Theoretical Physicist. Cowgirl. Advocate. Adventurer. Quantum Wrangler.
“In every area of physics, the more you look, the more questions there are. Nothing is fully understandable. I thought if I am going to put all my energy into something, let me put it into something that will benefit mankind“ Elsa Garmire
I’m interested in opportunities that are highly dynamic, spur my creativity, engage me intellectually, and involve interaction and communication between team members, leadership, customers and stakeholders. I am motivated by service to human kind in my profession where I am able to witness my work having a direct impact.
Motivating my journey into
quantum computation and algorithm development
A century has passed since the theoretical framework of quantum mechanics was built, yet the quantum nature of systems remains elusive and ripe for explication. Classical computing resources hinder theoretical investigations of quantum systems with increased size and complexity. Difficulties arise when these systems are interacting and become highly entangled. Computational methods used to calculate quantum spectra and observables are limited by accuracy or complexity. An exact treatment of a highly entangled system scales exponentially, limiting theorists to small systems to study exactly. Approximate treatments provide good results when systems are weakly entangled, but these methods are insufficient for modeling complex phenomena.
We need computational power to remove these bounds of accuracy and complexity to enable advances in our knowledge of micro -> meso -> macroscopic interacting systems. Scientists are developing ground-breaking technology to simulate quantum systems using two basic approaches: analog simulation and digital quantum algorithms. Quantum tech, like quantum computers, is becoming accessible for theorists and algorithm enthusiasts to explore how adding entanglement into computation can solve problems better and opens the possibility for new avenues in algorithm development.
I take a two-pronged approach with my theoretical investigations with the current (2019) state of the hardware. The first approach is focused on the development of new quantum algorithms to solve problems with heavy entanglement (aka strongly correlated) using classical methodologies for solving the Anderson impurity model. The thermalization component of this quantum methodology has a broad impact ranging from materials to machine learning to black holes. The second approach is focused on NISQ (Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum) devices, where I am seeking practical applications and demonstrations on quantum hardware to solve something useful for science. This means coding in a language the quantum device can understand and find ways to circumvent the limitations of hardware whilst developing an intuition for the nature of these quantum chips.
If your interested in learning more about my background and my research interests, peruse this website. Want to collaborate? Have an interesting opportunity? Feel like meeting a rodeo physicist? Please contact me!
Art: “Alternate Realities” by Lisa Gilliland-Viney, submitted in collaboration with researcher Mekena Metcalf for the UC Merced Art Coalition.
Mekena Metcalf 