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Zoe Holmes

@qzoeholmes.bsky.social
1.1K followers 835 following 113 posts

Quantum physicist. Assistant Prof at EPFL. Climber.

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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Given the “constant” papers topping SciRate today we maybe should have used: “Constant-depth quantum and polynomial-time classical simulation of open systems” [That is, constant circuit depth in n vs. classically polynomial in t and inverse accuracy, with an exponent that grows as noise weakens]
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Once a year I forget why I don’t cycle in a wrap dress. Yesterday was that day.
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
On my last three long-haul day flights (BA, SWISS and Korean Air) the cabin has gone dark after lunch for around 9 hours, despite daylight in both time zones at either end Has anyone else noticed this? Does nobody need light any more?? Judith Kerr, lightly updated for the long-haul day flights:
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Experimentalists have air con and dilution fridges. We have three fans, classical thermodynamics, and optimism [desperation].
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I had heard that AI had a tendancy to change female author names to male names but this is the first time I’ve seen it myself: [This was spotted in arXiv:2601.18060 by @supanut-thanasilp.bsky.social]
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Mark M. Wilde @markwilde.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I'll give a talk "Canonical quantization of neurons" tomorrow during @qzoeholmes.bsky.social 's group meeting at 7am US Eastern time / 1pm Swiss time. The talk will be about my joint work with Alexander He & Nana Liu: arxiv.org/abs/2605.24386 Zoom link available here: epfl.zoom.us/j/6555745834...
epfl.zoom.us
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Me to my students:
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
I have now put out four papers this year that were either scooped or pre-emptive anti-scoops (joint posts). Being scooped has bad press, but it is increasingly establishing itself as my most reliable project-management system. 10/10, highly recommend.
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Ricard Puig @pvricard.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Small angle initialization now comes to quantum generative modeling! 🧵 In this work, we study the MMD loss landscape of quantum circuit Born machines and show the effects of data-dependent and agnostic initializations. scirate.com/arxiv/2603.1... #quantum #quantumcomputing #qml
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
And so (potentially against my better judgement) I find myself again at the March Meeting (trauma fades, mistakes repeat etc) If you are around and fancy a chat get in touch!
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Hey, we have new quantum algs for computing operator hydrodynamic quantities (otocs, magic, etc) The trick is that these quantities are naturally computed in the Heisenberg picture but we can turn them to states via vectorization Also @shaohenc.bsky.social's new here & you should follow him! 🧵👇
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Supanut Thanasilp @supanut-thanasilp.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Last call for abstracts! Join us for Quantum Information by the beach in Thailand ⚛️ 🏖️🇹🇭 The 2nd International Conference on Siam Quantum Science and Technology (SQST 2026), happening May 18 – 21, 2026, in beautiful Jomtien, Chonburi, Thailand! 🌊 🔗Abstract Submission& Further Info: www.sqst2026.org
sqst2026.org
Siam Quantum Science and Technology (SQST 2026)
The 2nd International Conference on Siam Quantum Science and Technology
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
My group are training for our debut in 2030...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
We've studied iterative strategies for finding ground states We use the ground state of an easy Hamiltonian to `warm start' finding the ground states for some harder Hamiltonians We derive gradient guarantees that (as for adiabatic methods) depend on the gap and a few other natural properties 🧵👇
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Hey - we've extended Pauli and Majorana propagation to simulating thermal states The trick is to imaginary-time evolve identity and then normalize by the trace of the Pauli (or Majorana) sum at the end The catch is that both our analytics and numerics suggest it only works at high temperatures 🧵👇
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Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Every week you get a new chance to finish your paper by the end of the week.
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Stefan Knecht has written up a nice summary of Garnet Chan's new paper "No, FeMoCo hasn’t been entirely solved but for its gold-standard active space model (the model QC folks have been looking at), there is now a classical benchmark which provides an excellent baseline for any quantum work." 🧵👇
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
The Fields Institute (Toronto) has this summer a "Thematic Program on Optimal Transport in Natural Sciences and Statistics" I see this as a chance for quantum folk to chat with optimal transport experts to see if it could help them e.g. understand trainability questions or develop new quantum algs.
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
And the results of the annual Quantum Physics 2 meme competition are in… 🥁 🪘🛢️🍗 in fifth place we have a meme that I secretly have a lot of sympathy for…
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
I made the bold decision to host my group's Christmas dinner/party Chaos persued 'Team cooking' arranged a four course meal featuring a whole salmon, capon, lamb shoulder and countless sides/desserts. Followed by crackers, secret santa and slide karaoke Miraculously only one glass was broken
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Manuel Rudolph @quantummanuel.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Yanting is keeping you updated on our efforts to continually improve propagation algorithms and our code-base PauliPropagation.jl. This time with memory savings and increased robustness to truncations for simulating quantum systems with certain symmetries ⬆️ ➡️ ⬇️ ⬅️ Expect more in the future! 🚀
github.com
GitHub - MSRudolph/PauliPropagation.jl: A Julia library for Pauli propagation simulation of quantum circuits and quantum systems.
A Julia library for Pauli propagation simulation of quantum circuits and quantum systems. - MSRudolph/PauliPropagation.jl
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Yanting Teng @yteng.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Happy to share our paper: Leveraging Symmetry Merging in Pauli Propagation scirate.com/arxiv/2512.1... tl;dr We improve standard Pauli propagation by merging Pauli strings related by symmetry. Shoutout to my collaborators @sueyeonchung.bsky.social @quantummanuel.bsky.social @qzoeholmes.bsky.social
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Hey we've just updated the arXiv version of our Majorana propagation paper We now have end-to-end efficiency guarantees for a randomized model of an adaptVQE-like circuit (Our error bounds here are way tighter than the ones for pauli prop and also use a new Markov chain based proof strategy)
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Sit down & buckle up. Behind this rather innocent title is the paper that caused the most fraught arguments of any of my career. Are these arguments important? Probably not. Am I going to tell you them anyway? Absolutely. Here is the story of a rollercoaster of a paper. 🎢👇
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Richard Kueng @richardkueng.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
(I/III) We're excited to announce a new tenure track opening! The position is called 'quantum informatics' and is affiliated with our QUICK group within the CS+AI division at @jku.at 🇦🇹. Application deadline is November 30th, 2025: www.jku.at/en/the-jku/w...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Applications for the LANL quantum computing summer school are now open! I recently got asked about the most important turning points of my career and without hesistation said the LANL summer school. The first 1/3 of this video is me rambling about why it was so special: youtu.be/XjkHmtr_IT0?...
youtu.be
Prix Zonta 2025 EPFL : Zoë Holmes
YouTube video by B&Co Communication
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Marco Cerezo @mvscerezo.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Our group is looking to hire postdocs to work at the intersection of quantum computing, quantum algorithms, quantum machine learning, simulation of many-body quantum systems and early-fault tolerant quantum computing Apply here: lanl.jobs/search/jobde... Reposts appreciated!
lanl.jobs
Quantum Computing and Early Fault-Tolerant Simulations at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is Hiring! Search available jobs or submit your resume now by visiting this link. Please share with anyone you feel would be a great fit.
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The Hilbert Space Post @hilbertspacepost.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
A new article introduces a continuous-variable analogue of the Pauli propagation algorithm, called Displacement Propagation. Surprisingly, non-Gaussianity and symplectic coherence can make the system easier to simulate when noise is present. arxiv.org/abs/2510.07264
arxiv.org
When quantum resources backfire: Non-gaussianity and symplectic coherence in noisy bosonic circuits
Analyzing the impact of noise is of fundamental importance to understand the advantages provided by quantum systems. While the classical simulability of noisy discrete-variable systems is increasingly...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Among todays mad arxiv overflow is our preprint: "When quantum resources backfire: Non-gaussianity and symplectic coherence in noisy bosonic circuits" We introduce a path propagation classical simulation alg for bosonic circuits And find a funky interplay between quantum resources and noise 🧵👇
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Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Quantum arXiv today.
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
We provide evidence of an exponential gap between adaptive & nonadaptive strategies for a quantum recompilation task Key takeaways: - Entanglement isn’t always a roadblock: its degree can aid training - Discrete optimization may be key to finding sweet spots between concentration & surrogation
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
EPFL are recruiting a tenure track assistant proff working on the theory of condensed matter and interacting quantum matter: www.epfl.ch/about/workin... Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about life at EPFL/in Switzerland etc.
epfl.ch
Faculty Position in Theory of Condensed Matter and Interacting Quantum Matter
The School of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) at EPFL seeks to appoint a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in condensed matter theory with a focus on interacting quantum matter. Can...
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James Wootton @decodoku.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Tenure track assistant prof job up for grabs in Basel. It's quantum computing theory, based in computer science, and part of the NCCR SPIN. Whoever gets this job will probably have to collaborate with me. Whether you see that as a pro or con is up to you. jobs.unibas.ch/offene-stell...
jobs.unibas.ch
Universität Basel: Tenure-track Assistant Professorship in Theoretical Quantum Computing
The University of Basel, Switzerland, invites applications for a professorship in theoretical quantum computing. The University of Basel is the home institution of the Swiss National Center of Compete...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Also, sharing for friends: Anyone fancy a (minimal teaching load) tenure track position on quantum computing on a sunny island 🌤️ 🏝️? The Cyprus Institute are also hiring a tenure track assistant proff on quantum algorithms. onlinerecruitment.exelsyslive.com?c=6E7274A2-8... (Deadline next week)
onlinerecruitment.exelsyslive.com
Exelsys - Online Job Application
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Fancy being (academic) neighbours? The University of Basel are hiring a tenure-track assistant professor in theoretical quantum computing: jobs.unibas.ch/offene-stell...
jobs.unibas.ch
Universität Basel: Tenure-track Assistant Professorship in Theoretical Quantum Computing
The University of Basel, Switzerland, invites applications for a professorship in theoretical quantum computing. The University of Basel is the home institution of the Swiss National Center of Compete...
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Marco Cerezo @mvscerezo.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
I am so, so happy to see this article published as a perspective in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41... More than the paper itself, I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with all my co-authors on the implications of the absence of BPs ~ classical simulability connection
nature.com
Does provable absence of barren plateaus imply classical simulability? - Nature Communications
There has been growing evidence that strategies to circumvent the barren plateau problem in variational quantum computing might also kill potential quantum advantages. In this Perspective, the authors...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
I highly recommend @joachimfavre.bsky.social’s typed lecture notes for my quantum info course and on (quantum) computer science more generally 👇 (To give credit where it’s due my quantum info lectures built in turn on @davidbjennings.bsky.social’s brilliant quantum info lecture notes)
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
Hey! We've put out a paper discussing some pitfalls in attempts to avoid barren plateaus/exponential concentration in variational quantum algortithms and QML. 🧵👇
media.tenor.com
a duck standing on a snowy surface with a few ducklings behind it
ALT: a duck standing on a snowy surface with a few ducklings behind it
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
EPFL are recruiting a tenure track assistant proff working on the theory of condensed matter and interacting quantum matter: www.epfl.ch/about/workin... Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about life at EPFL/in Switzerland etc.
epfl.ch
Faculty Position in Theory of Condensed Matter and Interacting Quantum Matter
The School of Basic Sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) at EPFL seeks to appoint a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in condensed matter theory with a focus on interacting quantum matter. Can...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
We thank the reviewer for bringing this citation to our attention...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Here's a new perspective on why Grover’s algorithm algorithm works: Unstructured search can be written as ground state problem. Then Grover's is just a product formula approximation of imaginary-time evolution or, equivalently, a Riemannian gradient flow on SU(d) to find this ground state.
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Each year EPFL physics students vote for their best lecturers This year, for the first time, the top 3 were all women www.epfl.ch/schools/sb/s... I don't know if this is EPFL students being progressive, or a wider phenomenon, but things have certainly improved since my time as an undergrad...
epfl.ch
Craie d’or 2025
SPH
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Retweeting this for the folks (myself included) that weren't online over the long weekend PauliPropagation.jl is open source library that you can use to approximately simulate quantum circuits We explain the nitty gritty of how these algorithms work in practise in our latest companion paper 🧵👇
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Thiparat Chotibut @thipchotibut.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Wondering whether simply scaling up system sizes and cranking up chaos really supercharges a quantum reservoir, or if dissipation is really a resource at scale? 🌀 We demystify these QRC myths in our new preprint: [scirate.com/arxiv/2505.10080] 🧵 Key takeaways in a great thread below!👇
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IOPP Quantum @iopp-quantum.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Open for submissions: Focus on Perspectives on the Future of Variational Quantum Computing Find out more here: ow.ly/fR1W50Uu1av Guest editors: ✍️ Marco Cerezo @mvscerezo.bsky.social ✍️ Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Today we posted a paper showing how a double-bracket quantum algorithm can implement quantum signal processing (DB-QSP), i.e., apply polynomial functions of operators to states. Crucially our approach doesn't need any post-selection - but this comes at the expense of increased circuit depths.
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Marco Cerezo @mvscerezo.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
🎉I am very happy to see our Barren Plateau Review published in Nature Review Physics. This article condenses 6 years of our LANL work, but also so many amazing papers by the community!! Check it here 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s42...
nature.com
Barren plateaus in variational quantum computing - Nature Reviews Physics
Barren plateaus are widely considered as one of the main limitations for variational quantum algorithms. This Review summarizes the latest understandings of barren plateaus, indicating its causes, arc...
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Zoe Holmes @qzoeholmes.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Hey! On the arXiv today we present `Majorana Propagation’ a new classical algorithm for simulating Fermionic circuits. Depending on your mood... the algorithm can be viewed either as naturally suited to compete with, or collaboratively enhance, quantum hardware simulations.
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