# Nikolas Breuckmann

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{{Short description|German mathematical physicist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Nikolas P. Breuckmann
| image             =
| alt               = Nikolas Breuckmann
| birth_place       = [Duisburg](/source/Duisburg), [Germany](/source/Germany)
| fields            = {{ubl| [Physics (theoretical)](/source/Theoretical_physics) | [Mathematics](/source/Mathematics) |[Computer science](/source/Computer_science)}}
| alma_mater        = [RWTH Aachen University](/source/RWTH_Aachen_University), Germany
| thesis_title      = Homological Quantum Codes Beyond the Toric Code
| thesis_url        = https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.01520.pdf
| thesis_year       = 2017
| doctoral_advisor  = [Barbara Terhal](/source/Barbara_Terhal)
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = {{ubl| Proof of [NLTS conjecture](/source/NLTS_conjecture) | Quantum computing}}
| awards            = [James Clerk Maxwell Medal & Prize](/source/James_Clerk_Maxwell_Medal_and_Prize) (2023)
| work_institution  = {{ubl| [University College London](/source/University_College_London) | University of Bristol}}
}}
'''Nikolas P. Breuckmann''' (born 1988) is a German [mathematical physicist](/source/Mathematical_physics) affiliated with the [University of Bristol](/source/University_of_Bristol), [England](/source/England).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Nikolas Breuckmann - Our People |url=https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.bristol.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=People – UCL CS Quantum |url=https://quantum.cs.ucl.ac.uk/people/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=quantum.cs.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref> He is, as of Spring 2024, a visiting scientist and program organizer at the [Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing](/source/Simons_Institute_for_the_Theory_of_Computing) at the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Current Long-Term Visitors |url=https://simons.berkeley.edu/people/visitors |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing |language=en}}</ref> His research focuses on [quantum information](/source/quantum_information) theory, in particular [quantum error correction](/source/quantum_error_correction) and [quantum complexity theory](/source/quantum_complexity_theory). He is known for his work (together with [Anurag Anshu](/source/Anurag_Anshu) and [Chinmay Nirkhe](/source/Chinmay_Nirkhe)) on proving the [NLTS conjecture](/source/NLTS_conjecture), a famous open problem in quantum information theory.

== Education and early life ==
Breuckmann was born in [Duisburg](/source/Duisburg) and grew up in [Waltrop](/source/Waltrop), [North Rhine-Westphalia](/source/North_Rhine-Westphalia), Germany. He earned a [BSc](/source/Bachelor_of_Science) in Mathematics and a BSc, an [MSc](/source/Master_of_Science) and a [PhD](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy) in Physics from [RWTH Aachen University](/source/RWTH_Aachen_University). His doctoral thesis was titled "Homological Quantum Codes Beyond the Toric Code" and he was supervised by [Barbara Terhal](/source/Barbara_Terhal).<ref>{{Citation |last=Breuckmann |first=Nikolas P. |title=PhD thesis: Homological Quantum Codes Beyond the Toric Code |date=2018-02-05 |arxiv=1802.01520}}</ref>

== Career and research ==
After his PhD, he deferred his [University College London](/source/University_College_London) Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Quantum Technologies funded by [EPSRC](/source/Engineering_and_Physical_Sciences_Research_Council) for a year to work for [Palo Alto](/source/Palo_Alto%2C_California)-based [quantum computing](/source/quantum_computing) start-up [PsiQuantum](/source/PsiQuantum), which was co-founded by [Jeremy O'Brien](/source/Jeremy_O'Brien) and [Terry Rudolph](/source/Terry_Rudolph) (among other scientists).

In 2022, he became Lecturer (Assistant Professor)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nikolas Breuckmann |url=https://simons.berkeley.edu/people/nikolas-breuckmann |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing |language=en}}</ref> in Quantum Computing Theory at the University of Bristol.

In 2023, he was awarded the [James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize](/source/James_Clerk_Maxwell_Medal_and_Prize) by the [Institute of Physics](/source/Institute_of_Physics) for his "outstanding contributions to the quantum error correction field, particularly work on proving the no low-energy trivial state conjecture, a famous open problem in quantum information theory".<ref>{{Cite web |title=2023 James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize |url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/2023-james-clerk-maxwell-medal-and-prize |website=Institute of Physics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bristol |first=University of |title=2023: Dr Nikolas Breuckmann awarded the '2023 James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize' {{!}} School of Mathematics {{!}} University of Bristol |url=https://www.bristol.ac.uk/maths/news/2023/dr-nikolas-breuckmann-awarded-the-2023-james-clerk-maxwell-medal-and-prize.html |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=www.bristol.ac.uk |date=17 October 2023 |language=en-GB}}</ref> [Quanta Magazine](/source/Quanta_Magazine) described the proof as "one of the biggest developments in theoretical computer science".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rorvig |first=Mordechai |date=18 July 2022 |title=Computer Science Proof Unveils Unexpected Form of Entanglement |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-science-proof-lifts-limits-on-quantum-entanglement-20220718/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Bill |date=December 21, 2022 |title=The Year in Computer Science |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-computer-science-in-2022-20221221/ |website=Quanta}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bristol |first=University of |title=2022: Nikolas Breuckmann announces proof {{!}} School of Mathematics {{!}} University of Bristol |url=https://www.bristol.ac.uk/maths/news/2022/nikolas-breuckmann-announces-proof.html |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=www.bristol.ac.uk |date=9 August 2022 |language=en-GB}}</ref> This result built on his introduction with [Jens Eberhardt](/source/Jens_Eberhardt) of “Balanced Product Quantum Codes”.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Balanced Product Quantum Codes  |doi=10.1109/TIT.2021.3097347 |s2cid=229297848 |date=2021 |last1=Breuckmann |first1=Nikolas P. |last2=Eberhardt |first2=Jens N. |journal=IEEE Transactions on Information Theory |volume=67 |issue=10 |pages=6653–6674 |arxiv=2012.09271 |bibcode=2021ITIT...67.6653B }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-09 |title=Building the future of quantum error correction |url=https://research.ibm.com/blog/future-quantum-error-correction |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=IBM Research Blog |language=en-US}}</ref>

The [NLTS conjecture](/source/NLTS_conjecture) posits that there exist families of [Hamiltonians](/source/Hamiltonian_(quantum_mechanics)) with all low-energy states of non-trivial complexity. It was formulated in 2013 by [Fields Medal](/source/Fields_Medal)list [Michael Freedman](/source/Michael_Freedman) and [Matthew Hastings](/source/Matthew_Hastings) at [Microsoft Research](/source/Microsoft_Research). The conjecture was proven by Breuckmann and colleagues (Anurag Anshu and Chinmay Nirkhe) by showing that the recently discovered families of constant-rate and linear-distance low-density parity-check (LDPC) quantum codes correspond to NLTS local Hamiltonians.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Anshu |first1=Anurag |last2=Breuckmann |first2=Nikolas P. |last3=Nirkhe |first3=Chinmay |chapter=NLTS Hamiltonians from Good Quantum Codes |date=2023-06-02 |title=Proceedings of the 55th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/3564246.3585114 |series=STOC 2023 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=1090–1096 |doi=10.1145/3564246.3585114 |arxiv=2206.13228 |isbn=978-1-4503-9913-5|s2cid=250072529 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-04 |title=Quantum Information Processing 2023 |url=https://indico.cern.ch/event/1175020/timetable/?view=standard |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=Indico |language=en}}</ref> This result is a step towards proving the [quantum PCP conjecture](/source/quantum_PCP_conjecture), considered the most important open problem in quantum complexity theory. {{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

He and his former doctoral student [Oscar Higgott](/source/Oscar_Higgott) are inventors of a U.S. patent titled “Subsystem codes with high thresholds by gauge fixing and reduced qubit overhead”, which concerns a technique to significantly improve the performance of quantum error correction in quantum computers.<ref>{{Cite patent|number=20230071000|title=Quantum Computing Error Correction Method, Code, and System|gdate=2023-03-09|invent1=Higgott|invent2=Breuckmann|inventor1-first=Oscar|inventor2-first=Nikolas P.|url=https://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2023/0071000.html}}</ref> Their related work was included as a major development for computer science in 2023 by Quanta.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Higgott |first1=Oscar |title=Constructions and Performance of Hyperbolic and Semi-Hyperbolic Floquet Codes |date=2024 |arxiv=2308.03750 |last2=Breuckmann |first2=Nikolas P. |journal=PRX Quantum |volume=5 |issue=4 |article-number=040327 |doi=10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.040327 |bibcode=2024PRXQ....5d0327H }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wood |first=Charlie |date=August 25, 2023 |title=New Codes Could Make Quantum Computing 10 Times More Efficient |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-codes-could-make-quantum-computing-10-times-more-efficient-20230825/ |website=Quanta}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrews |first=Bill |date=December 20, 2023 |title=The Year in Computer Science |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-computer-science-in-2023-20231220/ |website=Quanta}}</ref>

== References ==

{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breuckmann, Nikolas}}
Category:German mathematicians
Category:German physicists
Category:1988 births
Category:Living people
Category:Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients
Category:Quantum information scientists
Category:21st-century mathematicians

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Nikolas Breuckmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolas_Breuckmann) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolas_Breuckmann?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.