activity
20242026
collaborators

7 papers

quant-ph2026

SYK thermal expectations are classically easy at any temperature

Alexander Zlokapa, Bobak T. Kiani

Estimating thermal expectations of local observables is a natural target for quantum advantage. We give a simple classical algorithm that approximates thermal expectations for Gibb…

quant-ph2026

Optimizing Sparse SYK

Matthew Ding, Robbie King, Bobak T. Kiani +1

Finding the ground state of strongly-interacting fermionic systems is often the prerequisite for fully understanding both quantum chemistry and condensed matter systems. The Sachde…

quant-ph2025

Average-case quantum complexity from glassiness

Alexander Zlokapa, Bobak T. Kiani, Eric R. Anschuetz

Glassiness -- a phenomenon in physics characterized by a rough free-energy landscape -- implies hardness for stable classical algorithms. For example, it can obstruct constant-time…

quant-ph2024

Slow Mixing of Quantum Gibbs Samplers

David Gamarnik, Bobak T. Kiani, Alexander Zlokapa

Preparing thermal (Gibbs) states is a common task in physics and computer science. Recent algorithms mimic cooling via system-bath coupling, where the cost is determined by mixing…

quant-ph2024

Combinatorial NLTS From the Overlap Gap Property

Eric R. Anschuetz, David Gamarnik, Bobak Kiani

In an important recent development, Anshu, Breuckmann, and Nirkhe [ABN22] resolved positively the so-called No Low-Energy Trivial State (NLTS) conjecture by Freedman and Hastings.…

quant-ph2024

Strongly interacting fermions are non-trivial yet non-glassy

Eric R. Anschuetz, Chi-Fang Chen, Bobak T. Kiani +1

Random spin systems at low temperatures are glassy and feature computational hardness in finding low-energy states. We study the random all-to-all interacting fermionic Sachdev--Ye…