EDWARD H. FARHI, Cecil and Ida Green Professor
of Physics; Director, Center for Theoretical Physics
Research Interests
Edward Farhi was trained as a theoretical particle physicist but
has also worked on astrophysics, general relativity, and the foundations
of quantum mechanics. His present interest is the theory of quantum
computation.
As a graduate student, Farhi invented the jet variable "Thrust,"
which is used to describe how particles in high energy accelerator
collisions come out in collimated streams. He then worked with Leonard
Susskind on grand unified theories with electro-weak dynamical
symmetry breaking. He and Larry
Abbott proposed an (almost viable) model in which quarks, leptons,
and massive gauge bosons are composite. With Robert
Jaffe, he worked out many of the properties of a possibly stable
super dense form of matter called "Strange Matter" and
with Charles
Alcock and Angela
Olinto he studied the properties of "Strange Stars."
His interest then shifted to general relativity and he and Alan
Guth studied the classical and quantum prospects of making a
new inflationary universe in the laboratory today. He, Guth and
others also studied obstacles to constructing a time machine.
More recently, Farhi has been studying how to use quantum mechanics
to gain algorithmic speedup in solving problems that are difficult
for conventional computers. He and Sam
Gutmann proposed the idea of designing algorithms based on quantum
walks, which has been used to demonstrate the power of
quantum computation over classical. They, along with Jeffrey
Goldstone and Michael
Sipser, introduced the idea of quantum computation by adiabatic
evolution, which has generated much interest in the quantum computing
community. This group was tied for first in showing that there
is a problem that cannot be sped up by a quantum computer. In 2007, Farhi, Goldstone and Gutmann showed that a quantum computer can determine who wins a game faster than a classical computer.
Edward Farhi continues to work on quantum computing but keeps
a close eye on particle physics and recent developments in cosmology.
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Biographical Sketch
Edward (Eddie) Farhi went to the Bronx High School of Science and
Brandeis University before getting his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1978.
He was then on the staff at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
and at CERN in Geneva Switzerland before coming to MIT, where he
joined the faculty in 1982. Farhi has given lectures on his own
research at many of the major physics research centers in the world.
At MIT, he has taught undergraduate courses in quantum mechanics
and special relativity. At the graduate level he has taught quantum
mechanics, quantum field theory, particle physics and general relativity.
Farhi won three teaching awards at MIT and in 2000, 2001, and 2002
he lectured the big freshman physics course, "8.01." In July 2005, he was appointed the Director of MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics.
[top] Selected Publications
Professor Farhi's publications are available online from the SPIRES
HEP Literature Database (particle physics) and arXiv.org
e-Print archive (quantum computing).
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