Nishaant Jacobus recently completed his third year in the Chemical Physics program at the University of Toronto, where he is also specializing in Mathematics. Over the past three years, he has been actively involved in the programs and activities of CQIQC: He presented at the 10th International Conference on Quantum Information and Quantum Control in 2024, and in the same year, he was one of five recipients of the Undergraduate Summer Research Program, an initiative that supports full-time research for four months with CQIQC-affiliated groups. During this program, Nishaant worked under the supervision of Professor Paul Brumer on the project titled “Detecting Entanglement in Open Quantum Systems.”
We are here to learn about his research on the theory of quantum chemical dynamics and his experiences as an undergraduate student researcher at CQIQC!
How did you first become interested in Chemical Physics and Mathematics? Is there a particular memory or experience that stands out as influential in shaping your interests?
While I liked chemistry, physics, and math during high school, I also had quite a few other academic interests including biology, linguistics, and music. Ultimately, however, the decisive factor that pushed me in my current direction was the people around me (and perhaps just a bit of COVID-19). Much of my junior year of high school was asynchronous due to the pandemic, and most activities were canceled. However, the US National Chemistry Olympiad was still running, so my best friend Jacky Hua and I trained for it together with the help of our AP Chemistry teacher Dennis Bauer. I have many great memories of the time the three of us spent preparing for the competition, and I think without my friend and my teacher I would not enjoy and appreciate physical science as much as I currently do.
Additionally, the Olympiad was my first significant exposure to the role physics and math play in chemistry. Learning to use group theory to study molecular orbitals and normal modes to study molecular vibrations made me interested in applying mathematics to chemical problems, which led me to study Chemical Physics and Math at U of T.
An article titled “Parametric Hypersensitivity and Transport in the Steady-State Open-System Holstein Model,” coauthored by Professors Paul Brumer, Chern Chuang, and yourself, was recently published in Physical Review A. Is this article related to the project you worked on during the Undergraduate Research Program? Could you share more about the research developed for this article?
That publication is separate from the entanglement project, and is based on work I did with Professors Brumer and Chuang in 2022 and 2023. We were interested in transport properties of out-of-equilibrium quantum systems, because the steady-state behavior of these systems is strongly modified when the system’s energy gaps become small. In our study, we found that the transport properties in these systems were determined by the interplay of the features of the closed system (e.g. the energy spectrum) and the open system (e.g. dissipative processes). This project was my first exposure to quantum mechanics, and I feel that working with Professors Brumer and Chuang on it gave me a great foundation in the subject, which has been essential to both my later research projects and my overall development as a scientist.
Are you currently working on a quantum research-related project? Could you describe its main focus and explain what specific goals or questions are you aiming to explore?
This summer, I am working on quantum plasmonics projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory with Dr. Andrei Piryatinski. Plasmonic materials such as gold nanoparticles exhibit resonant optical behavior that allows them to strongly scatter or absorb certain frequencies of light (for example, this is the mechanism behind stained glass). We are studying quantum mechanical descriptions of these light-plasmon interactions, as this may be useful for the design of nanotechnologies. We’re particularly interested in the collective behavior of lattices of nanoparticles and the entanglement properties of the photons they emit.
How do you see your research contributing to the broader field of quantum sciences —or even to society at large? Are there any potential real-world applications that you are particularly excited about?
One reason I like open quantum systems is that it involves several “fundamental” features of quantum mechanics, such as entanglement and (de)coherence, yet it has a rather practical goal in mind: to describe how quantum systems behave in the noisy real world. I hope that developing better theoretical understanding of open quantum systems will allow for better real-world implementations of quantum technologies such as quantum computing, by either teaching us how to use environmental effects to our advantage, or how to better circumvent them.
What has your experience been like working in Professor Brumer’s lab? Are there any key lessons or skills you have gained through this collaboration?
During one of my first meetings with Professor Brumer, I told him that I hadn’t produced many results. I still vividly remember his reply: he asked if I felt like I was learning, saying that at my stage it was less important to produce results and more important to learn. Throughout my time working with Professor Brumer, I’ve always felt that he’s been interested in my development (both academic and personal), and not just producing research results as quickly as possible. For instance, I had the freedom to spend much of my initial time in the lab studying quantum mechanics. The importance of personal growth has also been exemplified by the emphasis on writing in the lab. Although I can’t write a paper as quickly or efficiently as a senior researcher can, I’ve still been tasked with writing various papers or reports for the lab, and these experiences have helped me develop my scientific writing skills. I think this kind of environment is essential for an undergraduate, because it teaches a much broader set of skills than just what you learn from a single project.
Looking ahead, what are your hopes or plans for the next stage of your career? Are there specific goals you are working toward in the near future?
I’m applying to graduate programs this fall - I suppose that’s as near future as it gets! I’m hoping to continue studying quantum science and its applications to atomic and condensed matter systems in graduate school, and eventually obtain a PhD. Afterwards, I’d like to continue in quantum research - though I’m not yet sure whether that would be in academia, industry, or something else.
Finally, how do you envision the future of quantum research? Is there a particular development—technological or theoretical—that you are especially excited to see in your lifetime?
I’m biased because I come from a chemistry background, but I’m interested to see how the methods of studying many-body and electronic structure problems will evolve over time. Considering the critical role of electronic structure in understanding the behavior of different materials, I hope we will continue to develop better, more efficient ways to study these systems, especially when there are strong correlations or entanglement involved. Maybe the answer lies in new technologies such as machine learning or quantum computing. Maybe there will be new theoretical approaches or paradigm shifts that change the way we think about how to solve these problems. It’s an exciting time for quantum research!