This online seminar series explores emerging connections between additive combinatorics and quantum information / computation, along with applications flowing in both directions. Despite their different languages and viewpoints, similar mathematical structures arise in both settings, and ideas from one area can often illuminate problems in the other.
The aim of the series is to bring together researchers from both communities to explore these connections systematically and to encourage the exchange of ideas across the two fields. By fostering dialogue between combinatorial and quantum perspectives, we hope to uncover new tools, new questions, and new collaborations at this growing interface.
Meetings will be held every other Monday at 2pm GMT, from March 2nd 2026 onward.
Here is a google calendar with dates and times of talks.
To participate, we ask that you sign up to the seminar mailing list:
https://lists.cwi.nl/mailman/listinfo/acq-list
Once you request to be subscribed, you will be asked to confirm by clicking a link sent to your email. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive this email.
Zoom links for the seminar will be shared through the mailing list.
March 2: An overview of recent connections -- Jop Briët (CWI)
March 16: Introduction to the stabilizer formalism -- David Gross (University of Cologne)
March 30: Introduction to higher-order Fourier analysis -- Julia Wolf (University of Cambridge)
April 13: Polynomial-time tolerant testing stabilizer states -- Arkopal Dutt (IBM Research)
Jop Briët (CWI) j dot briet at cwi dot nl
Davi Castro-Silva (Cambridge) dd654 at cam dot ac dot uk
Philippe van Dordrecht (CWI) philippe at cwi dot nl
Ronald de Wolf - Quantum computing lecture notes, https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.09415
Tao, Vu - Additive combinatorics, https://math.bme.hu/~gabor/oktatas/SztoM/TaoVu.AddComb.pdf
Green - Monteal lecture notes on quadratic Fourier analysis, https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0604089
Tao - Higher order Fourier analysis, https://terrytao.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/higher-book.pdf
Hatami, Hatami, Lovett - Higher order Fourier analysis and applications, https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~slovett/files/survey-higher_order_fourier.pdf
March 16: Introduction to the stabilizer formalism (David Gross)
Notes: notes
March 2: An overview of recent connections (Jop Briët)
Slides: ACQ_seminar_Jop.pdf
Relevant arXiv papers:
Stabilizer testing & U^3-L^2 inverse theorems:
Eisner, Tao - Large values of the Gowers-Host-Kra seminorms, https://arxiv.org/abs/1012.3509
Montanaro - Learning stabilizer states by Bell sampling, https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.04012
Gross, Nezami, Walter - Schur-Weyl Duality for the Clifford Group with Applications: Property Testing, a Robust Hudson Theorem, and de Finetti Representations, https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.08628
Grewal, Iyer, Kretschmer, Liang - Improved Stabilizer Estimation via Bell Difference Sampling, https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.13915
Arunachalam, Dutt - Polynomial time tolerant testing stabilizer states, https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.06289
Bao, van Dordrecht, Helsen - Tolerant testing of stabilizer states with a polynomial gap via a generalized uncertainty relation, https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.21811
Mehraban, Tahmasbi - Improved bounds for testing low stabilizer complexity states, https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.24202
Stabilizer learning & algorithmic inverse theorems:
Chen, Gong, Ye, Zhang - Stabilizer bootstrapping: A recipe for efficient agnostic tomography and magic estimation, https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.06967
Briët, Castro-Silva - A near-optimal Quadratic Goldreich-Levin algorithm, https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13134
Stabilizer rank and tensor ranks:
Labib - Stabilizer rank and higher-order Fourier analysis, https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.10551
Mehraban, Tahmasbi - Quadratic Lower bounds on the Approximate Stabilizer Rank: A Probabilistic Approach, https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10277
Sakabe, Dogan, Walter - Strassen's support functionals coincide with the quantum functions, https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.21553
Christandl, Vrana, Zuiddam - Universal points in the asymptotic spectrum of tensors, https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.07851
Polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa
Gowers, Green, Manners, Tao - On a conjecture of Marton https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.05762
Gowers, Green, Manners, Tao - Marton's Conjecture in abelian groups with bounded torsion, https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.02244
Arunachalam, Castro-Silva, Dutt, Gur - Algorithmic Polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa Theorems, https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02338
Worst-case to average-case:
Asadi, Golovnev, Gur, Shinkar - Worst-case to average-case reductions via additive combinatorics, https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.08996
Asadi, Golovnev, Gur, Shinkar - Quantum worst-case to average-case reductions for all linear problems, https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03348
Non-commutative higher-order Fourier analysis:
Bu, Gu, Jaffe: Quantum higher-order Fourier analysis and the Clifford hierarchy, https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15908
Hinsche, Bao, Van Dordrecht, Helsen, Briët, Eisert - Clifford testing: algorithms and lower bounds, https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07164
Gowers, Hatami - Inverse stability theorems for approximate representations of finite groups, https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.04085
Chiffre, Ozawa, Thom - Operator algebraic approach to inverse and stability theorems for amenable groups, https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.04544
Vidick - Pauli braiding, https://mycqstate.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/pauli-braiding/
Leibman, polynomial mappings between groups, https://people.math.osu.edu/leibman.1/preprints/pon.pdf