Watch: Math and Physics Collide in the Collaboration of Mathematician Tai-Danae Bradley and Physicist Miles Stoudenmire

Tai-Danae Bradley of Alphabet Inc.’s Sandbox team and physicist Miles Stoudenmire of the Center for Computational Quantum Physics find their research paths intersect in the use of tensors — mathematical objects that hold tremendous promise for both fields.

Miles Stoudenmire is a research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ). He is the lead developer of the ITensor software, which allows users to directly transcribe tensor network diagrams into efficient code and enables rapidly prototyping new algorithms.

Tai-Danae Bradley is a research mathematician at Alphabet Inc. — Google’s parent company — and a visiting research professor of mathematics at The Master’s University. Her research interests lie in the intersection of quantum physics, machine intelligence and category theory.

The two researchers collaborated with John Terilla of the City University of New York’s The Graduate Center on a paper that brings together the cutting-edge tools and thinking from mathematics and quantum physics. Together, they developed an algorithm inspired by quantum mechanics that uses tensor networks to synthesize subsections of probability distributions into a single trained model.”

This video is part of Quantum Connect, a series in which physicists at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics discuss their lives, research and how they wrap their heads around some of science’s thorniest questions.