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Steven Thomson

@physicssteve.bsky.social
828 followers 330 following 88 posts

EPSRC Open Fellow in quantum condensed matter theory at the University of Edinburgh. Former Research Scientist at IBM Research, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at FU Berlin, and postdocs at Collège de France, the Ecole Polytechnique and CEA Saclay. He/him.

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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
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
An animation showing the convergence of our new excited state preparation algorithm.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
This appeared on a wall at work recently and it makes me laugh every time I see it. Well played, anonymous art critic. 😄
A mark on a wall with a joke museum-style description attached underneath.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
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". 😅
Image of a job advert containing a grammatical error in a requirement for clear communication skills.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
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. 🥹
A screenshot of an audio recording program.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
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...
theguardian.com
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
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
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!
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
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.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
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. 👀
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
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.
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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
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...
nature.com
Microsoft quantum computing 'breakthrough' faces fresh challenge
Analysis pokes holes in protocol that underpins Microsoft’s claim to have created the first topological qubits.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
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...
bbc.com
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.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
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. 😅
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Henry Legg @henrylegg.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
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
arxiv.org
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...
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John Preskill @preskill.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
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
arxiv.org
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...
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Just leaving this here, from the very beginning of the peer review file of the new Microsoft paper (www.nature.com/articles/s41...).
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."
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
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...
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com
Postdoctoral Research Associate
The Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems is recruiting one Postdoctoral Research Associate to work with Dr Steven Thomson on the EPSRC funded project “Disorder in Open Quantum Systems”. ...
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
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. 😅
media.tenor.com
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."
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
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...!
My PhD thesis.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Today is a good day. Huge thanks to NVIDIA for supporting my work via their Academic Grant program!
A stack of four NVIDIA GPUs to be used for my research work.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
I seem to have turned up to this afternoon's QSL seminar in camouflage. 🥷
An image of a jumper sleeve the same colour as the chair.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
As a good friend of mine said earlier today - to lost futures.
A large glass of American whiskey.
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Dr Maria Violaris @mariaviolaris.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Hello! 👋 Who’s here on Bluesky from the quantum community? Follow recommendations welcome!
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
I'm having a moral/ethical quandary about this year's APS meeting. I'm deeply uncomfortable at the idea of contributing to events in the US happening under the new political administration, but a boycott of US conferences seems like a feeble, ineffective and possibly misguided way to protest.
Decision screen for whether to participate in the APS Global Physics Summit.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Obligatory 'first day back at work, trying to remember what I do for a living' post. 😅
media.tenor.com
a man in a suit and tie is giving a speech on physics
Alt: David Tennant in Doctor Who repeating the word 'physics' over and over.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
The NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada GPU is, obviously, not the same as the NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU which you can tell by the fact that almost all of the letters are identical and in the same order. NVIDIA must be following the Ibanez guitars school of naming things. (I'm looking at you, RGIT27FE-NTF.)
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Some wonderful news this morning, courtesy of NVIDIA!
An email announcing the award of four NVIDIA RTX 6000 GPUs as part of a grant.
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Why is anyone allowed to call these tools “intelligence”? Surely advertising standards should intervene. It’s machine learning, which is really just advanced statistics. It’s not intelligent, and it can’t be trusted to get the sense of a text right. Calling it intelligence is dangerously seductive.
Headline: BBC says it has complained to Apple over AI-generated fake news attributed to broadcaster.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
I have received two ridiculously big screens and I kind of love them. 😍 (Fret not, I've moved things around to be a bit more ergonomic since this photo was taken. 🙃)
An image of a desk with two very large computer screens.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
This is actually one of the most sober, balanced articles about Willow that I've seen so far. No breathless hype, no vitriolic hate. Nice job, PC Gamer. www.pcgamer.com/hardware/goo...
pcgamer.com
Google's WIllow chip is a big leap towards usable quantum computing but its claim of beating a classical computer by a 'septillion years' is meaningless
Not that you'd be adding one to your gaming PC, sadly. Or any PC, for that matter.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Fellowship opportunity! 🚨 The School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh is calling for applications to the Elizabeth Gardner Fellowship, a 4 year fellowship aimed at early career researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. www.ph.ed.ac.uk/research/res...
ph.ed.ac.uk
Elizabeth Gardner Fellowship
Application details.
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Sarah Cosgriff 🏳️‍🌈🇵🇭 @acescicomm.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Are you looking for public engagement or science communication training? I have availability in 2025! My training offer: www.sarahcosgriff.com/pe-training If you are interested in a bespoke training session, please get in touch. Pls give this a repost for more visibility! #scicomm
Sarah writing some words on some flipchart paper.
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qctip2025.bsky.social @qctip2025.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Submissions for QCTiP 2025 are now open.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Time is running out to apply for a Bell Burnell PhD scholarship at the University of Edinburgh. If you're eligible, get in touch with us before December 10th! I'd be overjoyed to support anyone interested in applying for one of these scholarships to join my team. www.iop.org/about/suppor...
iop.org
Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund
Apply now to the innovative fund instigated by leading physicist Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the Institute of Physics to encourage greater diversity in physics.
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Rishi Sreedhar @rishisr33dhar.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Hey #Quantumsky 👋🏾 This is an attempt at indexing the growing quantum community here on Bluesky. Please let me know if you'd like to be added to the list. Genuinely happy to see what looks like a successful migration from the birdsite 😄 go.bsky.app/VHXg1yi
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Time is running out to apply for a Bell Burnell PhD scholarship at the University of Edinburgh. If you're eligible, get in touch with us before December 10th! I'd be overjoyed to support anyone interested in applying for one of these scholarships to join my team. www.iop.org/about/suppor...
iop.org
Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund
Apply now to the innovative fund instigated by leading physicist Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the Institute of Physics to encourage greater diversity in physics.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Eight years ago today...! Best eight years of my life. 🙂
An image of me at my PhD graduation.An image of me at my PhD graduation.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Really enjoyed tonight's (belated) inaugural lecture by Prof. Christos Leonidopoulos about the Higgs boson and the future of high energy physics. Being surrounded by so much inspiring stuff at Edinburgh has me more excited about physics than I've been in a long time. 😃
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
It's turned into a very spin glass heavy week for me, somehow. I gave a talk on (classical) spin glasses to Kipu Quantum, attended a talk on quantum spin glasses by Bernard Derrida, and now I'm writing up notes for a mini-lecture/journal club next week on the dynamics of quantum spin glasses.
Start of some notes describing the Dynamics of a Quantum Spin Glass, with a reference to PRB 59 915 (1999).
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Looking forward to getting back to my roots tomorrow and giving a talk to the Kipu Quantum team about spin glasses!
A partial abstract for a talk on spin glasses.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
I've been in this job for 26 days and I'm already drowning in a sea of emails that I haven't had time to respond to. Have I just leveled up as an academic?
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Here we go! I'm advertising two PhD projects in the School of Physics & Astronomy! One is all about developing new ways to model open quantum systems: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/phd-projects... The other is about disorder and many-body localisation: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/phd-projects... Just ask for more info!
ph.ed.ac.uk
Non-equilibrium Dynamics of Open Quantum Systems
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Upon a closer look, it's also exciting to see that the authors may have found a very simple way around one of the main sources of error I encountered in the long-time dynamics, which is very cool indeed. 😃
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Incredibly exciting (for me, at least) to see the first paper out based on the Tensor Flow Equation method that I developed. The authors investigate Stark many-body localisation in 1D and 2D and find some intriguing results! arxiv.org/abs/2411.14527
arxiv.org
Investigating Stark MBL with Continuous Unitary Transformation Flows
We investigate the ergodicity-to-localization transition in interacting fermion systems subjected to a spatially uniform electric field. For that we employ the recently proposed Tensorflow Equations (...
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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Wishing the Elsevier editors who desk-accepted this all the best for their next career moves. doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
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Jens Eisert @jenseisert.bsky.social · 29/08/2024
Unravelling quantum dynamics using flow equations. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Combining flow equations with scrambling techniques and error bounds, we present a new way to address the classical simulation of quantum dynamics for intermediate times.
nature.com
Unravelling quantum dynamics using flow equations - Nature Physics
The complexity of a many-body quantum state grows exponentially with system size, hindering numerical studies. A unitary flow-based method now enables accurate estimates of long-term properties of one...
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Here we go! I'm advertising two PhD projects in the School of Physics & Astronomy! One is all about developing new ways to model open quantum systems: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/phd-projects... The other is about disorder and many-body localisation: www.ph.ed.ac.uk/phd-projects... Just ask for more info!
ph.ed.ac.uk
Non-equilibrium Dynamics of Open Quantum Systems
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
My phone's autocorrect changes 'quantum' to 'Quentin' so often that it must be getting to me. I just typed 'Quentin mechanics' in an email I'm writing on my laptop.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Coming soon...! 😉
Image of a website showing a text prompt to add a new PhD project listing to the university website.
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I have learned today that the particle physicists have the best coffee in the building, but that it is hidden away in their meeting room behind a keycode-locked door. 👀
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Steven Thomson @physicssteve.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I'm glad I haven't been forgotten by my IBM colleagues. 😅
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