Einstein, Albert (1879-1955)

Following in Einstein's shoes

Reproduced with permission from ©Haaretzdaily

One hundred years after Einstein first published his Theory of Relativity, Nature - perhaps the most respected science journal in the world - set out in search of the world's most promising theoretical physicists. Of the four the magazine found, one is Israeli - Dr. Dorit Aharonov, 34, born on Haifa's Einstein Street.

The journal chose Aharonov, of the Hebrew University's School of Engineering and Computer Science, for a profile published in its January 2005 issue celebrating one hundred years since Albert Einstein's "wondrous year." In 1905, at the tender age of 26, Einstein published his three era-defining theories, including the Theory of Relativity.

Aharonov is seen as one of the most promising researchers in quantum computing. In the past decade this new computing model based on quantum physics has created a veritable revolution in computer-science theory and could have far-reaching implications for computer technology.

If they can be built, quantum computers would be able to execute certain calculations at a speed unlike any existing computers. A vastly accelerated computing speed would be possible because a quantum-physics system would work on all possible computations simultaneously.

"I was very happy with Nature's choice, because it is indicative of the importance scientists worldwide attribute to quantum computing," said Aharonov. "It is a field that combines tools from the fields of physics and mathematics to explore questions that are essentially philosophical in nature: What is the computing power of power? And how does the transfer from quantum physics to classical happen? And many other [questions]."

Aharonov's research focuses on the central issue of quantum computing - its sensitivity to the "noise" of large-scale quantum systems. In her doctorate, Aharonov and her dissertation supervisor Professor Michael Ben-Or developed a theoretical system to protect quantum computers from noise. They showed that in principle, the noise does not represent an obstacle to the construction of large quantum computers. Many laboratories throughout the world are currently trying to build such computers.

Aharonov's more recent research has uncovered connections between resistence to errors in quantum computing and one of physics' unanswered questions: Why do most of the phenomena we see in the real world belong to classic physics, while the physical laws that describe them belong to quantum physics. Her work also deals with the development of new techniques to resolve difficult computation problems, using the tools of quantum physics.

The three other young researchers chosen by Nature: Nima Arkani-Hamed of Harvard University, Senthil Todadri of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Martin Bojowald of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany, all under 35 years old.