James Daniel Whitfield
Associate Professor
Appointments
Associate Professor of Physics
Area of Expertise
Quantum computing,
Electronic structure,
Computational chemistry,
Quantum information science
Biography
Whitfield group: Research
The overarching objective of our group is to understand the abilities and limitations of new and existing computers to perform physical simulations. In particular, we are interested in the role that quantum mechanics plays in computation both in terms of quantum computers and classical models of quantum information. Important applications to be considered include the study of compression techniques for quantum systems (e.g. matrix product states, density functional and density matrix theories) and addressing the longstanding question of what, if anything, today's quantum computation can tell us about fermionic systems of applied interest. A wide scope of techniques from condensed matter, to statistical physics, and electronic structure allow for applied and theoretical interests of group members to be accommodated and nurtured.
Education
Ph. D. Harvard University
M. A. Harvard University
B. S. Morehouse College
Taught Courses
Publications
T Henderson, B Harrison, I Magoulas, J Necaise, A Projansky, F Evangelista, J D Whitfield. Fermion Mean-Field Theory as a Tool for Studying Spin Hamiltonians. Journal of Chemical Physics, 161 : 234112 (2024)
A Projansky, J T Heath, J D Whitfield. Entanglement Spectrum of Matchgate Circuits with Universal and Non-Universal Resources. Quantum 8 : 1432 (2024)
W Wang, J D Whitfield. Basis Set Generation and Optimization in the NISQ Era with Quiqbox.jl. Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 19 (22) : 8032 - 8052 (2023)
B OGorman, S Irani, J D Whitfield, and B Fefferman. Intractability of Electronic Structure in a Fixed Basis. PRX Quantum, 3 : 020322 (2022)
Riley W. Chien, Sha Xue, Tarini S. Hardikar, Kanav Setia, and James D. Whitfield. Analysis of superfast encoding performance for electronic structure simulations. Physical Review A, 100 : 032337 (2019)
James Daniel Whitfield, V Havlíček, M Troyer. Local spin operators for fermion simulations. Physical Review A, 94 (3) : 030301 (2016)
James Daniel Whitfield, P J Love, and A Aspuru-Guzik. Computational complexity in electronic structure. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 15 (2) : 397–411 (2013)
James Daniel Whitfield, J D Biamonte, and A Aspuru-Guzik. Simulation of electronic structure Hamiltonians using quantum computers. Molecular Physics, 109 (5) : 735750 (2011)
B P Lanyon, James Daniel Whitfield,G G Gillett, M E Goggin, M P Almeida, I Kassal, J D Biamonte, M Mohseni, B J Powell, M Barbieri, A Aspuru-Guzik, A G White. Towards quantum chemistry on a quantum computer. Nature Chemistry, 2 (2) : 106111 (2010)
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