Washington Quantum Computing Meetup

Date : Feb 7 2026 13:00 - 15:00 EST
Title: Symmetry, Topology, and Magnetoelectric Multiferroicity — Ferroelectric 'Tweezers' for Quantum Magnetism in Hexagonal Ferrites

Abstract: The scalability of future quantum and spintronic hardware is currently facing a "physical wall": the challenges of excessive heat dissipation and environmental magnetic noise. To overcome these barriers, materials where magnetism can be controlled with high precision and minimal energy will be highly desirable. Magnetoelectric multiferroic hexagonal rare-earth ferrites (h-RFeO3, R: rare earth) have emerged as an important platform for this mission, offering a unique "playground" where symmetry and topology dictate functionality. In this talk, I will provide a comprehensive overview of research progress on these materials over the last decade. We will explore how a specific structural transition—trimerization—breaks symmetry to create a robust state known as improper ferroelectricity as well as weak ferromagnetism. The coupling between the ferroelectric and magnetic orders leads to a "ferroelectric tweezer" effect, where the material's ferroelectric domain spatially anchors and manipulates magnetic domains. Furthermore, we will address the "readout challenge": how to detect the diminutive magnetic moments inherent in these systems. I will show how the non-coplanar spin topology acts as a signal amplifier, enabling high-fidelity readout of magnetic states through spin-transport. By understanding the "solid science" of these complex oxides, we can define the roadmap for a new generation of stable, low-power topological electronics.
Biography: Xiaoshan Xu is Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor from Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He graduated from Nanjing University in 1997 and 2000 with his bachelor’s and master’s degrees respectively. He received his Ph. D. in Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. After that, he worked at the University of Tennessee as a postdoctoral researcher and Oak Ridge National Lab as an R&D Associate. He joined the University of Nebraska in 2013. He is a recipient of the Eugene P. Wigner Fellowship of the Oak Ridge National Lab, NSF Early Career Award, and DOE Early Career Award. His research interests include oxide and organic thin film growth, spintronics, multiferroics, and quantum materials.

Moderator: Dr. Sebastian Zajac, member of QPoland

Title: Biology-Inspired Neural Networks with Multi-Directional Propagation of Values and Distributions
Date: Feb 8 2026 10:00 am - Noon EST
Summary: While biological axons can propagate in both directions, current ANNs are focused on unidirectional propagation. Also usually they only propagate values, while uncertainty is shown also crucial for making decisions of biological organisms - suggesting to propagate also variance, probability distributions. I will talk about novel KAN-like approach to ANNs repairing these lack by using neurons containing inexpensive local joint distribution model as polynomial, allowing to freely change propagation direction by just switching indexes, also propagate entire probability distributions represented by vectors of moments. Beside backpropagation, it also allows many additional training approaches, like direct estimation, tensor decomposition, and through information bottleneck.

Speaker: Dr Jarek Duda is an assistant professor at Jagiellonian University. He holds degrees in computer science (PhD), mathematics (MSc) and physics (PhD). He is mainly focused on physics foundations, information theory, statistical analysis, and is known for introduction of asymmetric numeral systems.

Moderators: Dr. Pawel Gora, CEO of Quantum AI Foundation and Dr. Sebastian Zajac , member of QPoland

Zoom registration form will be provided no later than 1 hour prior to the event's start time.

Title: An Easy Intro to Feynman's Quantum ElectroDynamics (QED)
Summary: One of the most delightful and informative physics books ever written is Richard Feynman’s QED. In this short book, Feynman undertook the daunting task of explaining his Nobel-Prize-winning theory, Quantum ElectroDynamics, without any math except in a few elaborating footnotes. Remarkably, he succeeds! In this talk, Terry replicates many of his arguments to show how you, too, can understand one of the most fundamental mechanisms of physical reality by using not much more than lots of tiny one-hand clock dials moving through space.

Speaker: Terry Bollinger is a computer scientist Speaker: Terry Bollinger is a computer scientist with BS, MS and Professional degrees from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.