Research Interests
• Strongly correlated quantum many-particle systems
• Nonequilibrium phenomena, open quantum systems, and transport
• Information theoretic aspects like entanglement
• Integrable models
• Tensor network state methods (DMRG, MPS, MERA, PEPS)
• Quantum computation and simulation for the investigation of quantum matter
• Ultracold atoms in optical lattices
• Stochastic dynamics in networks
Bio
Theoretical and Numerical Many-Body Physics:
- Quantum condensed matter systems
- Strongly correlated quantum matter
- Phase transitions, dynamic response, criticality, and universality
- Nonequilibrium phenomena, open driven-dissipative quantum systems, and transport
- Scaling and evolution of entanglement
- Integrable models
- Quantum computation and simulation for the investigation of quantum matter
- Ultracold atoms in optical lattices
- Stochastic dynamics in networks, rare events, and epidemic outbreaks
- Tensor network state methods
- Fundamental properties and information-theoretic aspects of many-particle systems
- Machine learning and artificial intelligence
Education
- Ph.D. Rheinisch-Westfalische Technische Hochshule Aachen (Germany), 2009
Positions
- Charles H. Townes Assistant Professor of Physics
- Assistant Professor of Physics
- Member of the Duke Quantum Center
Courses Taught
- PHYSICS 624: Open Quantum Systems
- PHYSICS 590: Selected Topics in Theoretical Physics
- PHYSICS 464D: Quantum Mechanics I
- MATH 690-70: Topics in Applied Mathematics
- ECE 624: Open Quantum Systems
Representative Publications
- Miao, Qiang, Tianyi Wang, Kenneth Brown, Thomas Barthel, and Marko Cetina. “Probing entanglement scaling across a quantum phase transition on a quantum computer.” ArXiv:2412.18602, December 24, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.18602.
- Barthel, Thomas, and Qiang Miao. “Absence of barren plateaus and scaling of gradients in the energy optimization of isometric tensor network states.” Communications in Mathematical Physics, December 10, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.00161.
- Barthel, Thomas, and Qiang Miao. “Scaling of contraction costs for entanglement renormalization algorithms including tensor Trotterization and variational Monte Carlo.” Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, December 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.21006.
- Chen, Hao, and Thomas Barthel. “Machine Learning With Tree Tensor Networks, CP Rank Constraints, and Tensor Dropout.” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 46, no. 12 (December 2024): 7825–32. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpami.2024.3396386.
- Crotti, Stefano, Thomas Barthel, and Alfredo Braunstein. “Nonequilibrium steady-state dynamics of Markov processes on graphs.” ArXiv:2411.19100, November 28, 2024. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2411.19100.