Quantum computation as a lens on quantum physics

Dorit Aharonov (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel)
Thursday, April 10, 4:30pm
Computer Science 105
Quantum computation inspires the study of quantum many body systems from a computational perspective. This approach leads to a remarkably rich set of insights and questions, with deep implications to both physics and quantum computation. This direction, now coined "quantum Hamiltonian complexity", had turned over the past decade into an exciting fast growing field. I will try to give a taste of some of its main achievements, e.g., unexpected hardness of certain physical systems, and testing quantum mechanics using interactive proofs.

Dorit Aharonov did a BSc in Physics and Mathematics at the Hebrew university, an MSc in Physics at the Weizmann institute,  and a PhD in Computer Science and Physics at the Hebrew university (1999). After a postdoc at IAS Princeton and UC Berkeley she joined the faculty of the CS department at the Hebrew university in 2001. In 2005, Aharonov was profiled in Nature as one of four "young theorists who are making waves in their chosen fields", and in 2006 she received the Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research. In 2011 she was awarded an ERC starting grant from the European Research Council. Her current topics of interest include quantum algorithms and complexity, and the computational view on quantum mechanics and multiparticle entanglement.