Josh Combes

Taming Entanglement In statistics and causal modeling it is common for a selection process to induce correlations in a subset of an uncorrelated ensemble. We propose that EPR and Bell correlations are selection artefacts...

Latest piece with @kenwharton.bsky.social

ABSTRACT: In statistics and causal modeling it is common for a selection process to induce correlations in a subset of an uncorrelated ensemble. We propose that EPR and Bell correlations are selection artefacts of this kind. …1/

#philsky #philsci #quantum

Nice work from Kerem Çamsarı's group.

They demonstrate a dequantized QAOA variant called PAOA.

On July 17-18 a small symposium "Dreams of Quantum" will be held in honor of David DiVincenzo's work and retirement at RWTH Aachen. The event can be attended via Zoom by all. Information about the program of speakers & the Zoom link can be found at www.quantuminfo.physik.rwth-aachen.de/cms/~bmmwed

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers.

The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

Asymptotically Good Quantum Codes with Addressable and Transversal Non-Clifford Gates Constructing quantum codes with good parameters and useful transversal gates is a central problem in quantum error correction. In this paper, we continue our work in arXiv:2502.01864 and construct the...

New preprint out!!

scirate.com/arxiv/2507.0...

Here, we follow up our previous work by constructing the first asymptotically good quantum codes to have transversally addressable non-Clifford gates.

bilbo baggins why shouldn't I keep it meme: top panel: "after all, why not?", bottom pannel: "why shouldn't i quantize using the p-adics". Over the ring is a text box with a paper titled "p-Adic Quantum Mechanics" by V. S. Vladimirov and I. V. Volovich.

one abelian ring to rule them all

YouTube video by Simons Institute Universal generalized lattice surgery by gauging logical operators

Including my talk about recent progress on qLDPC lattice surgery: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9cq...

Excited to see that this unforgettable exchange between Ed Farhi and Scott Aaronson
youtube.com/watch?v=tpI2...
is now also available in a paper format!

"Future of Quantum Computing" by Scott Aaronson, Andrew M. Childs, Edward Farhi, Aram W. Harrow, Barry C. Sanders
arxiv.org/abs/2506.19232

arxiv.org/abs/2506.19232

Traceable random numbers from a non-local quantum advantage - Nature A study demonstrates a public generator of random numbers based on device-independent techniques, with the randomness being fully auditable and traceable.

Krister Shalm in the news again, with a new paper on the Colorado Random Number beacon.

Well, we always did say that getting a paper into Nature was a roll of the dice...

Always exciting to see our group members go on to lead such creative & successful efforts!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pretty sure that one of the papers on quant-ph today is a ChatGPT paper.

I can't find the exact quote, but Barry Simon at some point said something like "if a kosher restaurant held to the same standards as a typical review in a top mathematical physics journal, I would not eat there."

Hahaha exactly

Ah thanks!

Looks really cool!

By prior papers do you mean the Griffiths and Niu PRL from 1996 or something else?

How to be an orthodox quantum mechanic This work sets out to answer a single question: what is the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics? However, we adopt a different approach to that normally used. Rather than carefully surveying ...

How to be an orthodox quantum mechanic

by Geoff Beck

arxiv.org/abs/2504.20597

Optimum testing of multiple hypotheses in quantum detection theory The problem of specifying the optimum quantum detector in multiple hypotheses testing is considered for application to optical communications. The quantum digital detection problem is formulated as a ...

What is the earliest use of SDPs in quantum mechanics? I am aware of the seminal 1975 work of Yuen-Kennedy-Lax

ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/105...

on multiple quantum hypothesis testing. Was there something earlier? One might think so, given that the q postulates are specified by SDP constraints.

An illustration titled Quantum Rubik’s Cube on a beige background. The cube is laid out with 9 tiles on each side. Each tile has a circle in the middle with one color and two different colors filling in the sides of the square, representing the different options for each cube with superpositioning. Next to the cube, text reads “superposition of colors” with an arrow pointing to the cube. Below the text is a venn diagram showing all the color possibilities.

New in Physical Review A: Researchers take the Rubik's cube to the next level, introducing #superposition where tiles can occupy multiple positions simultaneously. They found combining classical and #quantum moves equals faster puzzle-solving.

Read more: go.aps.org/3XX7gk5

Thirty years ago, Ian Hacking commented on the temptation to do push-button statistics without first thinking about the theoretical side. The earliest statisticians would spend hours thinking about their assumptions and models because the computations themselves might have taken days. #rstats

Artist's impression of the exoplanet K2-18b. Credit: A. Smith, University of Cambridge.

𝗡𝗼, 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝟮-𝟭𝟴𝗯'𝘀 𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

K2-18b is back in the news, now with a bold claim that biosignature molecules (DMS and/or DMDS) have been 'detected at 3σ'.

Most exoplanet astronomers are extremely sceptical about these claims, let's see why (1/n).

🔭🧪🪐 #exoplanet

Just sharing for the yocks.

Seriously, YOCTOjoules.
How many of you have even *heard* that prefix before?

That's 10^-5 visible photons, in case you're keeping count.

"Fieldoscopy." arxiv.org/abs/2504.13121

New Constraints on DMS and DMDS in the Atmosphere of K2-18 b from JWST MIRI The sub-Neptune frontier has opened a new window into the rich diversity of planetary environments beyond the solar system. The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H$_2$-rich atm...

The K2-18 b paper just dropped.

I will say, the peaks at ~9.8 microns *do* look pretty convincing, so this may very well be a high-confidence detection of DMS.

However, given that's there still debate if there's *water* present on the planet, I'm not getting too excited. I

New essay exploring why experts so strongly disagree about existential risk from ASI, and why focusing on alignment as the primary goal may be a fundamental mistake
michaelnotebook.com/xriskbrief/i...

Consider this a warning. Factoring small numbers is a bad benchmark. Because the key to factoring small numbers isn’t making the quantum computer "work well". That’s the key to factoring *large* numbers. For small numbers it's sufficient to generate a far-too-large circuit, and light the fuse.

Stabilizer codes of less than two dimensions have constant distance The surface code is a two-dimensional stabiliser code with parameters $[[n,1,\Theta(\sqrt{n})]]$. To this day, no stabiliser code with growing distance is know to live in less than two dimensions. In ...

Very cool new result by Nouédyn Baspin out today showing there are no quantum codes with growing distance and local checks in less than two dimensions. Giving a simple answer to a question I have been curious about for a while.

scirate.com/arxiv/2503.1...

Superconducting Qubit Experimentalist Superconducting Qubit Experimentalist

Come join our team working on superconducting qubits at MIT Lincoln Laboratory! There are PhD-level staff scientist positions related to a broad array of research topics. Some of us will be at the APS Global Summit, so come say hi! careers.ll.mit.edu/job/Lexingto...

Yes, the quantum tech industry needs PhDs, but as a career move, I don’t think it’s the best bet. Why?

Read my blog post here: aggiebranczyk.com/blog/2025/ph...

#quantumcomputing #quantum #careers #phd 🧪

For anyone in Brisbane this week: this talk is at Griffith University, 11am Thursday 27 February #philsky #quantum

Hmm.
Came back from a few weeks out of the loop to run into this headline, and must just say:

At least they're honest enough to put it on the "Business" page instead of "Science" ;)

[Honestly, good luck to them. I'll be thrilled if this time they're telling the truth. ;} ]