Theoretical quantum information

Entanglement is supposed to decay under noise. For certain combinations of Bell states, I derived the regime where adding noise raises concurrence above the value of the state you started with.

My work derives closed-form concurrence and von Neumann entropy for superpositions and mixtures of Bell states under depolarizing, phase damping, and amplitude damping channels, and maps where entanglement survives but Bell non-locality does not. Alongside it, I analyze Parker Solar Probe data on heliospheric current sheet crossings and build meshless RBF solvers for PDEs.

PhD applicant · Fall 2027 Open quantum systems Entanglement measures Quantum error correction
0.0 0.5 1.0 0 0.5 1.0 noise strength p concurrence C enhancement single Bell state

The central result

|ψ⟩ = α|Φ⁺⟩ + β|Ψ⁻⟩  →  ℰ(ρ) = Σₖ Kₖ ρ Kₖ†

For a single Bell state, concurrence falls monotonically with noise. For certain Bell-state combinations, adding noise first raises concurrence above its noiseless value, in all three channels studied.

Schematic: curve shapes illustrate the qualitative behavior derived in arXiv:2608.17500, not plotted data.

What I Want to Work On

PhD research interests

My interest sits where open quantum system dynamics meets entanglement theory: how noise that acts on subsystems together rather than independently changes the structure of entanglement, and when quantum correlations outlive the decoherence that has already destroyed Bell non-locality. The gap between those two boundaries is the part of my current results I find most worth pushing on.

My undergraduate work derives concurrence and entropy in closed form for two-qubit states under three noise channels. The extensions I want to pursue in doctoral study are multipartite systems beyond GHZ and W states, non-Markovian and spatially correlated noise models rather than memoryless ones, and entanglement measures that stay computable as the dimension grows.

I am looking for groups in theoretical quantum information where analytic work on open systems connects to questions about error correction and the limits of entanglement as a resource.

Research Experience

three groups · 2024 to present
Brigham Young University
Remote / Provo, UT
Quantum information

Fletcher Research Intern: Quantum Information Science

Advisor: Dr. Jean-François Van Huele

  • Developed a two-qubit noise model for Bell-state combinations applying globally correlated depolarizing and phase damping together with independent local amplitude damping, extending beyond standard single-qubit treatments.
  • Derived closed-form expressions for Wootters' concurrence and von Neumann entropy across all 16 Bell-state superposition and mixing combinations under all three channels.
  • Discovered a counterintuitive noise-assisted entanglement enhancement regime present in every channel studied.
  • Mapped entanglement vs. non-locality phase boundaries via the Horodecki CHSH criterion, producing complete phase diagrams for three noise channels and five canonical Bell-state symmetry classes.
  • Quantified entanglement dynamics for GHZ and W states under noise; analyzed concurrence and entropy of Werner states under depolarization.
  • Manuscript posted to arXiv, August 2026; in preparation for Physical Review A.
Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville
Huntsville, AL
Space plasma

FTPP Research Intern: Space Plasma Physics

Advisor: Dr. Lingling Zhao, CSPAR

  • Analyzed in-situ observations from Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter to detect and characterize heliospheric current sheet crossings.
  • Built a Python / PySPEDAS pipeline over Level-2/3 products from three PSP instrument suites: FIELDS (magnetic field), SWEAP/SPAN-Ion (plasma moments), and SWEAP/SPAN-Electron (pitch-angle distributions).
  • Reproduced the baseline HCS crossing catalog of Fargette et al. (2026) for Encounter 16 (three full crossings with reconnection jet signatures), then extended the analysis to Encounters 6 to 21.
  • Investigated MHD structure of the solar wind near the current sheet: energy flux, magnetic reconnection, and turbulence evolution across the sector boundary.
Univ. of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, MS
Numerical PDEs

Undergraduate Research Assistant: Radial Basis Functions & PDEs

Advisor: Dr. Ching Shyang Chen, Dept. of Mathematics

  • Designing and benchmarking RBF frameworks for PDEs on irregular meshless domains using the Kansa method with multiquadric and thin-plate-spline kernels.
  • Implementing leave-one-out cross validation for multiquadric shape-parameter selection, improving solution stability and accuracy.
  • Generating 3D isosurface visualizations and error analyses in MATLAB and Mathematica to validate convergence behavior.

Publications & Manuscripts

Characterizing Entanglement in Combinations of Bell States through Superposition and Mixing: An Increase in Entanglement on Introducing Depolarizing, Phase Damping, and Amplitude Damping Noise

Chaudhari, N. & Van Huele, J.-F. (2026). arXiv:2608.17500

In preparation for submission to Physical Review A

How Does Noise Affect Quantum Systems?

Chaudhari, N. (2024). Research report, Brigham Young University.

Properties of Noise in Quantum States

Chaudhari, N. (2024). Research report, Brigham Young University.

Talks, Conferences & Training

2027 APS Global Physics Summit · oral presentation on quantum noise and entanglement (in preparation) Talk
2026 APS Global Physics Summit, Denver, CO · poster: “Entanglement Dynamics for Bell State Combinations under Various Noise Conditions” Poster
2026 USM Research Symposium · First Place, Oral Presentation, Physics & Mathematics 1st place
2025 USM Research Symposium · First Place, Oral Presentation, Physics & Mathematics 1st place
2025 Quantum+Chips Summer School, University of Minnesota · superconducting and ion-trap qubits, quantum error correction, silicon chip fabrication School
2025 CMAP Summer School, University of Rochester · condensed matter, plasma physics, laboratory astrophysics, planet-formation simulation in Python School
2025 APS Thriving Departments Symposium, Chicago · departmental growth, diversity, and professional development Symposium
2024 Nuclear Summer Science School, Michigan State University · r- and s-process nucleosynthesis and connections to quantum mechanics School

Competitions

MIT iQuHACK 2026: IonQ Challenge

1st place · team Q-gars

Hybrid Quantum-Classical Optimization for Entanglement Distillation · January 2026

  • Engineered a Python “Auto Bot” agent for quantum network optimization, combining physics-based noise characterization (density matrix reconstruction across five noise channels) with graph-theoretic pathfinding (Dijkstra, ROI, and betweenness centrality) to maximize network utility.
  • Designed adaptive circuits unifying bit-flip and phase-flip error correction, validated against theoretical fidelity thresholds.

Leadership & Outreach

Quantum Undergraduate Network (QUN)

Founder & President Current May 2025 to present
  • Founded an international network connecting 100+ undergraduates in quantum information science across institutions.
  • Organized guest lectures from IBM Quantum researchers and academic leaders.
  • Hosted hands-on quantum computing workshops engaging 20+ students.

Society of Physics Students, USM

President Current May 2026 to present
  • Elected president of the USM chapter for 2026-2027, directing all programming, outreach, and chapter strategy, and managing chapter events and organizational funding.
  • Previously Vice President: led public physics demonstrations for high school students at STEM Carnival, organized faculty-student mentorship panels, and managed chapter budgeting and resource allocation.

Vice President · Aug 2025 to May 2026

Technical Skills

Quantum
Density matrix formalism Kraus operator noise models Concurrence von Neumann entropy Horodecki CHSH criterion Quantum error correction Qiskit circuit design
Programming
Python NumPy / SciPy Matplotlib Qiskit PySPEDAS MATLAB Mathematica LaTeX Git / GitHub
Numerical methods
Radial basis functions Thin plate splines Kansa meshless solvers LOOCV shape optimization 3D isosurface visualization
Data analysis
PSP FIELDS / SWEAP processing Pitch-angle distributions Magnetic field time series Signal processing

Education

University of Southern Mississippi B.S. Physics & B.S. Mathematics (double major) · Aug 2023 to May 2027
3.971 Cumulative GPA / 4.0
4.000 Major GPA, Physics & Math
6 Semesters on President's / Dean's List

Coursework: Quantum Mechanics I (in progress), Electromagnetism I (in progress), Classical Mechanics, Mechanics I & II, Modern Physics I & II, Optics, Electronics, Partial Differential Equations, Numerical Analysis, Real Analysis (in progress), Linear Algebra, Probability & Statistics, Discrete Mathematics, Modern Algebra.

Awards & Honors

2026APS Doc Brown Award
2026APS National Mentoring Community (NMC) Award
2026First Place Oral Presentation · USM Research Symposium
2025Wright W. & Annie Rea Cross Mathematics Undergraduate Research Scholarship
2025First Place Oral Presentation · USM Research Symposium
2023-25Freshman Academic Excellence Scholarship · University of Southern Mississippi
2023-26President's List, 5 semesters plus Dean's List, Fall 2025

Writing

22 posts since 2020

I have written physics for a general audience on my blog NC since November 2020, starting in high school and continuing through my undergraduate work. Explaining a result to someone outside the field is how I find out whether I actually understand it.

Read the blog NC

Away from the Desk

Hiking

Long walks outdoors, the best place I know to let a stuck derivation sort itself out.

Reading

A steady book habit across physics and well outside it.

Acrylic painting

Painting on canvas, a different way of thinking about color, edges, and composition.