Maria Violaris: A Gentle Introduction to Quantum Computing
episodePreviously titled “A (Gentle) Introduction to Quantum Computing | Maria Violaris” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
Transcript
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What is Maria Violaris’s background and how did she become interested in quantum physics?
Today I thought it would be fantastic to give an overview of some of the no-go theorems in basic quantum theory. They're explained both rigorously and the intuition behind them is provided. I'm excited to say that Maria Violores covers what realism actually means, what is non-locality, what is the Coke and Specker theorem, Bell's inequalities, the legate inequalities, contextuality, loopholes, quantum gates, qubits, entanglement, separability, GHZ. States and many more, all succinctly in one point five hours. Start off by telling us about your journey into physics, where you started, what changed along the way, where are you now? Where are you headed?
Yeah, sure. So My journey into physics was started near the end of high school is when I started getting interested in physics in particular, quantum physics. I was intrigued by popular science articles about things being in two places at once and that kind of thing and also aspects of thermodynamics and ideas about entropy and information. So that's what persuaded me to then do a physics degree afterwards. So I studied physics, Oxford. A Ben I became interested in a particular approach to unifying aspects of of physics called constructor theory. So I know you've interviewed Chiara Mareto on your podcast before. I became interested in her work when I was in undergrad. It turned out that her and David Deutsch were in Oxford and so I started working with them during my my master's project.
And then I was enjoying the work that I was doing on on quantum and thermodynamics. as part of that theory. So that led me to continue to do a PhD. So I did a PhD in the foundations of quantum information in Vlad Kedros group in Oxford. And I just finished that a few months ago. In August was my kind of final Live for assessment. And alongside that I was also making videos working with IBM Quantum. making videos about resolving quantum paradoxes using quantum computing. And I've also kind of been involved in the quantum computing area and in generally doing outreach and engagement quite a lot since over the last few years and now. I'm working at Oxford Quantum Circuits, which is a start up uh well, scale up.
It's been around a few years now. And I'm partly working on quantum error correction research and partly working on doing science communication and content in a kind of hybrid role. So um yeah, that's been my journey kind of across industry, academia. and engagement with with quantum. And I also make uh have continued with the content creation myself as well, posting videos on my channel and trying to share. More quantum content.
Your channel is Maria Violares and the link will be on screen and in the description. If you are from the tow audience and you're going over to hers, which I do recommend you do and you subscribe, then comment and say Kurt sent you.
Yeah, I look forward to the comments.
Okay. Great. And you're also on Kiskit, correct?
Yeah, so that was the internship that I was doing part-time alongside my PhD was with Kiskit and I made a series of videos on a playlist called Quantum Paradoxes. So if you just search quantum paradoxes into Google, then that playlist comes up of fifteen videos. Yeah, they kind of They expect some introductory background to quantum computing that you can get from other resources and then they explain various thought experiments using quantum computing.
Many people who watch the Theories of Everything podcast this program are academic researchers in physics, but many are also just academic researchers in various disciplines like computer science, philosophy, math. So while the former physics may be aware of the quantum no go theorems and related concepts that you're about to cover, the latter may not be. So I'm extremely, extremely excited about this. Why don't you just take it away?
Yeah, great. So yeah, today I'm gonna talk about these quantum no go theorems. So one of the most famous of these is Bell's theorem. So it's very commonly discussed in popular science and it's also the topic that led to the Nobel Prize a few years ago.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is Maria Violaris’s background and how did she become interested in quantum physics?
0:00–12:26
2
What are quantum no‑go theorems and why are they important for understanding quantum mechanics?
12:26–22:41
3
How does the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment illustrate the paradoxes of superposition?
22:41–32:27
4
What do theory‑independence and loopholes mean in the context of Bell‑type experiments?
32:27–43:12
5
How does the Heisenberg uncertainty principle relate to entanglement and measurement choices?
43:12–54:10
6
What is a qubit, and how are quantum gates used to manipulate its state?
54:10–1:02:36
7
How does Bell’s theorem (CHSH inequality) rule out local hidden‑variable models?
1:02:36–1:12:53
8
What is quantum contextuality (Kochen‑Specker theorem) and how does the magic‑square illustrate it?
1:12:53–1:23:56
Speakers
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