Ernesto F. Galvão

Welcome!

I am an associate professor at the Instituto de Física of Universidade Federal Fluminense, in Niterói, Brazil. I am also an affiliate of the Quantum and Linear-Optical Computation research group at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Braga, Portugal.

Click here for a version of these pages in Portuguese.

Research

My main research is in the areas of quantum information and computation, and foundations of quantum mechanics. Some research interests and paper highlights:

• Photonic quantum computation

  • • Optimal distillation of photonic indistinguishability. ArXiv:2509.02296 [quant-ph].

    • Modular quantum-to-quantum Bernoulli factory in an integrated photonic processor. Hoch, F., Giordani, T., Castello, L. et al. . Nat. Photon. 19, 12 (2025).

    • Polarization-encoded photonic quantum-to-quantum Bernoulli factory based on a quantum dot source. Giovanni Rodari et al.,  Sci. Adv.10, eado6244 (2024).

    • Experimental certification of contextuality, coherence, and dimension in a programmable universal photonic processor. Sci. Adv. 9, eadj4249 (2023).

    • Photonic implementation of boson sampling: a review. Advanced Photonics 1 (3), 034001 (2019).

    • Witnessing genuine multiphoton indistinguishability. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 063602 (2019).

    • Experimental validation of photonic boson sampling. Nature Photonics 8, 615–620 (2014). 

    • Integrated multimode interferometers with arbitrary designs for photonic boson sampling. Nature Photonics 7, 545–549 (2013).

• Measurement-based and topological quantum computation

  • • Reducing Depth and Measurement Weights in Pauli-based Computation. arXiv:2408.04007 [quant-ph].

    • Quantum circuit compilation and hybrid computation using Pauli-based computation. Quantum 7, 1126 (2023). 

    • Quantum computation from fermionic anyons on a 1D lattice. Phys. Rev. A 99, 062335 (2019).

    • Reliable computation from contextual correlations. Phys. Rev. A 96, 062305 (2017). 

    • Closed timelike curves in measurement-based quantum computation. Phys. Rev. A 83, 012316 (2011). 

• Analogues of quantum contextuality/non-locality and quantum information protocols in classical optics

  • • Coherence and Dimensionality Witnesses for Fractional OAM Modes. ArXiv:2509.13275 [quant-ph].

    • Astigmatic tomography of orbital angular momentum superpositions. Phys. Rev. A 99, 043820 (2019).

    • Tripartite nonseparability in classical optics. Optics Letters 41 (24), 5797 (2016). 

    • Spin-orbit laser mode transfer via a classical analogue of quantum teleportation. J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 49, 055501 (2016). 

• Non-locality, contextuality and other foundational issues in quantum theory and quantum computation

  • • An elementary characterization of Bargmann invariants. ArXiv:2506.17132 [quant-ph].

    • Measuring unitary invariants with the quantum switch. arXiv:2508.02345 [quant-ph].

    • Unitary-invariant witnesses of quantum imaginarity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 190201 (2024).

    • Inequalities witnessing coherence, nonlocality, and contextuality. Phys. Rev. A 109, 032220 (2024). 

    • Simple proof that anomalous weak values require coherence. Phys. Rev. A 108, L040202 (2023).

    • Measuring relational information between quantum states, and applications. New J. Phys. 26 013053 (2024).

    • Quantum and classical bounds for two-state overlaps. Phys. Rev. A 101, 062110 (2020).

A (near-)complete list of my scientific publications can be found here; alternatively, check out my Google Scholar page. Visit also the site of my research group at INL.

The INL group  is currently funded by the EC via HE project FoQaCiA, the ERC Advanced Grant QU-BOSS, HE project EPIQUE, and FCT projects CEECINST/00062/2018, BInd, and Kaleidosqope. I also have an individual CNPq productivity in research grant, level B (2025-2029).

Academic supervision

I currently co-supervise:

• PhD student Carlos Fernandes (jointly with Nuno Peres);

• PhD student Michael de Oliveira (jointly with Luís Soares Barbosa);

• PhD student Rafael Wagner (jointly with Rui S. Barbosa and Mikhail Vasilevskiy);

• PhD student Anita Camillini (jointly with Michael Belsley);

• PhD student Antonio Ruiz Molero (jointly with Luís S. Barbosa);

• PhD student Mafalda Francisco Ramôa da Costa Alves (jointly with Luís Paulo Santos);

• PhD student Sara Franco (jointly with Mikhail Vasilevskiy);

• PhD student Alexandra Francisco Ramôa da Costa Alves (jointly with Luís Paulo Santos);

• Master's degree student Vitória Sousa (jointly with Luís Paulo Santos).

I have supervised 4 completed PhD projects, 6 MSc projects, and eight undergraduate research projects.

Alumni:

Filipa C. R. Peres - PhD 2024, currently a postdoc with Jara Juana Bermejo-Vega (University of Granada).

Allan David Cony Tosta - PhD 2021, currently a postdoc at Leandro Aolita's group.

Daniel Jost Brod - PhD 2014, currently a professor at the Physics Department of Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF).

Raphael Dias da Silva - PhD 2013, currently a tech entrepreneur.

Etc

• My CV.

• Press coverage.

• Colloquium "Vantagem quântica computacional" (in Portuguese), given on 19/02/2021 to the Physics Department of UFMG.

• Short course "Introduction to quantum computation and simulability", given in October 2018 at ICTP/SAIFR - IFT/Unesp (São Paulo), jointly with Daniel Brod (IF-UFF) and Leandro Aolita (ICTP/SAIFR - UFRJ). Includes a page with links to related papers.

• Short course "Ingredients for universal quantum computation", given at the V Quantum Information School - Paraty 2015. There you can find slides and links to the recorded lectures and to relevant papers.

• Here's a list of introductory papers and online material on some research topics I'm interested in. This is a list of resources for interested students who want to learn more about these topics.

Contact

Ernesto F. Galvão

INL- International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory 

Avenida Mestre José Veiga s/n, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal 

e-mail: ernesto.galvao at inl.int