restoration of symmetry over time. By leveraging entanglement asymmetry, we gain new insights into non-equilibrium quantum dynamics and the fundamental mechanisms governing symmetry restoration.
This talk will explore the theoretical foundations of the quantum Mpemba effect, recent experimental observations, and the implications of entanglement asymmetry for understanding non-equilibrium processes in quantum many-body physics.
April 21, 2025 Monday 11:00 AM
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726
Broadway, Room TBA
Center for Quantum Information Physics Seminars
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cqip)
David Schuster
Stanford University
TBA
April 21, 2025 Monday 12:30 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Other Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Events
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ccpp)
CCPP Brown Bag
Marius Kongsore
New York University
Generalized Symmetries for the Generalist
April 21, 2025 Monday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Other Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Events
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ccpp)
Informal HEP Talk
Nat Levine
TBA
April 22, 2025 Tuesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 1067, CQP Seminar
Center for Quantum Phenomena Seminars
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cqp)
Matthew W. Daniels
NIST
Spin and Stochasticity in Novel Computing
As highly specific problem classes such as artificial intelligence and combinatorial optimization take up ever larger fractions of global computational capacity, the continued use of general purpose hardware fabrics has started to show it inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Just as the von Neumann architecture for general computing allowed significant flexibility in the design of software, new focuses tightly specified applications allows for broad creativity in potential hardware design. In this talk, I discuss our group’s recent work on implementing various types of computation using magnetic tunnel junctions devices, from neural networks to Ising machines. I discuss our experimental efforts but focus on a theoretical understanding of the approaches, why they work, and where there are opportunities for new research. I also describe ongoing work on how Ising models may provide insight into training highly quantized neural networks which would typically not be smooth enough to support the use of gradient descent.
April 22, 2025 Tuesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Astrophysics and Relativity Seminars
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astro)
Gabriela Sato-Polito
Institute for Advanced Study
TBA
April 23, 2025 Wednesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
High Energy Physics Seminars
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hep)
Giovanni Villadoro
ICTP, Trieste
TBA
April 28, 2025 Monday 12:30 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Other Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Events
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ccpp)
CCPP Brown Bag
Marcus DuPont
Princeton University
TBD!
April 29, 2025 Tuesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Astrophysics and Relativity Seminars
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astro)
Risa Wechsler
Stanford University
TBA
April 30, 2025 Wednesday 11:30 AM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
High Energy Physics Seminars
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hep)
Dan Green
UC San Diego
TBA
TBA
May 1, 2025 Thursday 11:00 AM
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726
Broadway, Room 1067
Center for Quantum Information Physics Seminars
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cqip)
Archana Kamal
Northwestern University
TBA
May 1, 2025 Thursday 4:00 PM
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Hybrid: 726
Broadway, Room 940 and Zoom
Physics Colloquia
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colloquia)
Wendy Freedman
University of Chicago
Is There Missing Physics From the Standard Model of Cosmology?
Over the last decade, there has been mounting evidence for what has become known as the ‘Hubble tension’. Local measurements of the Hubble constant (Ho) the current expansion rate of the universe, are at odds with that inferred from measurements of the cosmic microwave background. If this tension is real, it implies that there is fundamental missing physics from our standard (Lambda Cold Dark Matter, LCDM) model of cosmology. I will describe new results from a major James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program to improve measurements of the Hubble constant. Relative to the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST has 10 times greater sensitivity and 4 times higher resolution in the near-infrared, and is providing a powerful new means of addressing challenges in previous measurements.
May 6, 2025 Tuesday 2:00 PM
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726
Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar
Astrophysics and Relativity Seminars
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astro)
Tetyana Pitik
University of California, Berkeley
TBA
May 15, 2025 Thursday 11:00 AM
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726
Broadway, Room 1067
Center for Quantum Information Physics Seminars
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cqip)
Seunghyun (Jacob) Lee
University of Texas at Arlington
TBA
