Chinmay Nirkhe

Hello, I am a research staff member with IBM Quantum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My research interests are in theoretical computer science centered around quantum information and hardness of approximation. Recently, I've been thinking about the quantum PCP conjecture and achievable tasks for noisy quantum devices.

Education

• University of California, Berkeley
  Ph.D. Computer Science. 2017 - 2022
  Advisor: Umesh Vazirani
  Thesis: Lower bounds on the complexity of quantum proofs
• California Institute of Technology
  B.S. Mathematics, B.S. Computer Science. 2013 - 2017
  

CV

Papers and Talks

• NLTS Hamiltonians from good quantum codes
  Anurag Anshu, Nikolas Breuckmann, and Chinmay Nirkhe.
  [arXiv:2206.13228] [News Article] [Simons Institute Blog Post] [Talks/Slides]
  • INTRIQ Biannual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, October 2022.
  • Columbia University Seminar, October 2022.
  • UT Austin, September 2022.
  • Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB, September 2022.
  • CIQC Seminar, UC Berkeley, August 2022.
  • My PhD dissertation, UC Berkeley, August 2022 (slides).
  • Stanford University Institute for Theoretical Physics, August 2022.
  • University of Sydney, July 2022.
  • IBM Quantum Research Group, July 2022.
• The parametrized complexity of quantum verification
  Srinivasan Arunachalam, Sergey Bravyi, Chinmay Nirkhe, and Bryan O'Gorman.
  TQC 2022.
  [arXiv:2202.08119] [Proceedings Version] [Talks/Slides]
  • Theory of Quantum Computation, July 2022. (slides)
  • University of Maryland QuICS Seminar, June 2022.
  • IBM Quantum Research Group, September 2021. (slides)
• Quantum search-to-decision and the state synthesis problem
  Sandy Irani, Anand Natarajan, Chinmay Nirkhe, Sujit Rao, and Henry Yuen.
  QIP 2022. CCC 2022.
  [arXiv:2111.02999] [Proceedings Version] [Talks/Slides]
  • Computational Complexity Conference, July 2022. (slides)
  • University of Maryland QuICS Seminar, June 2022. (slides)
  • UC Berkeley Theory Lunch Seminar, April 2022.
  • Quantum Information Processing 2022, March 2022.
  • UT Austin Scott Aaronson Group Meeting, December 2021. (slides)
• Circuit lower bounds for low-energy states of quantum code Hamiltonians
  Anurag Anshu and Chinmay Nirkhe.
  ITCS 2022. QIP 2021. Theory of Computing 2022.
  [arXiv:2011.02044] [Proceedings Version] [Talks/Slides]
  • Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science, February 2022. (video)
  • Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Quantum Wave in Computing Reunion Workshop, July 2021. (video)
  • Stanford Patrick Hayden's Group Quantum Seminar, July 2021.
  • Caltech Thomas Vidick's group Quantum Seminar, March 2021.
  • Quantum Information Processing 2021, February 2021. (slides | video)
  • Quantum Code Design and Architectures Seminar, November 2020. (video)
  • University of Texas, Austin and MIT Joint Quantum Seminar, December 2020. (slides | video)
• Good approximate quantum LDPC codes from spacetime circuit Hamiltonians
  Thom Bohdanowicz, Elizabeth Crosson, Chinmay Nirkhe, and Henry Yuen.
  STOC 2019. QIP 2019. QEC 2019.
  [arXiv:1811.00277] [Proceedings Version] [Talks/Slides]
  • Symposium on the Theory of Computing, June 2019. (slides | poster)
  • University of Waterloo IQC Seminar, April 2019. (slides)
  • UC Berkeley Theory Lunch, February 2019.
  • Berkeley Quantum Information & Computation Center Seminar, December 2018. (slides)
• On the complexity and verification of random circuit sampling
  Adam Bouland, Bill Fefferman, Chinmay Nirkhe, and Umesh Vazirani.
  Nature Physics 2018. ITCS 2019. QIP 2019.
  [arXiv:1803.04402] [Journal Version] [News Article] [Notes] [Talks/Slides]

  A previous version of this paper appeared under the title: 'Quantum Supremacy and the Complexity of Random Circuit Sampling'.

  • Indian Symposium on Quantum Information and Technology (ISQIT) Pune, India, December 2019. (slides)
  • University of Toronto Computer Science / Quantum Information Seminar, March 2019. (slides | video)
  • Poster at Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS) 2019 San Diego, Calif. (poster)
  • IIT Kanpur Computer Science Seminar, December 2018. (slides)
  • Simons Institute Industry Day Lightning Talks, May 2018
  • UC Berkeley Visit Days, March 2018. (slides)
• Approximate low-weight check codes and circuit lower bounds for noisy ground states
  Chinmay Nirkhe, Umesh Vazirani, and Henry Yuen.
  ICALP 2018. TQC 2018.
  [arXiv:1802.07419] [Proceedings Version] [Talks/Slides]
  • Theory of Quantum Computing, July 2018. (slides)
  • Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics Seminar, May 2018. (slides)
  • Caltech IQIM, February 2018.

Teaching

• UC Berkeley:
  • (Lecturer) CS 294-222: Quantum Interactive Protocols
  • (TA) The Mathematics of Quantum Computation: The 4th Winter School, Hebrew University
  • (TA) CS 294-6: Quantum Computation
  • (TA) CS 170: Efficient Algorithms and Intractable Problems (my course page)
  • (TA) UCSD Trends in Theory 2018 on Quantum Computation
• Caltech:
  • (TA) CS 21: Decidability and Tractability
  • (TA) CS 38: Introduction to Algorithms (lecture notes)
  • (TA) CS 156a: Learning Systems
  • (TA) CS 139: Advanced Algorithms (various notes)

Program Committees

Contact Information

• nirkhe@ibm.com
• IBM Research, 314 Main St Cambridge, Mass. 02142
• he/him