The research in the field of quantum will lead to a deep understanding of the advantages of the field and will make it possible to improve the technology, says Amit Thani, a doctoral student at the Faculty of Engineering in Bar Ilan who recently won the HOT scholarship program for outstanding doctoral students in quantum science and technology
About 100 years ago, the first quantum revolution occurred, in which quantum theory was discovered and completely changed our understanding of the natural world. Today, many organizations all over the world are investing a lot of resources in the development of quantum technologies and this process is sometimes referred to as the 'second quantum revolution'.
Meet Amit Thani, a PhD student in the Faculty of Engineering, who recently won the HOT scholarship program for outstanding PhD students in quantum science and technology. "My research focuses on a field called "quantum information theory", says Thani, "this is a diverse field with many faces, of which I currently focus on two main aspects: the theory of quantum computation, and the geometric structure of quantum information theory".
Thani says that this revolution strives to realize the potential of quantum physics and harness it for the benefit of humanity. "The goal of my research is to better understand what we can do with these technologies in the future - and also what we can't do. My research may even help find the best possible quantum algorithm for a given problem."
Thani says he finds great beauty in the rich structure of quantum systems that 'emerge naturally' when they are studied. Beauty is closely related to many ideas and open problems in mathematics and physics: "It has been known for 30 years that there are certain computational tasks for which quantum computers have an advantage over ordinary (classical) computers, and yet we still do not have a thorough understanding of the circumstances under which such a quantum advantage is obtained, or how to quantify it. In my research concerning quantum computing, I use the tools of information theory to characterize the quantum advantage for a certain type of computational tasks, called oracle problems."
In the context of computer science, Oracle is a kind of "black box" that contains some information. We cannot open the box, but only ask her questions about the contents. In oracle problems, our goal is to learn something about the contents of the box by asking a minimum number of questions.
In his free time, Thani writes his own poems and short stories as well as jokes about science and mathematics on his Facebook page, 'Local Dialect'. Regarding studying on campus, he notes that although he did not study his first degrees at Bar-Ilan, he feels at home on campus. "The campus is very beautiful, and I have many close friends here at the university. There is always someone in the area with whom you can sit for a cup of coffee, take a walk outside or just talk."
