Prof. Aram W Harrow

Professor of Physics

Assistant

Charles Suggs
csuggs@mit.edu

Areas of Interest and Expertise

Quantum Algorithms
Information and Complexity Theory
Representation Theory
Optimization

Research Summary

Professor Harrow's research focuses on quantum information and computing. He works to understand the capabilities of the quantum computers and quantum communication devices we will build in the future, and in the process, he creates connections to other areas of theoretical physics, mathematics and computer science.

As a graduate student, Harrow developed the idea of "coherent classical communication", which along with his work on the resource inequality method, has greatly simplified our understanding of quantum information theory. Harrow has also done foundational work on the role of representation theory in quantum algorithms and quantum information theory. In 2008, Harrow, Hassidim and Lloyd developed a quantum algorithm for solving linear systems of equations that provides a rare example of an exponential quantum speedup for a practical problem. Recently Harrow has been investigating properties of entanglement, such as approximate "superselection" and "monogamy"

principles. The goal of this work is to better understand not only entanglement and its uses, but also the related areas of quantum communication, many-body physics and even convex optimization.

Recent Work