Quantum physicist. Assistant Prof at EPFL. Climber.https://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3mjzmisf74k2rI have now put out four papers this year that were either scooped or pre-emptive anti-scoops (joint posts). Being scooped has bad press, but it is increasingly establishing itself as my most reliable project-management system. 10/10, highly recommend.21 Apr 2026 18:30 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjzmisf74k2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3mh6numdmbk2uAnd so (potentially against my better judgement) I find myself again at the March Meeting (trauma fades, mistakes repeat etc) If you are around and fancy a chat get in touch!16 Mar 2026 14:23 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3mh6numdmbk2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3mg3sj4o3x225Hey, we have new quantum algs for computing operator hydrodynamic quantities (otocs, magic, etc) The trick is that these quantities are naturally computed in the Heisenberg picture but we can turn them to states via vectorization Also @shaohenc.bsky.social's new here & you should follow him! 🧵👇 [contains quote post or other embedded content]02 Mar 2026 17:42 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3mg3sj4o3x225https://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3mez4gb3uyk2mMy group are training for our debut in 2030... [contains quote post or other embedded content]16 Feb 2026 22:37 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3mez4gb3uyk2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3meglfaapw226We've studied iterative strategies for finding ground states We use the ground state of an easy Hamiltonian to `warm start' finding the ground states for some harder Hamiltonians We derive gradient guarantees that (as for adiabatic methods) depend on the gap and a few other natural properties 🧵👇 [contains quote post or other embedded content]09 Feb 2026 13:44 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3meglfaapw226https://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3me4wfc4lkk26Hey - we've extended Pauli and Majorana propagation to simulating thermal states The trick is to imaginary-time evolve identity and then normalize by the trace of the Pauli (or Majorana) sum at the end The catch is that both our analytics and numerics suggest it only works at high temperatures 🧵👇 [contains quote post or other embedded content]05 Feb 2026 17:34 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3me4wfc4lkk26https://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3mbyiyvbp2224Stefan Knecht has written up a nice summary of Garnet Chan's new paper "No, FeMoCo hasn’t been entirely solved but for its gold-standard active space model (the model QC folks have been looking at), there is now a classical benchmark which provides an excellent baseline for any quantum work." 🧵👇 [contains quote post or other embedded content]09 Jan 2026 12:34 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3mbyiyvbp2224https://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3mbydvqnp4k2mThe Fields Institute (Toronto) has this summer a "Thematic Program on Optimal Transport in Natural Sciences and Statistics" I see this as a chance for quantum folk to chat with optimal transport experts to see if it could help them e.g. understand trainability questions or develop new quantum algs.09 Jan 2026 11:02 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3mbydvqnp4k2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3madgm77vgk2vAnd the results of the annual Quantum Physics 2 meme competition are in… 🥁 🪘🛢️🍗 in fifth place we have a meme that I secretly have a lot of sympathy for…19 Dec 2025 10:00 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3madgm77vgk2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3ma6tibzjhc2cI made the bold decision to host my group's Christmas dinner/party Chaos persued 'Team cooking' arranged a four course meal featuring a whole salmon, capon, lamb shoulder and countless sides/desserts. Followed by crackers, secret santa and slide karaoke Miraculously only one glass was broken17 Dec 2025 14:07 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3ma6tibzjhc2chttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3m6jpnpwzws2zHey we've just updated the arXiv version of our Majorana propagation paper We now have end-to-end efficiency guarantees for a randomized model of an adaptVQE-like circuit (Our error bounds here are way tighter than the ones for pauli prop and also use a new Markov chain based proof strategy) [contains quote post or other embedded content]26 Nov 2025 11:07 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6jpnpwzws2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3m66cj4sksk2oSit down & buckle up. Behind this rather innocent title is the paper that caused the most fraught arguments of any of my career. Are these arguments important? Probably not. Am I going to tell you them anyway? Absolutely. Here is the story of a rollercoaster of a paper. 🎢👇 [contains quote post or other embedded content]21 Nov 2025 22:13 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3m66cj4sksk2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3m5w6z76mps2mApplications for the LANL quantum computing summer school are now open! I recently got asked about the most important turning points of my career and without hesistation said the LANL summer school. The first 1/3 of this video is me rambling about why it was so special: https://youtu.be/XjkHmtr_IT0?si=aizWFhV3Dm3nwLmS [contains quote post or other embedded content]18 Nov 2025 16:49 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5w6z76mps2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3m2r3jvpeqc25Among todays mad arxiv overflow is our preprint: "When quantum resources backfire: Non-gaussianity and symplectic coherence in noisy bosonic circuits" We introduce a path propagation classical simulation alg for bosonic circuits And find a funky interplay between quantum resources and noise 🧵👇 [contains quote post or other embedded content]09 Oct 2025 11:48 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3m2r3jvpeqc25https://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3m27nkz3ly22lWe provide evidence of an exponential gap between adaptive & nonadaptive strategies for a quantum recompilation task Key takeaways: - Entanglement isn’t always a roadblock: its degree can aid training - Discrete optimization may be key to finding sweet spots between concentration & surrogation02 Oct 2025 13:22 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3m27nkz3ly22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3lupw3xzf3k2eEPFL are recruiting a tenure track assistant proff working on the theory of condensed matter and interacting quantum matter: https://www.epfl.ch/about/working/faculty-position-in-theory-of-condensed-matter-and-interacting-quantum-matter/ Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about life at EPFL/in Switzerland etc.24 Jul 2025 16:06 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3lupw3xzf3k2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3lylj523e322uAlso, sharing for friends: Anyone fancy a (minimal teaching load) tenure track position on quantum computing on a sunny island 🌤️ 🏝️? The Cyprus Institute are also hiring a tenure track assistant proff on quantum algorithms. onlinerecruitment.exelsyslive.com?c=6E7274A2-8... (Deadline next week) https://onlinerecruitment.exelsyslive.com11 Sep 2025 19:45 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3lylj523e322uhttps://bsky.app/profile/qzoeholmes.bsky.social/post/3lylivqycmk2uFancy being (academic) neighbours? The University of Basel are hiring a tenure-track assistant professor in theoretical quantum computing: https://jobs.unibas.ch/offene-stellen/tenure-track-assistant-professorship-in-theoretical-quantum-computing/932b0b1b-2d08-4fbf-8722-03f718adf1cb11 Sep 2025 19:40 +0000at://did:plc:72tbimap3qr6cygeeh3sp5gr/app.bsky.feed.post/3lylivqycmk2u