Andrew Childs | QuICS

Professor and Co-Director

amchilds@umd.edu

3359 Atlantic Building

(301) 405-2329

Andrew Childs, co-director of QuICS, is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). He is also the director of the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation.

Childs's research interests are in the theory of quantum information processing, especially quantum algorithms. He has explored the computational power of quantum walk, providing an example of exponential speedup, demonstrating computational universality, and constructing algorithms for problems including search and formula evaluation. Childs has also developed fast quantum algorithms for simulating Hamiltonian dynamics. His other areas of interest include quantum query complexity and quantum algorithms for algebraic problems.

Before coming to UMD, Childs was a DuBridge Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech from 2004-2007 and a faculty member in Combinatorics & Optimization and the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo from 2007-2014. Childs received his doctorate in physics from MIT in 2004.

Courses

Introduction to Quantum Information Processing (CMSC657, Fall 2023)

Introduction to Quantum Information Processing (CMSC657, Fall 2022)

Quantum algorithms (CMSC858Q, Spring 2021)

Introduction to quantum computing (CMSC457/PHYS457, Spring 2019)

Introduction to quantum information processing (CMSC858K, Fall 2017)

Publications

2007

M. Aschbacher, Childs, A. M., and Wocjan, P., “The limitations of nice mutually unbiased bases”, Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 111 - 123, 2007.

2006

A. M. Childs, Harrow, A. W., and Wocjan, P., “Weak Fourier-Schur sampling, the hidden subgroup problem, and the quantum collision problem ”, 2006.

A. M. Childs, Leung, D. W., and Lo, H. - K., “Two-way quantum communication channels”, International Journal of Quantum Information, vol. 04, no. 01, pp. 63 - 83, 2006.

2005

A. M. Childs, Leung, D. W., and Nielsen, M. A., “Unified derivations of measurement-based schemes for quantum computation”, Physical Review A, vol. 71, no. 3, 2005.

A. M. Childs and Wocjan, P., “On the quantum hardness of solving isomorphism problems as nonabelian hidden shift problems ”, 2005.

A. M. Childs and van Dam, W., “Quantum algorithm for a generalized hidden shift problem”, 2005.

D. Bacon, Childs, A. M., and van Dam, W., “From optimal measurement to efficient quantum algorithms for the hidden subgroup problem over semidirect product groups ”, 2005.

D. Bacon, Childs, A. M., and van Dam, W., “Optimal measurements for the dihedral hidden subgroup problem”, 2005.

2004

A. M. Childs and Goldstone, J., “Spatial search by quantum walk”, Physical Review A, vol. 70, no. 2, 2004.

A. M. Childs and Goldstone, J., “Spatial search and the Dirac equation”, Physical Review A, vol. 70, no. 4, 2004.

A. M. Childs, Leung, D. W., and Vidal, G., “Reversible simulation of bipartite product Hamiltonians”, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1189 - 1197, 2004.

2003

A. M. Childs, Haselgrove, H. L., and Nielsen, M. A., “Lower bounds on the complexity of simulating quantum gates”, Physical Review A, vol. 68, no. 5, 2003.

A. M. Childs and Eisenberg, J. M., “Quantum algorithms for subset finding”, 2003.

2002

A. M. Childs, Deotto, E., Farhi, E., Goldstone, J., Gutmann, S., and Landahl, A. J., “Quantum search by measurement”, Physical Review A, vol. 66, no. 3, 2002.

M. A. Nielsen, Bremner, M. J., Dodd, J. L., Childs, A. M., and Dawson, C. M., “Universal simulation of Hamiltonian dynamics for qudits”, Physical Review A, vol. 66, no. 2, 2002.

A. M. Childs, Cleve, R., Deotto, E., Farhi, E., Gutmann, S., and Spielman, D. A., “Exponential algorithmic speedup by quantum walk”, 2002.

A. M. Childs, Leung, D. W., Verstraete, F., and Vidal, G., “Asymptotic entanglement capacity of the Ising and anisotropic Heisenberg interactions ”, 2002.

2001

A. M. Childs, Farhi, E., and Gutmann, S., “An example of the difference between quantum and classical random walks”, Quantum Information Processing, vol. 1, no. 1/2, pp. 35 - 43, 2001.

A. M. Childs, Chuang, I. L., and Leung, D. W., “Realization of quantum process tomography in NMR”, Physical Review A, vol. 64, no. 1, 2001.

A. M. Childs, Patterson, R. B., and MacKay, D. J. C., “Exact sampling from non-attractive distributions using summary states”, Physical Review E, vol. 63, no. 3, 2001.