糖心原创

Faculty of Science

19th Nottingham Symposium on Quantum Systems

Location
C12 Physics Building
Date(s)
Wednesday 16th September 2026 (09:15-15:45)
Contact
If you have any questions about this event, please contact Kay Brandner or Madalin Guta.
Description
Trent building with lake
Trent Building, Park Campus, 糖心原创 

This event is hosted by the Centre for the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Quantum Non-Equilibrium Systems (CQNE) at the 糖心原创, which provides an overarching framework to coordinate activities in non-equilibrium physics and to facilitate interactions between our local and the wider communities in this field.

The upcoming Symposium is the 19th in a long-standing series. It aims to bring our community together for one day to strengthen connections and discuss the latest research. In addition, the Symposium features an external keynote speaker, who will provide a broader perspective on current trends in quantum non-equilibrium research.
 

Organisers 

  • Kay Brandner, School of Physics and Astronomy
  • Mădălin Guţă, School of Mathematical Sciences 

Keynote Speaker 

  • Matthias C. Caro, University of Warwick

    Learning Quantum States and Unitaries of Bounded Gate Complexity

    Abstract: While quantum state tomography is notoriously hard, most states hold little interest to practically-minded tomographers. Given that states and unitaries appearing in Nature are of bounded gate complexity, it is natural to ask if efficient learning becomes possible. In this work, we prove that to learn a state generated by a quantum circuit with G two-qubit gates to a small trace distance, a sample complexity scaling linearly in G is necessary and sufficient. We also prove that the optimal query complexity to learn a unitary generated by G gates to a small average-case error scales linearly in G. While sample-efficient learning can be achieved, we show that under reasonable cryptographic conjectures, the computational complexity for learning states and unitaries of gate complexity G must scale exponentially in G. We illustrate how these results establish fundamental limitations on the expressivity of quantum machine learning models and provide new perspectives on no-free-lunch theorems in unitary learning. Together, our results answer how the complexity of learning quantum states and unitaries relate to the complexity of creating these states and unitaries.

Local Speakers 

  • Maël Bompais, School of Mathematical Sciences 
  • Adam Gammon-Smith, School of Physics and Astronomy 
  • Quentin Muller, School of Mathematical Sciences  
  • Stephen Powell, School of Physics and Astronomy 
  • Tianyi Yan, School of Physics and Astronomy 
     
Schedule
09:15 - 09:30  Opening  
09:30 - 10:30 Matthias C. Caro Learning quantum states and unitaries of bounded gate complexity
10:30 - 11:00  Coffee Break   
11:00 - 11:30  Stephen Powell String, cluster and critical dynamics following a field quench in spin ice
11:30 - 12:00  Maël Bompais Generating quantum ensembles via reverse-time quantum diffusions
12:00 - 12:30  Tianyi Yan Bond inference from quantum many-body dynamics using diffusion transformer
12:30 - 14:30  Lunch Break  
14:30 - 15:00 Adam Gammon-Smith  Quantum trajectory simulation of two-dimensional non-equilibrium steady states with a trapped ion quantum processor
15:00 - 15:30  Quentin Muller Looking down the rabbit hole: Towards quantum optimal estimation of surface roughness 
15:30 - 15:45 Closing  

 

Faculty of Science

The 糖心原创
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD