Steven Thomson

Please do take a look at our preprint if any of the above interests you, and let us know what you think. We'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions!

We demonstrate the results classically using tensor network simulations of the disordered Heisenberg model. The core elements of the algorithm were designed with quantum hardware in mind, and we propose a hybrid implementation suitable for near-term quantum devices.

In this work, with IBM Research and the STFC Hartree Centre, we've developed a new way of preparing excited states by combining the shift-invert process with imaginary time evolution. All we need to do is pick a target energy, and the algorithm will return the eigenstate closest to that target!

An animation showing the convergence of our new excited state preparation algorithm.

There are lots of ways to find ground states of many-body quantum systems, but what do you do if you want to prepare an excited state? 🤔

That's the question we've addressed in a new preprint, out today: arxiv.org/abs/2508.00065

A mark on a wall with a joke museum-style description attached underneath.

This appeared on a wall at work recently and it makes me laugh every time I see it. Well played, anonymous art critic. 😄

This is along the same lines as the mistake on my CV that for years said I had experience in "high performance computering". 🤦‍♂️

Image of a job advert containing a grammatical error in a requirement for clear communication skills.

I'm currently reviewing candidates who applied to my postdoc position, which has required looking back at the job ad that I wrote.

I think I may have to dock myself a few points for my own "ability to communication". 😅

A screenshot of an audio recording program.

Since coming back to the UK I've been slowly getting reunited with various things I left behind when I moved to France. Today I found the hard drive with all my old recordings and songs on it. It's like a time capsule - I haven't heard some of this stuff in ten years. 🥹

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found France’s research minister said the scientist was traveling to Houston for a conference when his phone was searched

More and more content with my decision not to go to the APS Global Physics Summit this year, and if this is how things are going then I'm disinclined to travel to the US for any other meetings in the near future.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Not much time left to apply for this - the deadline is on Monday, so get those applications in quick if you're interested in joining the University of Edinburgh to work on exciting challenges in open quantum systems!

What I'll definitely do is make a serious attempt at writing the "Cond Mat Phys for Quantum Computer Scientists" tutorial paper I've been threatening to write for years. I think it's important that people are equipped to distinguish realistic use cases of quantum computers from straw man arguments.

It certainly is on occasion, although my grievances at the moment are quite minor compared to yours - I'm mostly just losing patience over what I think are misleading straw man arguments.

I've never been tempted to write a "Comment on..." paper before, but today is teaching me that there's a first time for everything. 👀

I never posted an update on this, but in the end I declined to participate in this year's APS meeting. I can't in good conscience travel to and contribute to an event in the US while the current administration is causing so much harm to people and communities I care about.

Microsoft quantum computing 'breakthrough' faces fresh challenge Analysis pokes holes in protocol that underpins Microsoft’s claim to have created the first topological qubits.

Microsoft's extraordinary claim last month—to have created a bonafide topological qubit—was met with caution by many experts. Now, a physicist is raising specific and substantive concerns about a key test that underlies Microsoft's approach. My reporting: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The people who 'see' foreign languages: How synaesthesia can help language learning Synaesthesia is a neurological condition found to enhance memory and learning. Now, scientists say seeing in colour could help when it comes to learning a second language.

I have synaesthesia, but I can't say it helped my language skills any! It took me a long time to pick up French, and my German never really got past elementary level. 😬

Maths though, that's another story - I do think it really helps me navigate complex equations. 🤔

www.bbc.com/future/artic...

I've done PhD interviews before, but today was the first time I was ever on a panel alongside someone who once offered me a PhD place...! Such a surreal feeling to now be on the same side of the fence as people who I've admired and respected since I was an undergrad. 😅

Comment on "InAs-Al hybrid devices passing the topological gap protocol", Microsoft Quantum, Phys. Rev. B 107, 245423 (2023) The topological gap protocol (TGP) is presented as "a series of stringent experimental tests" for the presence of topological superconductivity and associated Majorana bound states. Here, we show that...

I had made Microsoft Quantum aware of issues before publication of this latest Nature paper (which uses it tune up their devices).

Since they seem to not care, I have make these issues public.

In short: The topological gap protocol and all claims based on it are flawed.

arxiv.org/abs/2502.19560

Roadmap to fault tolerant quantum computation using topological qubit arrays We describe a concrete device roadmap towards a fault-tolerant quantum computing architecture based on noise-resilient, topologically protected Majorana-based qubits. Our roadmap encompasses four gene...

In their roadmap, Microsoft described a protocol for demonstrating a topologically protected qubit. There is no publicly available evidence that this test has been conducted successfully. I hope we will hear more soon.

arxiv.org/abs/2502.12252

Text saying "The editorial team wishes to point out that the results in this manuscript do not represent evidence for the presence of Majorana zero modes in the reported devices. The work is published for introducing a device architecture that might enable fusion experiments using future Majorana zero modes."

Just leaving this here, from the very beginning of the peer review file of the new Microsoft paper (www.nature.com/articles/s41...).

I'm hiring a postdoc in quantum condensed matter theory! This will be a 3 year position, with a focus on developing and using novel numerical techniques to investigate open quantum systems.

For further info and to apply, see the following: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

a man wearing glasses says " yeah yeah but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could Alt: Famous scene from Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

Last week taught me two main things.

1) I actually can write and deliver two entirely new talks on two entirely different subjects within the same week, while balancing all sorts of other tasks.
2) I should never do this again. 😅

Yeah, I had to send it off specially for that, as my uni only offered black by default but I really wanted blue for some reason I don't remember. 😅

My PhD thesis.

One of the fun things about being back in Scotland is being reunited with things I stored away when I left for France and haven't seen for years. Things like this...!

A stack of four NVIDIA GPUs to be used for my research work.

Today is a good day. Huge thanks to NVIDIA for supporting my work via their Academic Grant program!

An image of a jumper sleeve the same colour as the chair.

I seem to have turned up to this afternoon's QSL seminar in camouflage. 🥷

A large glass of American whiskey.

As a good friend of mine said earlier today - to lost futures.

Hello! 👋 Who’s here on Bluesky from the quantum community? Follow recommendations welcome!

I've never read it, but apparently I have it on Kindle...! 😅

A fair point!