Alex May portrait

Murray Gell-Mann Chair in Theoretical Physics

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Research Faculty
Perimeter Research Chair

Areas of research: Quantum Fields and Strings Quantum Information

[email protected]

Overview

I am interested broadly in quantum information and its applications to physics.

Teaching Affiliations

I regularly teach the quantum information elective in the PSI Masters program, and have taught at summer schools including the WITP summer school and the ICTP-SAIFR Journeys school held in Sao Paulo. Lecture notes from these courses are available online on my website. I’m interested in teaching at other schools and events.

Research Interests

Quantum information theory addresses the fundamental limits of information processing. Understanding this is typically motivated by applications in computing, communication, and cryptography. I am interested in these applications, but also interested in applying tools from quantum information to quantum gravity and other areas in physics. I am especially interested in a subject known as non-local quantum computation. This is an emerging subject with applications in cryptography, communication complexity, quantum gravity, and other areas.

Positions Held
  • Junior Faculty, Perimeter Institute, 2023-present
  • Adjunct Faculty, Physics, University of Waterloo, 2023-present
  • Adjunct Faculty, Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 2023-present
  • Associate, Institute for Quantum Computing, 2023-present
Awards
  • CAP-DTP Wallace Thesis prize, Canadian Association of Physicists, 2022
  • NSERC Michael Smith Foreign study supplement, NSERC, 2019
Recent Publications
  • Cleve, R., & May, A. (2026). Lower bounds on non-local computation from controllable correlation. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.00255v2
  • Bozanic, L., May, A., & Miao, S. (2026). Entanglement summoning from entanglement sharing. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15112v1
  • Wang, Y., Smith, G., & May, A. (2025). Secure Quantum Ranging. Physical Review Letters, 135(26), 260802. doi:10.1103/7p1t-gfq2
  • Asadi, V. R., Kuroiwa, K., Leung, D., May, A., Pasterski, S., & Waddell, C. (2025). Conditional disclosure of secrets with quantum resources. Quantum, 9, 1885. doi:10.22331/q-2025-10-16-1885
  • Girish, U., May, A., Parham, N., & Yuen, H. (2025). Magic and communication complexity. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07246v1
  • May, A., Pasterski, S., Waddell, C., & Xu, M. (2025). Cryptographic tests of the python’s lunch conjecture. SciPost Physics, 19(4), 084. doi:10.21468/scipostphys.19.4.084
  • Khanian, Z., Lee, D., Leung, D., Li, Z., May, A., Mori, T., . . . Yoshida, B. (2025). Entanglement sharing schemes. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.21462
  • Caminiti, J., Friedman-Shaw, B., May, A., Myers, R. C., & Papadoulaki, O. (2025). Erratum: Holographic scattering and non-minimal RT surfaces. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2025(8), 119. doi:10.1007/jhep08(2025)119
  • May, A., Pasterski, S., Waddell, C., & Xu, M. (2025). Cryptographic tests of the python's lunch conjecture. doi:10.21468/scipost.report.11681
  • Asadi, V. R., Culf, E., & May, A. (2025). Rank lower bounds on non-local quantum computation. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.18647
  • May, A., Pasterski, S., Waddell, C., & Xu, M. (2025). Cryptographic tests of the python's lunch conjecture. doi:10.21468/scipost.report.11377
  • Bluhm, A., Höfer, S., May, A., Stasiuk, M., Lunel, P. V., & Yuen, H. (2025). A complexity theory for non-local quantum computation. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.23893v1
  • Wang, Y., Smith, G., & May, A. (2025). Secure quantum ranging. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04776v1
  • Girish, U., May, A., Orshansky, L., & Waddell, C. (2025). Comparing classical and quantum conditional disclosure of secrets. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.02939v4
  • May, A., Culf, E., & Asadi, V. (2025). Rank lower bounds on non-local quantum computation. In Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science. Columbia University. doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.11
  • Asadi, V., Cleve, R., Culf, E., & May, A. (2025). Linear gate bounds against natural functions for position-verification. Quantum, 9, 1604. doi:10.22331/q-2025-01-21-1604
  • Caminiti, J., Friedman-Shaw, B., May, A., Myers, R. C., & Papadoulaki, O. (2024). Holographic scattering and non-minimal RT surfaces. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2024(10), 119. doi:10.1007/jhep10(2024)119
  • Allerstorfer, R., Buhrman, H., May, A., Speelman, F., & Verduyn Lunel, P. (2024). Relating non-local quantum computation to information theoretic cryptography. Quantum, 8, 1387. doi:10.22331/q-2024-06-27-1387
  • May, A., & Xu, M. (2024). Non-local computation and the black hole interior. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2024(2), 79. doi:10.1007/jhep02(2024)079
  • Kubicki, A. M., May, A., & Pérez-Garcia, D. (2024). Constraints on physical computers in holographic spacetimes. SciPost Physics, 16(1), 024. doi:10.21468/scipostphys.16.1.024
  • Kubicki, A. M., May, A., & Pérez-Garcia, D. (2023). Constraints on physical computers in holographic spacetimes. doi:10.21468/scipost.report.8094
  • Cree, J., & May, A. (2023). Code-routing: a new attack on position verification. Quantum, 7, 1079. doi:10.22331/q-2023-08-09-1079
  • May, A., & Xu, M. (2023). Non-local computation and the black hole interior. https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.11184v3
Seminars
  • Magic and communication complexity, STOC - Symposium on Theory of Computing, 2026/06/22
  • Lecture - Quantum Information I (Elective), 635, Quantum Information I (Elective), PHYS 635, February 23 - March 27, 2026, 2026/03/10, PIRSA:26030004
  • Lecture - Quantum Information I (Elective), 635, Quantum Information I (Elective), PHYS 635, February 23 - March 27, 2026, 2026/03/06, PIRSA:26030003
  • Lecture - Quantum Information I (Elective), 635, Quantum Information I (Elective), PHYS 635, February 23 - March 27, 2026, 2026/03/05, PIRSA:26030002
  • Lecture - Quantum Information I (Elective), 635, Quantum Information I (Elective), PHYS 635, February 23 - March 27, 2026, 2026/03/03, PIRSA:26030001
  • Lecture - Quantum Information I (Elective), 635, Quantum Information I (Elective), PHYS 635, February 23 - March 27, 2026, 2026/02/27, PIRSA:26020009
  • Lecture - Quantum Information I (Elective), 635, Quantum Information I (Elective), PHYS 635, February 23 - March 27, 2026, 2026/02/26, PIRSA:26020008
  • Lecture - Quantum Information I (Elective), 635, Quantum Information I (Elective), PHYS 635, February 23 - March 27, 2026, 2026/02/24, PIRSA:26020007
  • Non-local quantum computation, Colloquium, 2025/11/26, PIRSA:25110073
  • Thoughts on how to give a great talk, Training Programs (TEOSP), 2025/11/10, PIRSA:25110044
  • Cryptographic tests of the python's lunch conjecture, Extreme universe meeting 2025, Kyoto University, 2025/10/27
  • Magic and private simultaneous messages, Kyoto Quantum Cryptography Workshop, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 2025/10/20
  • Entanglement sharing schemes, French National Center for Scientific Research, 2025/10/01
  • Quantum gravity meets quantum cryptography, 2025 CAP Congress, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, 2025/06/11
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/26, PIRSA:25030024
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/25, PIRSA:25030023
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/24, PIRSA:25030022
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/20, PIRSA:25030021
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/12, PIRSA:25030020
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/11, PIRSA:25030019
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/10, PIRSA:25030018
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/06, PIRSA:25030017
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/04, PIRSA:25030016
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/03/03, PIRSA:25030015
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/02/27, PIRSA:25020011
  • Lecture - Quantum Information, PHYS 635, Quantum Information (Elective), PHYS 635, February 24 - March 28, 2025, 2025/02/25, PIRSA:25020010
  • Rank lower bounds on non-local quantum computation, Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science 2025, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States, 2025/01/07, Video URL
  • Entanglement implications of the python's lunch conjecture, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, United States, 2024/10/10
  • Quantum gravity meets quantum cryptography, 2024/09/16
  • Computational hardness and holographic quantum tasks, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, 2024/05/29
  • Relating non-local computation and information theoretic cryptography, University of Ottawa, Mathematics, Ottawa, Canada, 2024/04/15
  • Relating non-local quantum computation to information theoretic cryptography, Quantum information processing 2024, Taiwan, Province of China, 2024/01/18
  • Non-local quantum computation meets quantum gravity, QPV 2023: Advances in quantum position verification, 2023/09/19, PIRSA:23090014
  • Comments on entanglement and meeting in the black hole interior, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 2023/09/11
  • Talk 10 - Constraints on physical computers in holographic spacetimes, It from Qubit 2023, 2023/08/01, PIRSA:23080007
  • Constraints on physical computers in holographic spacetimes”, Strings seminar, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2023/07/14
  • Time and complexity in quantum gravity, Entangle this: randomness, complexity, and quantum circuits, Centro de Ciencias de Benasque Pedro Pascual, 2023/07/11
  • Constraints on physical computers in holographic spacetimes, GeoFlow collaboration meeting, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States, 2023/06/01
  • Quantum tasks require islands on the brane, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, 2023/04/01