Justin Yirka
Research Interests / Education / Papers / Experience
Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science
Quantum computing and theoretical computer science
Advised by Scott Aaronson
📢 Graduating in 2025. Looking for an industry position.
Other profiles:
Research Interests
I am interested in what quantum computers can do, what they cannot do, and the structure that creates those differences.
My research focuses on quantum computation and theoretical computer science
This includes computational complexity theory, Hamiltonian complexity, and quantum algorithms.
📢 I plan to graduate in 2025 and I am looking for a new position outside of academia.
I am primarily seeking roles in quantum computation, though I’m open to learning about other opportunities for leveraging strong quantitative and problem-solving skills.
Please reach out if you’re interested in my research or would like to learn more!
Education
Ph.D. in Computer Science | The University of Texas at Austin (UT) | Expected 2025
Advised by Scott Aaronson.
M.S. in Computer Science | The University of Texas at Austin | 2022
B.S. in Computer Science | Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) | 2018
B.S. in Mathematical Sciences | concurrent degrees
Research Papers
Click on a paper to expand and see the publication history and any relevant links.
S. Grewal and J. Yirka. The Entangled Quantum Polynomial Hierarchy Collapses.
arXiv:2401.01453, January 2024. CCC.
J. Yirka. Even quantum advice is unlikely to solve PP.
arXiv:2403.09994, March 2024.
J. Kallaugher, O. Parekh, K. Thompson, Y. Wang, J. Yirka. Complexity Classification of Product State Problems for Local Hamiltonians.
arXiv:2401.06725, January 2024. QIP and ITCS.
- Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science (ITCS), January 2025.
- Conference on Quantum Information Processing (QIP), January 2024.
Video available here. Slides here.
- Poster available here.
- arXiv:2401.06725, January 2024.
- Additional slides from a 2024 seminar talk at UT: here.
J. Yirka and Y. Subasi. Qubit-efficient entanglement spectroscopy using qubit resets.
arXiv:2010.03080, 2020. Quantum.
S. Gharibian, S. Piddock, J. Yirka. Oracle complexity classes and local measurements on physical Hamiltonians.
arXiv:1909.05981, 2019. QIP and STACS.
- Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS), 2020. doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2020.20.
- Conference on Quantum Information Processing (QIP), 2020.
Video here. Slides here.
- Poster at Conference on the Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication, and Cryptography (TQC), 2019.
- Poster at Workshop on Quantum Computing Theory in Practice (QCTIP), 2019.
- Poster at Conference on Quantum Information Processing (QIP), 2019. Available here.
- Contributed talk at Asian Quantum Information Science Conference (AQIS), 2018. Slides here.
- arXiv:1909.05981, 2019.
- Additional videos:
Seminar by Sev in "Quantum computing in isolation" series available here.
S. Gharibian, M. Santha, J. Sikora, A. Sundaram, J. Yirka. Quantum generalizations of the polynomial hierarchy with applications to QMA(2).
arXiv:1805.11139, 2018. computational complexity.
S. Gharibian and J. Yirka. The complexity of simulating local measurements on quantum systems.
arXiv:1606.05626, 2016. TQC and Quantum.
J. Yirka. Evaluation of TCP header fields for data overhead efficiency.
Poster, 2015.
- Poster at National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), 2016.
- Poster at VCU Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creativity, 2015. — Awarded "Launch Award for Outstanding Research Poster"
Research Experience
- R&D Intern | Sandia National Laboratories | Summer 2023 - present
Advised by Ojas Parekh and John Kallaugher
Topic: Hardness of estimating optimum product states of local Hamiltonians. Quantum Max-Cut, Vector Max-Cut, and Quantum constrained optimization problems. Alternative query models.
- Summer School Fellow | Los Alamos National Laboratories | Summer 2019
Advised by Yigit Subasi
Topic: Near-term (NISQ) quantum algorithms. Studied use of mid-circuit measurements and resets to construct circuits for entanglement spectroscopy which were noise-resilient and low-width.
Implemented noisy simulations with Qiskit, Python, Unix, Jupyter. Managed project with git. Tested algorithms on Honeywell quantum hardware.
- Research Assistant | Graph Theory Computational Discovery Lab, VCU | Summer 2018
Supervisor: Craig Larson
Topic: Automated conjecturing software applied to graph theory.
Maintained a growing database of graphs, their properties, and known theorems. Managed open-source project and programmed using git, GitHub, and Sage/Python.
- NSF REU Researcher | QuICS, University of Maryland | Summer 2017
Advised by Andrew Childs, Jianxin Chen, and Amir Kalev
Topic: Investigated minimum number of measurements for pure state quantum tomography.
- Research Assistant | Quantum Computing Lab, VCU | 2015 - 2016
Advised by Sevag Gharibian, Ph.D.
Topic: Complexity theory. QMA oracles, Hamiltonian problems beyond QMA (e.g. P^QMA[log]), quantum polynomial hierarchy and “quantum Toda’s Theorem” (QCPH ⊆ P^PP^PP).
See My CV for full details on my Research, Awards, Funding, Teaching Experience, and Service.
Last updated: October 23, 2024