Quantum and classical complexity of measurement-based quantum computation

We are recruiting new Doctoral Researchers to our EPSRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) PhD studentships starting 1 October 2024. Applications are invited for the project title Quantum and classical complexity of measurement-based quantum computation

Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend (bursary) of £21,237, including inner London weighting, plus payment of their full-time home tuition fees for a period of 42 months (3.5 years).

You should be eligible for home (UK) tuition fees there are a very limited number (no more than three) of studentships available to overseas applicants, including EU nationals, who meet the academic entry criteria including English Language proficiency.

You will join the internationally recognised researchers in the Department of Mathematics research and PhD programmes | Brunel University London

The Project

An important open problem is the question of when quantum systems can or cannot be simulated efficiently using classical computers and when they can enable quantum computation. This question has broad connections to many-body physics, the foundations of quantum theory and hidden variable models, and to quantum computation. The project’s broad aim is to study this problem in the context of quantum systems for which measurement plays an important role. While we anticipate the initial focus of the project to be related to the principal supervisor’s recent works (e.g. Rudolph & Virmani, Nature Communications 14, 78000 (2023), or Atallah et. al, Quantum 8, 1243 (2024)), students will be encouraged to pursue fruitful scientific questions independently, or with other co-authors should the opportunity arise. The university mandated two step application process described below is designed for many different disciplines, and so to enable shortlisting applicants must also separately send a covering email to the supervisor shashank.virmani@brunel.ac.uk with their CV and transcript attached.

Please contact Dr Shashank Virmani at shashank.virmani@brunel.ac.uk for an informal discussion about the studentships.

Eligibility

Applicants will have or be expected to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree in an Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics or a similar discipline. A Postgraduate Masters degree is not required but may be an advantage.

Skills and Experience

Applicants will be required to demonstrate the following skills;

• A background in physics, mathematics, theoretical computer science or a related subject.
• A strong interest in quantum computing, quantum information theory, theoretical physics, or the foundations of quantum theory.
• A strong sense of curiosity, and a willingness to persist and tinker with a problem to obtain results.
• A willingness to work on imaginative and creative problems where the answer might be far from obvious.

You should be highly motivated, able to work independently as well as in a team, collaborate with others and have good communication skills.

How to apply

There are two stages of the application:

1.Applicants must submit the pre-application form via the following link

https://brunel.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/epsrc-dtp-24-25-pre-application-form-brunel-university-lon

by 16.00 on Friday 5th April 2024.

2.If you are shortlisted for the interview, you will be asked to email the following documentation in a single PDF file to cedps-studentships@brunel.ac.uk within 72hrs.

• Your up-to-date CV;
• Your Undergraduate degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) essential;
• Your Postgraduate Masters degree certificate(s) and transcript(s) if applicable;
• Your valid English Language qualification of IELTS 6.5 overall (minimum 6.0 in each section) or equivalent, if applicable;
• Contact details for TWO referees, one of which can be an academic member of staff in the College.

Applicants should therefore ensure that they have all of this information in case they are shortlisted.

Interviews will take place in April/May 2024.