Rafael Wagner
quantumrw.bsky.social
Rafael Wagner
@quantumrw.bsky.social
PhD Student in quantum foundations and quantum information
Pinned
New paper out in #PRX_Quantum! 📃📃

We show when a heat-flow reversal is actually a signature of quantum nonclassicality as described by quantum generalized contextuality.

#QuantumInformation #Contextuality #Nonclassicality #QuantumThermodynamics

journals.aps.org/prxquantum/a...
Contextuality in Anomalous Heat Flow
For a class of quantum systems that exhibit contextuality, a rigorous theoretical connection between anomalous heat flow and quantumness is established, thereby opening avenues to explore nonclassical...
journals.aps.org
I'm happy to join PRA's editorial team as an Early Career Board Member!

The journal has been a (if not *the most*) crucially important scientific source for quantum information, foundations, and computation.

It's a huge honour!

@apsphysics.bsky.social #PRA #Quantum
January 8, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Dominik Hangleiter weighs in with an informative post about a much debated question: Has quantum advantage been achieved? This is the first post in a three-part series.
quantumfrontiers.com/2026/01/06/h...
Has quantum advantage been achieved?
Recently, I gave a couple of perspective talks on quantum advantage, one at the annual retreat of the CIQC and one at a recent KITP programme. I started off by polling the audience on who believed …
quantumfrontiers.com
January 6, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
A dream job opportunity! Our team is hiring a Senior Research Scientist in Quantum Error Mitigation Theory on the Quantum AI team, and we get to be colleagues.

www.google.com/about/caree...
January 7, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Why are academic societies still on X it must violate all their code of conducts?
GET OFF THAT APP NOW.
Grok is producing ~6,700 sexually suggestive or nudified images per hour

• Twitter (X) is now the top deepfaking site in the world

• Women who speak out become targets by users

(via business)
January 7, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
The Institute of Physics (@iop.org), its publishing arm @ioppublishing.bsky.social, and its flagship magazine @physicsworld.bsky.social (which I work for) figured this out a long time ago. If you’re a physicist/astronomer/science teacher/something else relevant, follow them & show them some love!
Why are academic societies still on X it must violate all their code of conducts?
GET OFF THAT APP NOW.
January 8, 2026 at 8:44 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
New paper published in @physreva.bsky.social, jointly with Kyrylo Simonov (Vienna) and Rafael Wagner (INL/Minho/Ulm)! We simplify the estimation of multivariate traces/Bargmann invariants using partial classical info. Thanks @quantumrw.bsky.social and Kyrylo! journals.aps.org/pra/abstract...
Estimation of multivariate traces of states given partial classical information
Bargmann invariants of order $n$, defined as multivariate traces of quantum states $\text{Tr}[{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{1}{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{2}...{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{n}]$, are useful in applications ran...
journals.aps.org
December 26, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Deeply honoured to have been named one of the Quantum 100 for the UN'S International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ)! quantum2025.org/quantum-100/...
Jonte R. Hance - IYQ 2025
Dr. Jonte R. Hance is an early-career researcher already making notable advances to foundational and applied quantum science. Despite only completing their PhD in March 2023, they have published 26 ar...
quantum2025.org
December 17, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Thrilled to share that I have been awarded the very prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship! :) #HumboldtFellowship
December 12, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
The @ccbpp.bsky.social Spring School on near-term quantum computing is back! If you are a young (PhD/MSc) researcher in quantum science and want to get exposed to the recent developments on quantum computing, do not hesitate coming to Benasque on March 15 - 21 next year!

www.benasque.org/2026ntqc/
Spring School on Near-Term Quantum Computing
www.benasque.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
We recently received a referee report from Phys. Rev. Lett. @apsphysics.bsky.social that was obviously written by generative AI. It is so bizarre to read it; I have never received anything like it before. What measures is @apsphysics.bsky.social taking to ensure the integrity of the review process?
December 10, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Peter Shor: we haven't found many new quantum algorithms, in part, because we need larger quantum devices for testing our heuristics. He gives several examples of algorithms that were discovered computationally, including turbo codes, @fermilab.bsky.social quantum symposium by the SQMS center.
December 5, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Newly published in Quantum: Consistent circuits for indefinite causal order by Augustin Vanrietvelde, Nick Ormrod, Hlér Kristjánsson, and Jonathan Barrett doi.org/10.22331/q-2...
Consistent circuits for indefinite causal order
Augustin Vanrietvelde, Nick Ormrod, Hlér Kristjánsson, and Jonathan Barrett, Quantum 9, 1923 (2025). Over the past decade, a number of quantum processes have been proposed which are logically consistent,...
quantum-journal.org
December 3, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Probably -- as far as I know -- the first contextuality-based quantum information advantage from the Google Quantum AI team.

scirate.com/arxiv/2512.0...
Quantum-Classical Separation in Bounded-Resource Tasks Arising from Measurement Contextuality
The prevailing view is that quantum phenomena can be harnessed to tackle certain problems beyond the reach of classical approaches. Quantifying this capability as a quantum-classical separation and de...
scirate.com
December 3, 2025 at 9:28 AM
New preprint out! 🎉

I’ve just submitted my #PhD_thesis to the #arXiv.

Chapter 7 contains several new constructions and a few new results on the geometry of sets of Bargmann invariants. Most notably, in Theorem 7.13 I prove the convexity of a broad class of sets of (tuples of) unitary invariants.
Coherence and contextuality as quantum resources
In this thesis, we explore the intersection of two fundamental subfields of quantum information theory: quantum coherence and contextuality. Despite their apparent differences, both areas address key ...
arxiv.org
November 24, 2025 at 9:18 AM
arxiv.org/abs/2511.15806

If correct, that's a huge result!
arxiv.org
November 21, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Review: Ultrafast physics with structured light ⚛️

by Yiqi Fang, Zijian Lyu & Yunquan Liu
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Ultrafast physics with structured light - Nature Reviews Physics
Spatiotemporal structuring of optical fields offers opportunities to probe and control electron motions in light–matter interactions. This Review discusses the recent advances in both fundamental phys...
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
My student @johnbostanci.bsky.social, Chinmay Nirkhe, Jonas Haferkamp, and Mark Zhandry have put out a tour-de-force paper that shows, relative to a classical oracle, QMA is stronger than QCMA -- i.e., quantum proofs >> classical proofs. Congratulations to the authors! arxiv.org/abs/2511.09551
Separating QMA from QCMA with a classical oracle
We construct a classical oracle proving that, in a relativized setting, the set of languages decidable by an efficient quantum verifier with a quantum witness (QMA) is strictly bigger than those decid...
arxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Well-informed and accurate takes on the current state of quantum computing by @dangaristo.bsky.social. Good listen if you're outside the field or just entering it and want to get an honest picture.

Kudos for using the term "physics experiment" instead of "computer", and for coining "quantum FOMO".
November 13, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
A recent @nature.com article claims that classical (unquantised) gravity produces entanglement. We show that their model does not produce entanglement. Even if the model produced entanglement, it would be mediated by the quantised matter interaction, and not gravity. scirate.com/arxiv/2511.0... 🧪⚛️
Classical gravity cannot mediate entanglement
In Nature, 646, 813 (2025), Aziz and Howl claim that classical (unquantised) gravity produces entanglement. We show that their model does not produce entanglement. Even if the model produced entanglem...
scirate.com
November 11, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Day 2 of the #NaturalPhilosophy Symposium concluded with a panel discussion featuring the day's speakers: Alan Guth, Jennifer Nagel, David Albert, Simon DeDeo, Emily Riehl, and Anil Seth.

Stay tuned for the exciting final day of the Symposium!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apnv...
November 11, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
The neat thing about writing about foundations of quantum mechanics is that it makes everyone mad, often for completely different reasons.
November 8, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
I wouldn't worry about a QIP reject. The conference is too crowded and big now, and so the PC is desperate to write down meaningless reasons for rejection. In my opinion, the smaller conferences are more significant these days, where more meaningful research interactions can take place.
November 8, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Rafael Wagner
Our new quantum computer Helios is out. Take a look at this paper for technical details of its design, operations, and benchmarks.

arxiv.org/abs/2511.05465
Helios: A 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer
We report on Quantinuum Helios, a 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum processor based on the quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) architecture. Helios features $^{137}$Ba$^{+}$ hyperfine qubits, all-to-all c...
arxiv.org
November 10, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Had a great time in Paris!

Talked about our recent preprint arxiv.org/abs/2509.10949

#QuiDiQua3 was great, lots of greats discussions, and talks. Happy also to catch up on some good friends :)

Can't wait for #QuiDiQua4 (next year in Brussels!)

#QuantumInfo #Contextuality #QuantumOptics
November 10, 2025 at 9:25 PM