Simon Burton
@fridaysimon.bsky.social
280 followers 320 following 49 posts
Quantum computing -- Lead R&D scientist at Quantinuum.
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fridaysimon.bsky.social
The principle of "two big ideas": one contains the other, or else they are not big ideas.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
If people are going to continue to put the introduction to their paper in the abstract, then i'm going to put my paper's abstract in the title.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
Any sufficiently complicated physics paper contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of an idea from algebraic geometry.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
Today's OEIS fishing expedition. The only question is how much RAM am i going to need to find the next number... Love these OEIS cliff-hangers! ARGGH
fridaysimon.bsky.social
It's *a* graphic framework. I've been using 3d string diagrams for this stuff... Here is a laxator for a monoidal functor, which is the blue string. The monoidal product is the sheet layers... etc etc
fridaysimon.bsky.social
it's mostly excel spreadsheets..
fridaysimon.bsky.social
Still trying to figure that out, will get back to you.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
If by "the completely standard way" you mean, as taught in undergraduate quantum mechanics, then yes. I can't remember the last time i saw the Born rule actually used in the wild. It tends to be only in discussions like this about the foundations of quantum.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
Behold! A one-qubit quantum computer:
fridaysimon.bsky.social
i don't know if it's really a "need", but here is one way to get probabilities: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_rule
fridaysimon.bsky.social
I think it's just as valid saying you get zero-worlds when you don't add anything to the Schrödinger equation. I happen to prefer this interpretation (the zero-worlds one) on my more transcendent days.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
no don't kill it. Yes we need it.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
This is a total shame that it comes down to who you believe in. Fundamental physics should be much more participatory than this.
Reposted by Simon Burton
Reposted by Simon Burton
uberwensch.bsky.social
What is entanglement? Itamar Pittowsky claimed that these results brought us right to the precipice of logical contradiction--but not over. Abner Shimoney described it as a piece of "experimental metaphysics." I'm a nobody, but I think entanglement is the most interesting thing ever discovered.

🧵⚛️
fridaysimon.bsky.social
James Dolan has a knack for describing higher mathematics using vivid language... not much of this has made it into written form, but there are a lot of old posts of his on google groups
fridaysimon.bsky.social
love these OEIS flamewars.. might have to wait a few more years to see if there's any followup.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
I'm suddenly feeling much better about wearing a dishrag on my head (see profile pic).
fridaysimon.bsky.social
new book alert... oh, these pictures look like fun
fridaysimon.bsky.social
There's a sharp distinction between amateur and professional crackpots.
fridaysimon.bsky.social
TIL: the geometric Langlands program is where love and perversion are united
fridaysimon.bsky.social
yes! if you scroll down here www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/wor... you can see a talk Vaughan Jones gave about this stuff, it's a great talk with a super reveal at the end