Chinmay Nirkhe

Hello, I am a PhD candidate in the Theory Group at UC Berkeley. Starting in Dec 2022, I will be a Research Scientist with IBM Quantum. 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
California Institute of Technology
B.S. Mathematics, B.S. Computer Science. 2013 - 2017

CV

Papers and Talks

All authorships are alphabetically listed and signify equal contribution.

The parametrized complexity of quantum verification
Srinivasan Arunachalam, Sergey Bravyi, Chinmay Nirkhe, and Bryan O'Gorman.
TQC 2022.
[arXiv:2202.08119]
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] [Recorded Talks/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.
[arXiv:2011.02044] [Proceedings Version] [Recorded 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] [Recorded 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] [Recorded 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] [Recorded 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:
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)

Contact Information

nirkhe@cs.berkeley.edu
Room 615 Soda Hall Berkeley, Calif. 94720
Pronouns: he/him