Aharonov helped establish when noisy quantum computation can scale and showed that adiabatic evolution can reproduce the power of the standard quantum circuit model.
Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew UniversityarXivHebrew University research portal / SIAM Journal on ComputingTwo obstacles recur in quantum computing: errors threaten long computations, and different hardware approaches need a common theoretical language. Aharonov has contributed foundational results on both. With Michael Ben-Or, she established a threshold result for computation with a constant local error rate. With collaborators, she proved the polynomial equivalence of adiabatic and circuit-based computation. These are mathematical results with explicit models and assumptions, rather than promises about a particular device. They continue to frame how researchers assess scalable architectures and alternative ways to organize a quantum algorithm.
Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew UniversityarXivHebrew University research portal / SIAM Journal on ComputingDefining contributions
Work, in context- 2004
Connecting adiabatic and circuit computation
Aharonov and coauthors proved that adiabatic quantum computation can efficiently simulate standard quantum computation. The equivalence places a continuously evolving physical model within the same computational framework as quantum circuits, subject to the construction and resource bounds in the paper.
Coauthored theorem by Dorit Aharonov, Wim van Dam, Julia Kempe, Zeph Landau, Seth Lloyd and Oded Regev.
Source-supported recordarXiv - 2008
A threshold for reliable computation
The full journal paper with Michael Ben-Or establishes fault-tolerant computation below a constant error threshold under its local-noise assumptions, with modest asymptotic overhead. It provides a theoretical reason that increasing computation size need not require error-free elementary operations.
Joint fault-tolerance theorem by Dorit Aharonov and Michael Ben-Or, within the paper’s noise model.
Source-supported recordHebrew University research portal / SIAM Journal on Computing
Keep in perspective
The threshold timeline uses the 2008 full journal publication; the work appeared earlier in conference form.
Follow the evidence
3 sourcesPrimary papers, institutional records and attributed announcements. Each source supports the claims linked above.
- Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew UniversityInstitutional profile
Dorit Aharonov
Professorship in Computer Science and Engineering, identity and quantum-computing research.
Checked 2026-09-19 - arXivResearch paper
Adiabatic Quantum Computation is Equivalent to Standard Quantum Computation
Aharonov coauthorship and polynomial equivalence theorem.
Published 2004-05-18 · Checked 2026-09-19 - Hebrew University research portal / SIAM Journal on ComputingResearch paper
Fault-tolerant quantum computation with constant error rate
Aharonov and Ben-Or authorship; threshold and overhead result; final journal year.
Published 2008 · Checked 2026-09-19