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Dr Maria Violaris

@maria__violaris • 9,421 subscribers

Quantum physicist & sci commer | Quantum computing @OQC_Tech | PhD @UniofOxford | Outreach @qqq_iop | Founder @quantuminfosoc | Prev. @IBM @Qiskit @PhysicsWorld

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Quantum theory appears to allow some kind of connection between entangled particles, but not enough to send messages. Prof Antony Valentini argues this is a conspiracy: there must be something deeper than quantum, where nonlocality can actually be used to send messages, but it is hidden from view in standard quantum experiments. In this episode of the Quantum Foundations Podcast, Valentini uses Pilot-wave theory to explain the physics of the nonlocal subquantum world. He discusses various ways that the theory could be experimentally tested, by looking for signatures of violations of the Born rule in extreme environments, such as the early universe. He also discusses the radical technological implications of subquantum physics, if we were able to harness it. Watch on YouTube or listen on audio platforms!
0:55
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Quantum theory appears to allow some kind of connection between entangled particles, but not enough to send messages. Prof Antony Valentini argues this is a conspiracy: there must be something deeper than quantum, where nonlocality can actually be used to send messages, but it is hidden from view in standard quantum experiments. In this episode of the Quantum Foundations Podcast, Valentini uses Pilot-wave theory to explain the physics of the nonlocal subquantum world. He discusses various ways that the theory could be experimentally tested, by looking for signatures of violations of the Born rule in extreme environments, such as the early universe. He also discusses the radical technological implications of subquantum physics, if we were able to harness it. Watch on YouTube or listen on audio platforms!

Dr Maria Violaris

23,067 views • 24 days ago

Is entropy subjective? Entropy is core to the laws of thermodynamics and the arrow of time. And yet, some physicists argue that entropy actually depends on who is measuring it. Could it really be the case that such a fundamental aspect of the laws of physics is subjective?! I addressed this question in my talk at the Rationalist Festival (Rat Fest) 2025, organised by Conjecture Institute. Watch here or on the YouTube link below!
10:16
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Is entropy subjective? Entropy is core to the laws of thermodynamics and the arrow of time. And yet, some physicists argue that entropy actually depends on who is measuring it. Could it really be the case that such a fundamental aspect of the laws of physics is subjective?! I addressed this question in my talk at the Rationalist Festival (Rat Fest) 2025, organised by Conjecture Institute. Watch here or on the YouTube link below!

Dr Maria Violaris

54,702 views • 4 months ago

Is it time to quantize time? Everything is quantum in quantum mechanics... almost. Time remains a mysterious flowing quantity slotted in to the equations. Surprisingly, there's a model for making time quantum, with a radical consequence: the overall universe is timeless. How is it possible to experience a flow of time in a timeless universe?! Find out in my latest episode of the Quantum Foundations Podcast with Simone Rijavec, Simone Rijavec! We discuss the Page-Wootters model for the emergence of time in quantum theory, and get an insight into Simone's research on the topic. Here's how physicists are solving the problem of time in quantum theory, explained in 60 minutes: 00:00 Coming Up 00:59 Intro 01:37 Simone's journey into quantum 05:04 The problem of time in quantum theory 07:07 Relational approach to time 11:12 Quantum measurement and time 17:53 Stationary universe and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation 30:18 Multiverse & block universe 31:11 How is time flowing? 34:20 Problems with wave-function collapse 36:11 What are clocks? 37:48 Resolution of time-steps 41:47 Debates on the timeless approach 45:08 Interactions with clocks 51:05 Recap 57:39 Making time fully quantum 1:00:43 Behind the Scenes
1:01:22
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Is it time to quantize time? Everything is quantum in quantum mechanics... almost. Time remains a mysterious flowing quantity slotted in to the equations. Surprisingly, there's a model for making time quantum, with a radical consequence: the overall universe is timeless. How is it possible to experience a flow of time in a timeless universe?! Find out in my latest episode of the Quantum Foundations Podcast with Simone Rijavec, Simone Rijavec! We discuss the Page-Wootters model for the emergence of time in quantum theory, and get an insight into Simone's research on the topic. Here's how physicists are solving the problem of time in quantum theory, explained in 60 minutes: 00:00 Coming Up 00:59 Intro 01:37 Simone's journey into quantum 05:04 The problem of time in quantum theory 07:07 Relational approach to time 11:12 Quantum measurement and time 17:53 Stationary universe and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation 30:18 Multiverse & block universe 31:11 How is time flowing? 34:20 Problems with wave-function collapse 36:11 What are clocks? 37:48 Resolution of time-steps 41:47 Debates on the timeless approach 45:08 Interactions with clocks 51:05 Recap 57:39 Making time fully quantum 1:00:43 Behind the Scenes

Dr Maria Violaris

63,981 views • 6 months ago

Two papers were posted yesterday, both reducing the resources needed for quantum computers to hack cryptocurrencies. But the headlines don't quite tell the whole story... I break down Google's whitepaper on quantum security of crypto, which includes a secret algorithm that they only released a zero-knowledge proof to verify. I also discuss (newly announced!) start-up Oratomic's paper on implementing Shor's algorithm with 10,000 qubits on a neutral-atom quantum computer. 0:00 Intro 3:28 Two New Papers 5:39 Google Paper 6:07 RSA vs Elliptic Curve 10:53 Attack Types: On-Spend vs At-Rest 12:28 Fast Clock vs Slow Clock Architectures 15:38 Zero Knowledge Proof 17:26 10,000 Qubit Claim 19:50 Space- vs Time-Efficient Architectures 22:29 Final comments
23:30
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Two papers were posted yesterday, both reducing the resources needed for quantum computers to hack cryptocurrencies. But the headlines don't quite tell the whole story... I break down Google's whitepaper on quantum security of crypto, which includes a secret algorithm that they only released a zero-knowledge proof to verify. I also discuss (newly announced!) start-up Oratomic's paper on implementing Shor's algorithm with 10,000 qubits on a neutral-atom quantum computer. 0:00 Intro 3:28 Two New Papers 5:39 Google Paper 6:07 RSA vs Elliptic Curve 10:53 Attack Types: On-Spend vs At-Rest 12:28 Fast Clock vs Slow Clock Architectures 15:38 Zero Knowledge Proof 17:26 10,000 Qubit Claim 19:50 Space- vs Time-Efficient Architectures 22:29 Final comments

Dr Maria Violaris

21,923 views • 2 months ago

"We could be within 5 years of really falsifying Einstein's classical theory." How? By generating entanglement in an experiment to test quantum gravity! I'm excited to release a technical deep-dive into how to test quantum features of gravity, explained in an approachable and intuitive way by Prof Vlatko Vedral from the University of Oxford. We go right from Feynman's original thought experiment about putting a single mass in superposition, to Vlatko and his collaborators' Chiara Marletto & Sougato Bose's recent "BMV" two-mass experimental proposal. As well as carefully explaining what different scenarios and results tell us about the nature of quantum gravity, Vlatko outlines actual experimental requirements and progress towards implementing this crucial test in the near future. 00:00 Coming Up 02:03 Intro 02:56 Feynman's Single Mass Superposition 12:20 Fake Decoherence 23:07 Interfering Neutrons & Conservation Laws 35:10 Two Masses Thought Experiment 49:23 Coupling gravity and Quantum Field 57:05 Quantumness as Non-Commuting Operators 01:10:47 Experimental Proposals 01:26:46 Challenges and Future Directions 01:35:32 Final Thoughts
1:36:58
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"We could be within 5 years of really falsifying Einstein's classical theory." How? By generating entanglement in an experiment to test quantum gravity! I'm excited to release a technical deep-dive into how to test quantum features of gravity, explained in an approachable and intuitive way by Prof Vlatko Vedral from the University of Oxford. We go right from Feynman's original thought experiment about putting a single mass in superposition, to Vlatko and his collaborators' Chiara Marletto & Sougato Bose's recent "BMV" two-mass experimental proposal. As well as carefully explaining what different scenarios and results tell us about the nature of quantum gravity, Vlatko outlines actual experimental requirements and progress towards implementing this crucial test in the near future. 00:00 Coming Up 02:03 Intro 02:56 Feynman's Single Mass Superposition 12:20 Fake Decoherence 23:07 Interfering Neutrons & Conservation Laws 35:10 Two Masses Thought Experiment 49:23 Coupling gravity and Quantum Field 57:05 Quantumness as Non-Commuting Operators 01:10:47 Experimental Proposals 01:26:46 Challenges and Future Directions 01:35:32 Final Thoughts

Dr Maria Violaris

66,502 views • 11 months ago

Can you program a quantum computer only using pi? To celebrate pi day 2026, in this video I go through the paper "All You Need is pi: Quantum Computing with Hermitian Gates", which shows that you can construct any quantum computing operations out of quantum operations that have the special property of undoing themselves ("Hermitian gates") — and for single-qubit gates, these are entirely made of rotations of an angle of pi! Happy Pi Day 🥧 *Timestamps* 0:00 Intro 1:03 Single qubits & gates 3:11 Gates on many qubits 3:58 Quantum circuit diagrams 4:44 Universal gate set 5:54 Self-reverse gates (Hermitian) 8:08 All you need is pi? 10:14 Decomposing gates 13:14 Hardware pi pulses 14:28 Clocked quantum computers
15:36
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Can you program a quantum computer only using pi? To celebrate pi day 2026, in this video I go through the paper "All You Need is pi: Quantum Computing with Hermitian Gates", which shows that you can construct any quantum computing operations out of quantum operations that have the special property of undoing themselves ("Hermitian gates") — and for single-qubit gates, these are entirely made of rotations of an angle of pi! Happy Pi Day 🥧 *Timestamps* 0:00 Intro 1:03 Single qubits & gates 3:11 Gates on many qubits 3:58 Quantum circuit diagrams 4:44 Universal gate set 5:54 Self-reverse gates (Hermitian) 8:08 All you need is pi? 10:14 Decomposing gates 13:14 Hardware pi pulses 14:28 Clocked quantum computers

Dr Maria Violaris

18,011 views • 2 months ago

I made a Quantum Physicist Reacts video for Microsoft's Majorana 1 chip! 00:00 Intro 01:11 Topological quantum computing 03:19 Comparison with Google's Willow chip 04:57 Decoding the announcements 08:36 The paper & peer-review reports 11:50 Past skepticism & retractions 13:55 Potential impact on quantum computing 15:49 Conclusion & Recap
17:35
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I made a Quantum Physicist Reacts video for Microsoft's Majorana 1 chip! 00:00 Intro 01:11 Topological quantum computing 03:19 Comparison with Google's Willow chip 04:57 Decoding the announcements 08:36 The paper & peer-review reports 11:50 Past skepticism & retractions 13:55 Potential impact on quantum computing 15:49 Conclusion & Recap

Dr Maria Violaris

61,634 views • 1 year ago

Why quantum theory could have a fractal structure: explained in 83 minutes. The notion of true quantum nonlocality is absurd. In the latest episode of the Quantum Foundations Podcast, Prof Tim Palmer from the University of Oxford suggests that there is a hidden assumption in standard quantum mechanics, and dropping it will save us from this absurdity. Namely, the reality of counterfactuals: the physics of what could have happened but did not. Inspired by chaos theory and the fractal structure widespread in atmospheric physics, Palmer has developed a new underlying structure for quantum theory, with radical implications for our fundamental principles of quantum physics; the limits of quantum computation; and perhaps even the search for quantum gravity. Watch on my YouTube channel, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
1:34
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Why quantum theory could have a fractal structure: explained in 83 minutes. The notion of true quantum nonlocality is absurd. In the latest episode of the Quantum Foundations Podcast, Prof Tim Palmer from the University of Oxford suggests that there is a hidden assumption in standard quantum mechanics, and dropping it will save us from this absurdity. Namely, the reality of counterfactuals: the physics of what could have happened but did not. Inspired by chaos theory and the fractal structure widespread in atmospheric physics, Palmer has developed a new underlying structure for quantum theory, with radical implications for our fundamental principles of quantum physics; the limits of quantum computation; and perhaps even the search for quantum gravity. Watch on my YouTube channel, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!

Dr Maria Violaris

18,259 views • 3 months ago

Constructor Theory of Information with Dr Chiara Marletto | Quantum Foundations Podcast Ep6 Join me for a deep-dive into the Constructor Theory of Information, from its foundations to applications, with Dr Chiara Marletto, Research Fellow at Department of Physics at University of Oxford. 0:00 Coming up 1:36 Intro 2:28 How did you get interested in constructor theory? 5:51 What is constructor theory & the universal constructor? 9:54 How does constructor theory apply to information? 16:33 Qubits vs Bits using principles 20:22 Deriving probability in a deterministic universe 24:25 Constructor theory of probability 27:48 Interoperability of information principle 31:52 Testing quantum gravity 33:46 Interoperability principle with dynamics 35:21 Bringing back the early spirit of quantum info 39:37 Testability of theories & role of locality 49:13 Solving the circularity in classical information theory 57:31 Future applications - hybrid systems 1:01:02 Further applications - thermodynamics, modelling superinformation theories, quantum field theory 1:06:45 Wrap up
1:07:31
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Constructor Theory of Information with Dr Chiara Marletto | Quantum Foundations Podcast Ep6 Join me for a deep-dive into the Constructor Theory of Information, from its foundations to applications, with Dr Chiara Marletto, Research Fellow at Department of Physics at University of Oxford. 0:00 Coming up 1:36 Intro 2:28 How did you get interested in constructor theory? 5:51 What is constructor theory & the universal constructor? 9:54 How does constructor theory apply to information? 16:33 Qubits vs Bits using principles 20:22 Deriving probability in a deterministic universe 24:25 Constructor theory of probability 27:48 Interoperability of information principle 31:52 Testing quantum gravity 33:46 Interoperability principle with dynamics 35:21 Bringing back the early spirit of quantum info 39:37 Testability of theories & role of locality 49:13 Solving the circularity in classical information theory 57:31 Future applications - hybrid systems 1:01:02 Further applications - thermodynamics, modelling superinformation theories, quantum field theory 1:06:45 Wrap up

Dr Maria Violaris

34,306 views • 1 year ago

New podcast episode on what proposed tests for quantum gravity tell us about reality, out now! Links to more platforms in thread. Testing Quantum Gravity & Reality with Prof. Vlatko Vedral | Quantum Foundations Podcast Ep5 *Timestamps* 00:00 Coming Up 02:05 Intro 03:15 How did Vlatko enter this field? 06:40 What's the problem with quantum gravity? 17:03 First tests: black holes 24:31 Quantum tech & quantum computers 27:31 Putting objects in superposition 30:15 Single-mass vs two-mass proposals 34:19 Single-mass interference & fields 38:21 Two-mass proposal, Faraday, locality assumption 48:42 Witnessing entanglement 50:29 Outcomes for theories of classical gravity 54:03 Uncertainty principle of gravity 59:17 Implications for different quantum gravity theories 1:05:03 Imagining future tests to distinguish more quantum gravity theories 1:06:34 Milestones for quantum gravity experiment research programme 1:09:53 Nanodiamond experiment 1:15:41 Relation to quantum tech 1:17:50 Imagining graviton tech 01:21:41 Theory work left to do 01:27:19 How much would the experiment cost? 01:33:02 Summary & final thoughts 01:41:22 Behind the Scenes
1:41:43
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New podcast episode on what proposed tests for quantum gravity tell us about reality, out now! Links to more platforms in thread. Testing Quantum Gravity & Reality with Prof. Vlatko Vedral | Quantum Foundations Podcast Ep5 *Timestamps* 00:00 Coming Up 02:05 Intro 03:15 How did Vlatko enter this field? 06:40 What's the problem with quantum gravity? 17:03 First tests: black holes 24:31 Quantum tech & quantum computers 27:31 Putting objects in superposition 30:15 Single-mass vs two-mass proposals 34:19 Single-mass interference & fields 38:21 Two-mass proposal, Faraday, locality assumption 48:42 Witnessing entanglement 50:29 Outcomes for theories of classical gravity 54:03 Uncertainty principle of gravity 59:17 Implications for different quantum gravity theories 1:05:03 Imagining future tests to distinguish more quantum gravity theories 1:06:34 Milestones for quantum gravity experiment research programme 1:09:53 Nanodiamond experiment 1:15:41 Relation to quantum tech 1:17:50 Imagining graviton tech 01:21:41 Theory work left to do 01:27:19 How much would the experiment cost? 01:33:02 Summary & final thoughts 01:41:22 Behind the Scenes

Dr Maria Violaris

22,547 views • 1 year ago

The local account of quantum theory, explained with Nicetu Tibau Vidal — now out on X! If you want to understand how it's possible that entangled quantum systems can be described fully locally, despite Bell's theorem, watch this. This episode is aimed to be accessible to anyone with an interest (with an accompanying technical episode for the mathematical details). Section 1: 0:00 - Coming Up 1:03 - Welcome 1:14 - Introducing Nicetu 7:02 - Podcast structure 8:15 - Locality in physics 14:00 - Nonlocality in quantum mechanics 15:59 - Hooke, Newton & Einstein 21:27 - Maxwell and fields 25:00 - Bell's inequality, Bell experimental tests, and entanglement 35:13 - Nonlocal influences vs. signalling 39:24 - Einstein and hidden variables 43:49 - Hidden variables and Bell’s theorem 52:13 - Realism in quantum mechanics and the assumptions of Bell's theorem 58:18 - Can we save local realism? 1:00:05 - Many-worlds and Copenhagen interpretations of quantum mechanics
1:02:22
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The local account of quantum theory, explained with Nicetu Tibau Vidal — now out on X! If you want to understand how it's possible that entangled quantum systems can be described fully locally, despite Bell's theorem, watch this. This episode is aimed to be accessible to anyone with an interest (with an accompanying technical episode for the mathematical details). Section 1: 0:00 - Coming Up 1:03 - Welcome 1:14 - Introducing Nicetu 7:02 - Podcast structure 8:15 - Locality in physics 14:00 - Nonlocality in quantum mechanics 15:59 - Hooke, Newton & Einstein 21:27 - Maxwell and fields 25:00 - Bell's inequality, Bell experimental tests, and entanglement 35:13 - Nonlocal influences vs. signalling 39:24 - Einstein and hidden variables 43:49 - Hidden variables and Bell’s theorem 52:13 - Realism in quantum mechanics and the assumptions of Bell's theorem 58:18 - Can we save local realism? 1:00:05 - Many-worlds and Copenhagen interpretations of quantum mechanics

Dr Maria Violaris

15,903 views • 11 months ago

Share this with someone that doesn't care about quantum 👇 3 reasons you should care about quantum, ft. a real OQC quantum computer! Had fun doing a collab with the Institute of Physics Institute of Physics Shorts project for the International Year of Quantum. Hope you enjoy!
0:59
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Share this with someone that doesn't care about quantum 👇 3 reasons you should care about quantum, ft. a real OQC quantum computer! Had fun doing a collab with the Institute of Physics Institute of Physics Shorts project for the International Year of Quantum. Hope you enjoy!

Dr Maria Violaris

12,342 views • 1 year ago

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