Dear quanta,
Tomorrow the physics colloquium (4pm, 10-250) is Jian-Wei Pan, who is
probably the leading QI experimentalist in China.
Friday we will have group meeting in the usual time and place, and Anand
will talk about his recent arxiv update and the quantum games PCP theorem.
-aram
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Hi all,
Tomorrow Ben will speak at group meeting (with some of it going into his
independent study proposal = feedback appreciated :) ). See below for his
title and abstract.
All the best,
Ian
-----------------
Title: GPMol - Gaussian Process on molecules
Abstract: Gaussian processes (GPs), Neural networks, Quantifying
uncertainty, Interpretable models, and real chemical applications.
All this and more in this talk. I'll be showcasing GPMol a GP library I
have been working on with other people in the group. part of the talk is a
tutorial on building models with GP for many applications, part is how GPs
fit in the grander scheme of prediction in machine learning (ML).
The last part of my talk is about interpretable ML in chemistry, will be
used for my independent study proposal, so feedback is welcomed.
*ITAMP Lunch Seminar*
*Speaker:* Dominik Wild (Harvard University)
*Date:* Thursday, April 12th
*Time:* 12:00-1:00 pm
Includes Pizza.
*Title: Few- and Many-Body Quantum Mechanics in 2D Semiconductors*
*Abstract: Atomically thin semiconductors such as monolayers of transition
metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are promising candidates for applications in
quantum optics and the study of many-body dynamics. In the first part of
the talk, I show that TMDs are excellent reflectors close to an exciton
resonance. A TMD monolayer thus forms an optical resonator when placed in
front of a conventional mirror, which can be exploited to enhance quantum
nonlinearities of the TMD. In the second part, I discuss polarons formed by
excitons interacting with a Fermi sea of electrons, highlighting key
differences from polarons in ultracold gases. In particular, I demonstrate
that the polaron dispersion in TMDs develops a roton-like minimum at finite
momentum due to Pauli blocking, which may account for experimentally
observed discrepancies between absorption and photoluminescence spectra.*
*Location: *B-106 @ Center for Astrophysics (60 Garden Street)
*Directions: *After entering the lobby of the CfA, turn right to enter the
hallway of the B building. In the hallway, turn right again, B-106 will be
at the end of the hallway on the left side.
Fyi...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yufei Zhao <yufeiz(a)mit.edu>
Date: Sun, Apr 8, 2018 at 11:49 PM
Subject: [MIT Combin Sem] Fwd: [Theory-reading-group] CMSA workshop on
coding and information theory next week
To: MIT Combinatorics Seminar announcements <mitmathcombin(a)mit.edu>
Workshop at Harvard this week: http://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/coding/
Workshop on Coding and Information Theory
<http://cmsa.fas.harvard.edu/coding/>
The workshop on coding and information theory will take place *April 9-13,
2018 *at the *Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications*, located at
20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA.
This workshop will focus on new developments in coding and information
theory that sit at the intersection of combinatorics and complexity, and
will bring together researchers from several communities — coding theory,
information theory, combinatorics, and complexity theory — to exchange
ideas and form collaborations to attack these problems.
Squarely in this intersection of combinatorics and complexity, locally
testable/correctable codes and list-decodable codes both have deep
connections to (and in some cases, direct motivation from) complexity
theory and pseudorandomness, and recent progress in these areas has
directly exploited and explored connections to combinatorics and graph
theory. One goal of this workshop is to push ahead on these and other
topics that are in the purview of the year-long program. Another goal is
to highlight (a subset of) topics in coding and information theory which
are especially ripe for collaboration between these communities. Examples
of such topics include polar codes; new results on Reed-Muller codes and
their thresholds; coding for distributed storage and for DNA memories;
coding for deletions and synchronization errors; storage capacity of
graphs; zero-error information theory; bounds on codes using semidefinite
programming; tensorization in distributed source and channel coding; and
applications of information-theoretic methods in probability and
combinatorics. All these topics have attracted a great deal of recent
interest in the coding and information theory communities, and have rich
connections to combinatorics and complexity which could benefit from
further exploration and collaboration.
*Participation: *The workshop is open to participation by all interested
researchers, subject to capacity. *Click here to register.
<https://docs.google.com/a/g.harvard.edu/forms/d/1OTOkUPiZAjV6STdzeRqrGDEUAa…>*
*Schedule:*
*Monday, April 9*
*Time.* *Speaker* *Title/Abstract*
9:00 – 9:30am *Breakfast *
9:30 – 10:00am *Noga Ron-Zewi*
*Title:* Some recent results on list-decoding and local list-decoding
10:00 – 10:30am *Dean Doron*
*Title: *Near-Optimal Erasure List-Decodable Codes
*Abstract:*For every small ε, we explicitly construct binary erasure
list-decodable codes that can be list-decoded from 1-ε fraction of
erasures, with near-optimal list-size poly(log(1/ε)) and near-optimal rate
O(ε^(1+γ)) where γ>0 is any constant.
This is the first construction to break the ε^2 rate barrier, solving a
long-standing open problem raised by Guruswami and Indyk, and it does so
with a remarkably small list size (we remark that Guruswami showed such a
result is impossible using linear codes, and indeed our code is not
linear).
Equivalently, in terms of dispersers, we construct ε-error one-bit strong
dispersers with near-optimal seed-length and near-optimal entropy-loss.The
main ingredient in the construction is a new (and nearly optimal)
unbalanced two-source extractor. The extractor extracts one bit with
constant error from two independent sources, where one source has length n
and tiny min-entropy O(loglog n) and the other source has length O(log n)
and arbitrarily small constant min-entropy rate.
Joint work with Avraham Ben-Aroya and Amnon Ta-Shma.
10:30 – 11:10am *Break*
11:10 – 12:00pm *Young-Han Kim*
*Title*: Elements of Index Coding
*Abstract:* Originally introduced to minimize the number of transmissions
in satellite communication, the index coding problem provides a simple yet
rich model for several important engineering problems in network
communication, such as content broadcasting, peer-to-peer communication,
distributed caching, device-to-device relaying, and interference management.
This talk aims to provide a broad overview of this fascinating problem —
arguably one of the most important open problems in network information
theory — in four parts. First, we give a mathematical description of the
problem and introduce basic properties of optimal index codes. Second, we
discuss several coding schemes based on algebraic, graph-theoretic, and
information-theoretic tools. Third, we establish performance bounds and
discuss their implications in network information theory. Fourth, we
explore the relationship between index coding and other problems such as
network coding, distribute storage, and guessing games. No prior exposure
to network information theory is assumed.
12:00 – 1:30pm *Lunch*
1:30 – 2:00pm *Navin Kashyap*
Indian Institute of Science
*Title*: Probabilistic Forwarding Over Networks: To Code Or Not To Code?
*Abstract:* Consider a network (i.e., a connected graph) with a large
number of nodes, one of which is distinguished as a source node. The source
node has $k$ data packets to be broadcast to all nodes in the network. The
$k$ data packets are encoded into $n \ge k$ coded packets (using an MDS
code over a large enough field), such that any $k$ of the $n$ coded packets
are sufficient to recover the original $k$ data packets. The source
transmits all $n$ packets to its one-hop neighbours. Thereafter, the nodes
follow a probabilistic forwarding protocol: Each node, upon receiving a
particular coded packet for the first time, forwards it to all its one-hop
neighbours only with a certain probability $p$. This probabilistic
forwarding happens independently across all nodes and packets. We declare
such a probabilistic forwarding protocol to be useful if the expected
fraction of network nodes that receive at least $k$ of the $n$ coded
packets is at least $1-\delta$ for some small $\delta > 0$.
We would of course like to operate the protocol at the smallest value of
the probability $p$ that makes the protocol useful, as this would minimize
the expected total number of transmissions across all network nodes. It
turns out that the redundancy $\rho := (n-k)/k$ introduced by the coding
scheme significantly influences this minimum expected number of
transmissions. Simulation results indicate that over network topologies
that are tree-like, the introduction of redundancy in the form of coding is
not beneficial; but over topologies that are well-connected, the
introduction of some (but not too much) redundancy can significantly reduce
the expected total number of transmissions needed. We describe our
preliminary analysis of this phenomenon using ideas from percolation theory.
This talk is based on work with B.R. Vinay Kumar and Roshan Antony.
2:00 – 2:30pm *Chandra Nair*
*TItle: *Observations regarding extremizers of some non-convex optimization
problems in information theory and some open questions motivated by them
*Abstract: *Rate regions in network information theory have long been
characterized using auxiliary random variables. In the last few years,
optimality or sub-optimality of some fundamental rate regions have been
established by computing the optimal extremal auxiliaries, i.e. by
computing the optimizers that belong to a family of non-convex optimization
problems. These results and computations seem to reveal an intriguing
relationship between “local tensorization” and “global tensorization”.
Indeed several of the counterexamples to various optimality questions have
been deduced based on the above intuitive connection. In this talk, I will
try to outline these observations, and formally state various observations
as open problems. I will also talk about a potential pathway (verified on
small examples by simulations) that supports this connection as well as
potential consequences, such as (potentially efficient) computation of
hypercontractivity parameters.
2:30 – 3:30pm *Break*
3:30 – 4:30pm *Amnon Ta-Shma*
*Title: *Explicit, Epsilon-Balanced Codes Close to the GV Bound
I will show an explicit construction of a binary error correcting code with
relative distance 1/2-epsilon and relative rate epsilon^{2+o(1)}. This
comes close to the Gilbert-Varshamov and the LP lower bound. Previous
explicit constructions had rate about epsilon^3, and this is the first
explicit construction to get that close to the Gilbert-Varshamov bound.
Technically, we define Parity Samplers. A parity sampler is a collection of
sets {S_i} with the property that for every “test” set A of a given
constant density epsilon_0, the probability a set S_i from the collection
falls into the test set A an even number of times is about half. A sparse
parity sampler immediately implies a good code with distance close to half.
The complete t-complex of all sequences of cardinality t is a good parity
sampler, but with too many sets in the collection. Rozenman and Wigderson,
and independently Alon, used random walks over expanders to explicitly
construct sparse parity samplers, and their construction implies explicit
codes with relative rate epsilon^4.
I will show how one can get better explicit parity samplers (and therefore
also better explicit codes) using a variant of the zig-zag product. In the
random walk sampler, there exist many sets with substantial overlap. One
way to look at the zig-zag product is that it takes a sub-collection of the
random walk sampler, and this sub-collection has a smaller overlap between
sets in the collection. The zig-zag product achieves that by keeping a
small internal state. I will show that by enlarging the internal state one
can further reduce the overlap, and as a result improve the quality of the
parity sampler.
4:30 – 6:00pm *Welcome Reception*
*Tuesday, April 10 *
*Time* *Speaker* *Title/Abstract*
9:00 – 9:30am *Breakfast *
9:30 – 10:00am *Himanshu Tyagi*
*Title: *Distributed independence testing and a new question related to
hypercontractivity
*Abstract: *Two parties observing sequences of unbiased, random bits seek
to determine if the bits are independent or have a specified correlation.
A trivial scheme will entail one party sending its bits to the other who in
turn will decide if the bits are independent or correlated. Can any other
scheme accomplish the independence test by using less communication than
the trivial scheme? We exhibit a one-way communication scheme building on
linear correlation that indeed outperforms the trivial scheme. In fact, our
scheme extends to an arbitrary distribution. Furthermore, we establish a
lower bound for one-way communication required to enable independence
testing, which is tight for the cases of binary symmetric distribution and
Gaussian symmetric distribution. Our lower bound leverages
hypercontractivity to obtain a measure change bound, but works only for
one-way communication protocols. Its extension to multiround protocols
opens up new interesting questions related to hypercontractivity.
10:00 – 10:30am *Alex Samorodnitsky*
*Title:* On the entropy of a noisy function.
*Abstract:*Let X be a uniformly distributed binary sequence of length n.
Let Y be a noisy version of X, obtained by flipping each coordinate of X
independently with probability epsilon. We want to come up with a one-bit
function of Y which provides as much information as possible about X.
Courtade and Kumar conjectured that the best one can do is to choose a
coordinate function f(Y) = Y_i, for some i between 1 and n. We prove the
conjecture for large values of epsilon (epsilon > 1/2 – delta, for some
absolute constant delta).
The main new technical ingredient in the proof is the claim that if F is a
real-valued function on the boolean cube, and G is a noisy version of F,
then the entropy Ent(G) is upper-bounded by the expected entropy of a
projection of F on a random coordinate subset of a certain size.
10:30 – 11:10am *Break*
11:10 – 12:00pm *Maxim Raginsky *
Algorithmic stability and generalization in machine learning: an
information-theoretic analysis
12:00 – 1:30pm *Lunch*
1:30 – 2:00pm *Tom Gur*
*Title:* Quantum zero knowledge via local codes
*Abstract:* The seminal work of Ben-Or et al. (STOC 1988) shows that zero
knowledge can be achieved unconditionally by making the physical assumption
that spatially-isolated provers are playing independent strategies.
In this talk we will discuss new techniques involving locally
testable/correctable codes that allow us to strengthen the foregoing result
to hold even in light of quantum mechanics, which tells us that
spatially-isolated provers can realize non-local correlated strategies by
sharing a quantum entangled state. These techniques include structural
results regarding subcube sums of the Reed-Muller code.
We provide the first construction of a zero-knowledge proof system that is
sound against quantum entangled provers. Along the way, we introduce a
framework that leverages local testability to “lift’’ classical protocols
to quantum protocols in a blackbox manner.
The talk is self-contained and does not assume any quantum or complexity
preliminaries.
Joint work with Alessandro Chiesa, Michael Forbes, and Nicholas Spooner.
2:00 – 2:30pm *Nicolas Resch*
2:30 – 3:30pm *Break*
3:30 – 4:30pm *Open problem session*
*Wednesday, April 11*
*Time* *Speaker* *Title/Abstract*
9:00 – 9:30am *Breakfast *
9:30 – 10:00am *Amirbehshad Shahrasbi *
10:00 – 10:30am *Mahdi Cheraghchi* *Title.* Capacity Upper Bounds for
Deletion-type Channels
*Abstract.* We develop a systematic approach, based on convex programming
and real analysis, for obtaining upper bounds on the capacity of the binary
deletion channel and, more generally, channels with i.i.d. insertions and
deletions. Other than the classical deletion channel, we give a special
attention to the Poisson-repeat channel introduced by Mitzenmacher and
Drinea (IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 2006).Our framework can be
applied to obtain capacity upper bounds for any repetition distribution
(the deletion and Poisson-repeat channels corresponding to the special
cases of Bernoulli and Poisson distributions). Our techniques essentially
reduce the task of proving capacity upper bounds to maximizing a
univariate, real-valued, and often concave function over a bounded
interval. The corresponding univariate function is carefully designed
according to the underlying distribution of repetitions and the choices
vary depending on the desired strength of the upper bounds as well as the
desired simplicity of the function (e.g., being only efficiently computable
versus having an explicit closed-form expression in terms of elementary, or
common special, functions). Among our results, we show the following:
1. The capacity of the binary deletion channel with deletion probability
$d$ is at most $(1-d) \log \varphi$ for $d \geq 1/2$, and, assuming the
capacity function is convex, is at most $1-d \log(4/\varphi)$ for $d<1/2$,
where $\varphi=(1+\sqrt{5})/2$ is the golden ratio. This is the first
nontrivial capacity upper bound for any value of $d$ outside the limiting
case $d \to 0$ that is fully explicit and proved without computer
assistance.
2. We derive the first set of capacity upper bounds for the Poisson-repeat
channel. Our results uncover further striking connections between this
channel and the deletion channel, and suggest, somewhat
counter-intuitively, that the Poisson-repeat channel is actually
analytically simpler than the deletion channel and may be of key importance
to a complete understanding of the deletion channel.
3. We derive several novel upper bounds on the capacity of the deletion
channel. All upper bounds are maximums of efficiently computable, and
concave, univariate real functions over a bounded domain. In turn, we upper
bound these functions in terms of explicit elementary and standard special
functions, whose maximums can be found even more efficiently (and
sometimes, analytically, for example for $d=1/2$).
Along the way, we develop several new techniques of potentially independent
interest.
(Based on https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.01630)
10:30 – 11:10am *Break*
11:10 – 12:00pm *Yuval Peres * *Title: *Iterated von-Neumann unbiasing and
Trace reconstruction for the deletion channel
*Abstract: *In the first part of the talk, I will describe the connections
between an efficient unbiasing method from 1992 (Iterated von-Neumann
unbiasing), and polar codes. In the second part, I will discuss the trace
reconstruction problem: Suppose that an unknown string $x$ of $n$ bits is
observed through the deletion channel; how many independent outputs
(traces) of this channel are needed to reconstruct $x$ with high
probability? The best lower bound known is linear in $n$. Currently, the
best upper bound is exponential in the cube root of $n$, proved with with
Fedor Nazarov, STOC 2017 (Similar results were obtained independently by
De, O’Donnell and Servedio). This upper bound is sharp for tests that only
use linear combinations of the output. If the string $x$ is random, we
show that a subpolynomial number of traces suffices, by comparison to a
random walk. Joint works with Alex Zhai (FOCS 2017) and with Nina Holden &
Robin Pemantle, preprint (2017).
12:00 – 1:30pm *Lunch*
1:30 – 2:00pm *Itzhak Tamo* *Title: *Detecting and Correcting Errors in
Codes over Graphs
*Abstract: *Let G be a graph on n vertices and C be an (n, k, d) code over
an alphabet X. Assume that vertex i stores a symbol c_i, where the vector
of stored symbols (c_1,…,c_n) forms a codeword of the code C. We assume
that two vertices can communicate if there is a communication link (edge)
connecting them. In this talk we consider the communication complexity of
error detection and correction of the information stored over the vertices
of the graph. For error detection, we obtain general lower bounds for the
communication complexity as functions of n, k, d, |X|, which are tight for
several graphs and codes. For error correction, building on the work of
Alon, Efremenko and Sudakov, we design a protocol which can efficiently
correct a single input error for repetition codes. We conclude with some
interesting problems for further research.
Joint work with Chong Shangguan
2:00 – 2:30pm *Arya Mazumdar* *Title:* Open problems in locally recoverable
codes
*Abstract:* Locally repairable codes (LRCs) have recently been a subject
of much research interest due to their theoretical appeal and application
in distributed storage systems. In an LRC, any coordinate of a codeword can
be recovered by accessing only few other coordinates. In this talk we
describe three aspects of LRCs and some open problems. Namely, we look into
the rate-distance trade-off of LRCs, the problem of disjoint repair groups,
and the capacity of LRCs.
2:30 – 3:15pm *break*
3:15 – 3:45pm *Sankeerth Rao*
3:45 – 4:15pm *Sivakanth Gopi* *Title*: Maximally Recoverable Local
Reconstruction Codes
*Abstract:* Protecting huge amounts of data stored in the cloud from server
crashes resulted in distributed storage systems transitioning to erasure
coding based schemes. Local Reconstruction Codes (LRCs) have emerged as the
codes of choice for these applications. They allow super fast recovery in
the typical case of a small number of crashes by reading only a few number
of healthy servers (called ‘locality’), while still protecting the data
from the unlikely event of a large number of crashes. They have many good
properties of simply replicating data while being much more storage
efficient and crash resilient. Maximally Recoverable LRCs (MR LRCs) are
information theoretically the most optimal LRCs; they can recover from
every feasible crash scenario for a given storage efficiency and locality.
MR LRCs have already been deployed in Microsoft storage systems,
outperforming traditional erasure coding systems. Designing such codes over
small finite fields is crucial for applications. Unfortunately, we are far
from understanding the minimal field size required for these codes. In this
talk, we prove the first polynomially growing lower bounds on field size
for MR LRCs using an interesting connection to incidence geometry, prior to
our work no super linear lower bounds were known. We also present some
linear field size MR LRC constructions in some parameter ranges which are
very relevant in practice.
*Thursday, April 12*
*Time* *Speaker* *Title/Abstract*
9:00 – 9:30am *Breakfast *
9:30 – 10:00am *Boris Bukh* *Title*: Small antipodal spherical codes
*Abstract*: We prove sharp bounds on the distance of antipodal spherical
codes in R^d with 2d+2k points for k=1,2,3,7,23. In addition, we obtain
asymptotics for general k, and solve the analogous problem for spherical
codes in C^d. Instead of linear programming, we use a new approach that
relies on bounding the first moment of isotropic measures. Joint work with
Chris Cox.
10:00 – 10:30am *William Martin* *Title: *Problems on spherical codes
motivated by quantum information theory
*Abstract:* A pair B, B’ of orthonormal bases in R^d or C^d are said to be
unbiased if |<b,b’>| is constant for b in B and b’ in B’. In most cases,
finding the maximum number of pairwise unbiased bases (or mutually unbiased
bases, “MUBs”) appears to be a hard problem. The real and complex cases are
quite different. The same dichotomy arises in finding the maximum possible
number of equiangular lines in R^d or C^d. One may also ask for the
maximum number of linked simplices in R^d: full-dimensional simplices with
vertices on the unit sphere such that only two possible angles occur
between vectors in distinct simplices.
In this talk, I will briefly introduce the problems in quantum information
theory which gave rise to the complex versions of these questions. I will
discuss connections to association schemes, coding theory and finite
geometry and I will summarize recent work of my student, Brian Kodalen.
10:30 – 11:10am *Break*
11:10 – 12:00pm *Emmanuel Abbe* *Title: *The stochastic block model: where
we stand
*Abstract:* The talk overviews some of the recent developments on the
stochastic block model, staring with the two community case, and extending
to multiple communities. We will cover various recovery requirements, phase
transitions, algorithms and the information-computation gap. Time
permitting, geometric block models and open problems will be discussed.
12:00 – 1:30pm *Lunch*
1:30 – 2:00pm *Olgica Milenkovic* *Title:* Leveraging data popularity in
distributed storage systems via MinMax Steiner systems
This is a joint work with Charles Colbourn and Hoang Dau.
2:00 – 2:30pm *Alexander Barg* *Title:* Lattices with exponentially large
kissing numbers (after a paper by Serge Vladuts)
*Abstract:* Serge Vladuts recently constructed lattices with the property
described in the title (see arXiv:1802.00886). Vladuts’s construction is
based on an earlier construction of binary codes with exponentially many
codewords of the smallest weight, which in its turn relied on results on
the weight spectra of algebraic geometric codes. We explain his approach
and describe families of AG codes used to achieve several versions of his
result.
2:30 – 3:30pm *Break*
3:30 – 4:30pm *Rump Session*
*Friday, April 13*
*Time* *Speaker* *Title/Abstract*
9:00 – 9:30am *Breakfast *
9:30 – 10:00am *Min Ye *
10:00 – 10:30am *Ankit Singh Rawat* *Title:* MDS Codes with Small
Sub-packetization and Near-optimal Repair Bandwidth
*Abstract:* Minimum storage regenerating (MSR) codes form a special
sub-class of maximum distance separable (MDS) codes by providing mechanisms
for exact regeneration of a single code-block by downloading the minimum
amount of information from the remaining code-blocks. As a result, the MSR
codes find application to distributed storage systems to ensure node
repairs with optimal repair-bandwidth. However, constructions of MSR codes
require large sub-packetization levels, which restricts their applicability
in practice. In this talk, I’ll present a general approach to construct MDS
codes that significantly reduce the required sub-packetization level by
incurring slightly higher repair-bandwidth as compared to the MSR codes.
10:30 – 11:10am *Break*
11:10 – 12:00pm *Hamed Hassani * *Title:* Non-asymptotic analysis of
channel codes and its practical significance
*Abstract:* Since Shannon’s 1948 landmark paper, coding theory has focused
on achieving capacity in the asymptotic sense: design low-complexity codes
that become reliable at rates approaching capacity in the limit of large
blocklengths. Throughout the seven decades of the development of coding
theory, we have witnessed many remarkable code designs. Today, we have two
families of low-complexity codes that can asymptotically achieve capacity
for a wide range of channels: polar codes and spatially coupled codes.
In this talk, I will consider a practically significant question that has
emerged in recent years as the new grand challenge in coding theory: Design
codes that are optimal in the non-asymptotic sense (at short lengths). I
will explain why the performance of the state-of-the-art code designs are
unsatisfactory with respect to this challenge. I will then discuss new
promising ways for improving the current codes as well as new coding
paradigms to address this challenge.
12:00 – 1:30pm *Lunch*
1:30 – 2:00pm *Nati Linial* *Title:* On the weight distribution of random
linear codes
*Abstract: *Random linear codes play an important role in several parts of
computer science. Yet, not much seems to be known about their properties.
In this work we investigate their weight distribution – One of the most
informative set of parameters of a code. This is joint work with my PhD
student Jonathan Mosheiff.
2:00 – 2:30pm *Bernhard Haeupler*
2:30 – 3:30pm *Simeon Ball * *Title:* On Maximum Distance Separable Codes
*Abstract:* A block code C of length n, minimum distance d over an alphabet
with q symbols, satises, jCj 6 qn
Dear quanta,
This talk is at our usual group meeting time. I suggest we go to this and
skip the group meeting that week. We also won't have a group meeting this
week because of spring break.
We are looking for speakers for future weeks. Send me an email if you're
intersted in speaking.
aram
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nina Wu <ninawu(a)mit.edu>
Date: Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 2:22 PM
Subject: The Robert H. Meservey Memorial Lecture on 4/6
To: Nina Wu <ninawu(a)mit.edu>
*Robert H. Meservey Memorial Lecture*
*Friday, April 6, 2018, 11:00am - 12:00pm in the Pappalardo Community Room,
4-349*
*Reception to precede talk at 10:30am in the lobby of 4-349*
Charles Marcus
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and Director of the Center
for Quantum Devices
“Using Topology to Build a Better Qubit”
This talk will describe an adventure currently underway to coax into
existence excitations (particles) that have non-Abelian braiding
statistics—something yet unseen in the physical world—and to not stop
there, but to try to employ these new excitations, Majorana zero modes, for
a topological quantum computing. Which is more challenging: the mathematics
of computing by braiding particles? The material science of creating hybrid
materials that support Majorana modes? The nanotechnology of fabricating
the devices? The condensed matter physics of producing them in the lab? The
electrical engineering of controlling and reading out their state? The
software to control the electronics on submicrosecond timescales? This talk
will try to cover a small amount of each of these aspects, to convey the
sense of complexity of quantum computing generally.
*Robert H. Meservey Memorial Lectureship*
A lectureship established by family and friends in memory of Robert H.
Meservey. The lectureship brings in speakers in the field of Experimental
and Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics for the Physics Department, as
well as providing support for research and educational activities in the
fields of Condensed Matter and Atomic Physics.
_______________________________________________
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http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/qip
Hi all,
Semion will talk at group meeting tomorrow - see below for his title and
abstract!
All the best,
Ian
-----------------
Title: Excitonic bands in 2D aggregates of heterotriangulenes
Abstract: I will present my ongoing work on two-dimensional supramolecular
aggregates of organic dyes where the exciton transport can be not as
trivial as we used to think.
ITAMP/HQOC Joint Quantum Sciences Seminar
Wednesday, April 4th, 2018
4:30 PM, Jefferson 250
Falko Pientka
“Polaron drag of excitons in semiconductors”
Mobile quantum impurities interacting with a fermionic bath form quasiparticles known as Fermi polarons. We demonstrate that a force applied to the bath particles can generate a drag force of similar magnitude acting on the impurities, realizing a novel, nonperturbative Coulomb drag effect. We apply our theory to excitons interacting with a bath of charge carriers in a doped semiconductor. Our findings establish transport measurements as a novel, powerful tool for probing the many-body physics of mobile quantum impurities.
Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi
“Current instability in a driven 2d electron liquid probed by nanoscale magnetometry”
A moving fluid can become unstable in the presence of an obstruction, leading to a flow pattern that fluctuates in time due to nonlinear dynamics. It has been recently found that some materials host electrons that behave like a collective fluid. In particular, experiments with graphene electrons have demonstrated linear hydrodynamic phenomena, such as viscous drag at sample boundaries, but nonlinear effects have yet to be reported. We observe a AC current instability that develops when driving a DC current through a graphene device in the electron hydrodynamic regime. The current fluctuations are substantially larger than typical electronic noise and broadly peaked in the GHz frequency range. To probe the local structure of the instability, we use diamond NV magnetometry to measure the current fluctuations at the nanoscale. We find that the current fluctuations vary across the sample. Remarkably, some regions exhibit fluctuations that are strongly dependent on the direction of the current, breaking the directional symmetry of the device as would be expected for a fluid instability seeded by disorder. The combined global and local measurements indicate non-linear effects which arise when driving the graphene electron liquid. In addition, this work demonstrates the power of using local magnetometry probes in combination with traditional global measurements to gain deeper insight into electronic phenomena.
Guest Presentation will begin at 4:30 PM (No 10-minute speaker)
Refreshments will be provided.
Samantha Dakoulas
Faculty Assistant to Professors Lukin & Greiner & their groups
Department of Physics
17 Oxford St., Lyman 324A
Cambridge, MA 02138
P. (617) 496-2544
ITAMP/HQOC Joint Quantum Sciences Seminar
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
4:30 PM, Jefferson 250
Falko Pientka
“Polaron drag of excitons in semiconductors”
Mobile quantum impurities interacting with a fermionic bath form quasiparticles known as Fermi polarons. We demonstrate that a force applied to the bath particles can generate a drag force of similar magnitude acting on the impurities, realizing a novel, nonperturbative Coulomb drag effect. We apply our theory to excitons interacting with a bath of charge carriers in a doped semiconductor. Our findings establish transport measurements as a novel, powerful tool for probing the many-body physics of mobile quantum impurities.
Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi
“Current instability in a driven 2d electron liquid probed by nanoscale magnetometry”
A moving fluid can become unstable in the presence of an obstruction, leading to a flow pattern that fluctuates in time due to nonlinear dynamics. It has been recently found that some materials host electrons that behave like a collective fluid. In particular, experiments with graphene electrons have demonstrated linear hydrodynamic phenomena, such as viscous drag at sample boundaries, but nonlinear effects have yet to be reported. We observe a AC current instability that develops when driving a DC current through a graphene device in the electron hydrodynamic regime. The current fluctuations are substantially larger than typical electronic noise and broadly peaked in the GHz frequency range. To probe the local structure of the instability, we use diamond NV magnetometry to measure the current fluctuations at the nanoscale. We find that the current fluctuations vary across the sample. Remarkably, some regions exhibit fluctuations that are strongly dependent on the direction of the current, breaking the directional symmetry of the device as would be expected for a fluid instability seeded by disorder. The combined global and local measurements indicate non-linear effects which arise when driving the graphene electron liquid. In addition, this work demonstrates the power of using local magnetometry probes in combination with traditional global measurements to gain deeper insight into electronic phenomena.
Guest Presentation will begin at 4:30 PM (No 10-minute speaker)
Refreshments will be provided.
Samantha Dakoulas
Faculty Assistant to Professors Lukin & Greiner & their groups
Department of Physics
17 Oxford St., Lyman 324A
Cambridge, MA 02138
P. (617) 496-2544
*ITAMP Lunch Seminar*
*Speaker: *Nicholas Rivera (MIT)
*Date:* Thursday, April 5th
*Time:* 12:00-1:00 pm
Includes Pizza.
*Title: Quantum electrodynamics at the surface of a polaritonic medium*
*Abstract: Quantum electrodynamics is one of the most successful theories
in the history of science, d*escribing accurately nearly all known
phenomena involving electromagnetic fields. Central in QED is the concept
of the photon, a quantum of electromagnetic energy with properties such as
energy, momentum, and angular momentum. For photons in complex arrangements
of optical media, these properties are in general very different than in
free space, leading to vastly altered interactions between matter and
electromagnetic fields. As a result, "QED in a medium" features a vast set
of phenomena that either do not exist or are very hard to realize in "free
space QED". For example, QED effects in photonic crystals and optical
cavities have been leveraged to achieve ultrafast spontaneous emission of
light by molecules, vacuum Rabi oscillations, atom-photon bound states in
photonic crystals, and exciton-polariton condensation.
*This talk presents new developments in this field which result
from extreme (nanoscale) confinement of light by optical media supporting
surface polaritons. These polaritons, which include the family of plasmon-,
phonon-, exciton-, or magnon- polaritons, enable new quantum regimes of
interactions with different kinds of matter such as atom-like emitters,
electrons in quantum wells and in electron microscopes, and
ultrarelativistic Dirac fermions. From this theory, we find that nanoscale
confinement of electromagnetic energy enables high-order angular momentum
transfer with light [1], indirect optical transitions
[2], efficient high-order QED processes such as multi-photon spontaneous
emission [3], as well as conversion of plasmons into x-rays and gamma rays
by relativistic electrons, and high-harmonic emission of plasmons by
electrons modulated by mid-to-far-IR driving fields.*
*[1] N. Rivera*, I. Kaminer*, B. Zhen, J.D. Joannopoulos, and M.
Soljacic. Science 353.6296 (2016): 263-269.*
*[2] Y. Kurman, N. Rivera, T. Christensen, S. Tsesses, J.D. Joannopoulos,
M. Soljacic, M. Orenstein, and I. Kaminer. In press.*
*[3] N. Rivera, G. Rosolen, J.D. Joannopoulos, I. Kaminer, and M.
Soljacic. PNAS (2017): 201713538.*
*Location: *B-106 @ Center for Astrophysics (60 Garden Street)
*Directions: *After entering the lobby of the CfA, turn right to enter the
hallway of the B building. In the hallway, turn right again, B-106 will be
at the end of the hallway on the left side.
Dear Group,
This is a quick note to alert everyone that* Monday, April 30th will be
Felix's last day in the lab and I will be on vacation May 1st to the 16th.*
We ask all Group members to think carefully and try to anticipate any
administrative needs they may have during this two week period and alert us
as soon as possible so we may resolve the matter *before April 30th* We
will not be hiring a new Lab Admin, instead, I will take over the
administration of the group upon my return on May 17th-in addition to my
current responsibilities.
Understand that this will likely mean a slower turn around on requests, and
please plan accordingly.
Our very best,
Siria and Felix
--
*Siria Serrano*
*Faculty Assistant*
*Aspuru-Guzik Group*
*Harvard University **Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology*
*12 Oxford St. M 136*
*Cambridge, MA 02138*
*P:** (617) 496-1716 <%28617%29%20496-1716>** F: **617-496-9411
<617-496-9411>*