Alexei Kitaev

Alexei Yurievich Kitaev
Алексей Юрьевич Китаев
Born (1963-08-23) August 23, 1963 (age 61)
Moscow, Soviet Union
Alma materMoscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Known forKitaev chain
Kitaev spin liquid
Kitaev's periodic table
Toric code
Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model
Quantum phase estimation
Solovay–Kitaev theorem
Magic state distillation
Gottesman–Kitaev–Preskill codes
Quantum threshold theorem
QIP
QMA
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsTopological quantum field theory
Quantum computing
InstitutionsCalifornia Institute of Technology
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
Thesis Electronic properties of quasicrystals Russian: Электронные свойства квазикристаллов  (1989)
Doctoral advisorValery Pokrovsky

Alexei Yurievich Kitaev (Russian: Алексей Юрьевич Китаев; born August 26, 1963) is a Russian–American professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology and permanent member of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics.[1] He is best known for introducing the quantum phase estimation algorithm and the concept of the topological quantum computer[2] while working at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is also known for introducing the complexity class QMA and showing the 2-local Hamiltonian problem is QMA-complete, the most complete result for k-local Hamiltonians.[3] Kitaev is also known for contributions to research on a model relevant to researchers of the AdS/CFT correspondence started by Subir Sachdev and Jinwu Ye; this model is known as the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev (SYK) model.[4]

Life

Kitaev was educated in Russia, receiving an M.Sc. from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (1986), and a Ph.D. from the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics under the supervision of Valery Pokrovsky in 1989.[5] He served previously as a researcher (1999–2001) at Microsoft Research, a research associate (1989–1998) at the Landau Institute and a professor at Caltech (2002–present).[1]

Honors and awards

In 2008 Kitaev was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

In July 2012, he was an inaugural awardee of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, the creation of physicist and internet entrepreneur, Yuri Milner.[6]

In 2015, he was jointly awarded the 2015 Dirac Medal by ICTP.[7]

In 2017, he was, together with Xiao-Gang Wen, the winner of the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize.[8]

In 2021, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences.[9]

In 2024, he received the Henri Poincaré Prize from the International Association of Mathematical Physics.[10]

In 2024, he was awarded a 2024 Basic Science Lifetime Award in Theoretical Physics.

Political positions

In February–March 2022, he signed an open letter by Breakthrough Prize laureates condemning the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Alexei Y. Kitaev". California Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  2. ^ Kitaev, A. Yu. (2003). "Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons". Annals of Physics. 303 (1): 2–30. arXiv:quant-ph/9707021v1. Bibcode:2003AnPhy.303....2K. doi:10.1016/S0003-4916(02)00018-0. S2CID 119087885.
  3. ^ Dorit Aharonov; Tomer Naveh (2002). "Quantum NP—A Survey". arXiv:quant-ph/0210077.
  4. ^ Kitaev, Alexei; Suh, S. Josephine (2017). "The soft mode in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and its gravity dual". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2018 (5): 183. arXiv:1711.08467. Bibcode:2018JHEP...05..183K. doi:10.1007/JHEP05(2018)183. S2CID 55052843.
  5. ^ "Диссертации, подготовленные или защищенные в ИТФ им. Л.Д. Ландау". www.itp.ac.ru. Retrieved 2023-08-29.
  6. ^ "New annual US$3 million Fundamental Physics Prize recognizes transformative advances in the field". Fundamental Physics Prize. Archived from the original on 2012-08-03. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  7. ^ "2015 Dirac Medallists announced - Gonit Sora". 9 August 2015.
  8. ^ "Kitaev and Wen awarded 2017 APS Buckley Prize".
  9. ^ "2021 NAS Election". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2021-04-27.
  10. ^ "ICMP 2024". icmp2024.org. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
  11. ^ An open letter from Breakthrough Prize laureates