Nicolas Heurtel
Research Associate
Research Interests:
Linear optics,
Graphical language,
Simulation
My interest lies in formalising and studying quantum systems using tools from computer science, sitting at the intersection of hardware, software, and theory. More specifically, my PhD focused on modelling linear optical circuits. On the theory side, I introduced graphical languages and complete equational theories that enable purely diagrammatic reasoning. On the simulation side, I worked on algorithms covering a range of settings. I believe there is still much to explore in fully capturing the capabilities of linear optics, and a lot of bridges to connect to other quantum paradigms!
A Complete Equational Theory for Quantum Circuits, A. Clément, N. Heurtel, S. Mansfield, S. Perdrix, B. Valiron, LICS (2023). https://doi.org/10.1109/LICS56636.2023.1017580 A Complete Graphical Language for Linear Optical Circuits with Finite-Photon-Number Sources and Detectors, N. Heurtel, CSL (2025). https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2025.38 Fast and memory-efficient strong simulation of noisy adaptive linear optical circuits, T. Goubault de Brugière, N. Heurtel, arxiv (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.05699