When undergraduate student Alex Martin came across a physics concept he hadn’t seen before, he decided to look into it.
“Initially, it was the name,” he laughed. “The name sounds pretty cool.”
Alex searched for academic papers that would help him get a basic understanding of the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm, but came up mostly empty-handed.
“I couldn’t find any accessible papers,” Alex said. “Like, they were way over my head. All of them. Very few of them went into depth about how the algorithm functions.”
But his curiosity kept him going.
“On the first day of my Quantum Computing class, Alex asked if we were going to cover the variational quantum eigensolver,” said Physics Professor Dr. Jeff Martin. “I responded ‘What’s that?’”
After exploring the topic himself, Dr. Martin developed an example for the class. That led to the pair co-publishing an academic paper in the European Journal of Physics.
“If I had found a paper like the one we wrote,” Alex explained, “it would have been a lot easier for me to learn about this algorithm.”
One of my favourite things about UWinnipeg is how accessible the professors are.
Alex Martin
Studying the hyperfine interaction using the variational quantum eigensolver is an open access paper that explains the VQE algorithm “from the bottom up”.
“Most papers assume that you have knowledge already about the VQE algorithm,” Alex said. “Most VQE papers are less about the algorithm itself and more about using the algorithm to solve something on a quantum computer.”
The paper Alex and Dr. Martin co-wrote mathematically shows how the VQE algorithm works. It provides an example of what it looks like to do the algorithm by hand, then demonstrates how to use the algorithm on a quantum computer.
“Most algorithms now can’t be run on a quantum computer in a useful fashion because the hardware is too error-prone,” Alex explained. “But the VQE is an example of an algorithm that we can run on current hardware. And the purpose of it, for example, is to find the lowest energy state of a quantum system.”
One of the applications of quantum computing is the simulation of physical systems, which could help with things like drug discovery.
“We need to know how medicines interact with the body in order to design them properly, and the way that information is determined is often through simulations,” Alex said. “If we can do that more accurately on a quantum computer, that opens a lot of avenues for learning things about molecules that we don’t know yet.”
Alex hopes the paper he co-wrote will become an undergraduate entry point into the world of quantum physics.
“I hope it makes them interested. That’s honestly the main thing,” he said. “That’s part of the reason why I love doing science outreach so much.”
Alex participates enthusiastically in science outreach, and he can often be found at UWinnipeg’s STEM Days, conducting physics lab demonstrations for Open House and Future Student Night, or in high schools talking to students about what it’s like to study physics at UWinnipeg.
He said he feels very fortunate to have an academic paper published as an undergrad. He said he is grateful for the skills and experience he gained and hopes it will help him apply for research positions and, eventually, grad school.
“One of my favourite things about UWinnipeg is how accessible the professors are,” Alex explained. “If I didn’t know Jeff, I don’t know if he would have been as keen to stick his neck out like that for me and give me that opportunity. So, the fact that I can talk to the professors like that and get to know them is a huge benefit.”
“I’ve learned some pretty exciting skills,” he added. “It’s great if you can take an academic writing class and make a nice essay. It’s great if you can pass a physics exam. But the real fun part is actually getting down and writing something about it and having a project that you can apply your passions towards.”
