Navigating U(2) with Golden Gates

  • Speaker
  • Peter Sarnak sitting by a windowPeter Sarnak, Ph.D.Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics
Date & Time


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The problem of devising optimally efficient universal gates for quantum computing is one of finding the best generators for rotation groups.

In this lecture, Peter Sarnak will discuss recent developments concerning ‘Golden Gates,’ which are number theoretic generators of U(2). The tools range from groups associated with the platonic solids to modern diophantine problems associated with sums of squares.

About the Speaker

Peter Sarnak sitting by a window

Peter Sarnak is currently Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and professor of mathematics at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. He has made major contributions to number theory and to questions in analysis motivated by number theory. His interest in mathematics is wide-ranging, and his research focuses on the theory of zeta functions and automorphic forms, with applications to number theory, combinatorics and mathematical physics.

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