Adding blog post draft for toqito.

src/content/blog/2024_toqito.md

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+---
+title: "toqito: Quantum Information Science Impact through Open Source"
+author: Vincent Russo and Purva Thakre
+day: 8
+month: 10
+year: 2024
+tags:
+    - python
+    - toqito
+    - microgrant
+    - qis
+---
+
+![](/images/toqito_logo.png)
+
+## The Origins of toqito
+In early 2020, the humble [initial
+commit](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito/commit/a2f2449c4b9de81becff41cb25f1bca3fa180e8b) of the toqito project
+([repo](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito)|[docs](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html)) made its way onto
+GitHub.
+
+![](/images/toqito_first_commit.png)
+
+toqito began as a research tool, designed by Vincent Russo to accelerate his work in quantum information. In the years
+since, it has evolved into a robust, open-source Python library providing powerful tools for researchers and enthusiasts
+alike.
+
+<p align="center"><img src="/images/toqito_stars.png" width="600" height="600"/></p>
+
+## Expanding Quantum Research with toqito
+toqito has grown significantly in the past four years. It allows users to study fundamental objects in quantum
+information: [quantum states](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro_tutorial.html#states), 
+[quantum channels](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro_tutorial.html#channels), and 
+[quantum measurements](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro_tutorial.html#measurements). With tools to tackle
+problems in entanglement theory, nonlocal games, and convex optimization, toqito has made strides in democratizing
+quantum research.
+
+toqito's main focus is providing tools in Python, inspired by the [QETLAB](https://qetlab.com/) MATLAB library, but
+without the licensing restrictions of MATLAB. Researchers can work with quantum systems using Python’s widely used
+scientific ecosystem.
+
+There have also been a number of academic publications that have made used of `toqito` to numerically define and analyze
+certain problems in quantum information. A collection of these can be seen here
+
+- Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro and Russo, Vincent, _Distinguishing a maximally entangled basis using LOCC and shared entanglement_[^1]
+
+- Tavakoli, Armin and Pozas-Kerstjens, Alejandro and Brown, Peter and Araújo, Mateus, _Semidefinite programming relaxations for quantum correlations_[^2]
+
+- Johnston, Nathaniel and Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Tight bounds for antidistinguishability and circulant sets of pure quantum states_[^3]
+
+- Pelofske, Elijah and Bartschi, Andreas and Eidenbenz, Stephan and Garcia, Bryan and Kiefer, Boris, _Probing Quantum Telecloning on Superconducting Quantum Processors_[^4]
+
+- Philip, Aby and Rethinasamy, Soorya and Russo, Vincent and Wilde, Mark, _Quantum Steering Algorithm for Estimating Fidelity of Separability_[^5]
+
+- Miszczak, Jarosław Adam, _Symbolic quantum programming for supporting applications of quantum computing technologies_[^6]
+
+- Casalé, Balthazar and Di Molfetta, Giuseppe and Anthoine, Sandrine and Kadri, Hachem, _Large-Scale Quantum Separability Through a Reproducible Machine Learning Lens_[^7]
+
+- Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Inner products of pure states and their antidistinguishability_[^8]
+
+## Core Concepts: Quantum States, Channels, and Measurements
+In quantum information science, quantum states represent the fundamental objects we manipulate, quantum channels
+describe the transformations applied to these states, and quantum measurements allow us to extract information from
+states.
+
+### Example: Defining and Analyzing a Quantum State
+In this example, we calculate the fidelity between two quantum states—-a fundamental task in quantum state comparison.
+
+For example, in the event where we calculate the fidelity between states that are identical, we should obtain the value
+of 1. This can be observed in toqito as follows.
+
+```py
+>>> from toqito.state_metrics import fidelity
+>>> import numpy as np
+>>> rho = 1 / 2 * np.array(
+...    [[1, 0, 0, 1],
+...     [0, 0, 0, 0],
+...     [0, 0, 0, 0],
+...     [1, 0, 0, 1]]
+... )
+>> sigma = rho
+>>> fidelity(rho, sigma)
+1.0
+```
+
+### Quantum State Discrimination
+A more engaging example is quantum state discrimination, a widely applicable problem in cryptography and quantum
+computing. The goal is to distinguish between different quantum states in an optimal way. This is typically formulated
+as a convex optimization problem.
+
+In toqito, this problem can be tackled efficiently using semidefinite programming (SDP). Below is an example of
+discriminating between two quantum states.
+
+In the following example, we see that it is possible to perfectly distinguish (with minimum-error) amongst the four Bell
+states:
+
+```py
+>>> import numpy as np
+>>> from toqito.states import bell
+>>> from toqito.state_opt import state_distinguishability
+
+>>> states = [bell(0), bell(1), bell(2), bell(3)]
+>>> probs = [1 / 4, 1 / 4, 1 / 4, 1 / 4]
+>>> res, measurements = state_distinguishability(vectors=states, probs=probs, primal_dual="primal")
+np.around(res, decimals=2)
+np.float64(1.0)
+```
+
+Quantum distinguishability is a rich field of research and having the ability to pull "off the shelf" techniques to
+determine the probability of distinguishing a set of quantum states is a useful technique for rapidly iterating on
+research in this domain.
+
+## Unitary Fund accelerates toqito
+
+In the early days of toqito, Vincent showed some basic functionality to co-workers with a quantum information
+background. One of them suggested the Unitary Fund’s [microgrant program](https://unitary.fund/grants/). To his delight,
+toqito was accepted as a microgrant recipient after making a short video for the application. Not only was the monetary
+reward a nice boost of encouragement, but the associated support from the UnitaryFund team pushed him to reach out to
+other scientists and researchers who may benefit from toqito and potentially guide its development. 
+
+One of the opportunities suggested by the Unitary Fund to promote toqito included a talk to the  [New York Quantum
+Computing Meetup group](https://www.meetup.com/new-york-quantum-computing-meetup/) participants. Vincent recorded the
+subsequent [first video on the UnitaryFund YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R7qSszJwBI) that outlined
+the basic premise of toqito at that time. To promote toqito to a broader audience, a short
+[whitepaper](https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.03082) was published in the Journal of Open Source Software.
+
+Later that year, the first [UnitaryHACK 2021](https://unitary.fund/posts/unitaryhack2021/) event took place. This
+hackathon allows maintainers of quantum open-source (QOSS) software repositories to participate by adding a set of
+bountied issues to improve the participating QOSS project. This hackathon also involved some of the earliest external
+contributors to toqito. 
+
+toqito has since continued to be a participating project at subsequent UnitaryHACKs
+([2022](https://unitary.fund/posts/2022unitaryhack/), [2023](https://unitary.fund/posts/2023_unitaryhack/), and
+[2024](https://unitaryhack.dev/)) and has gained more users, contributors, and essential features that have been
+invaluable to the broader community. 
+
+As toqito continued to gain usage and traction, another [UF microgrant](https://unitary.fund/grants/) to further develop
+the project was awarded to a prior contributor of UnitaryHACK 2023 ([Purva Thakre](https://github.com/purva-thakre)).
+These funds allowed dedicated time to delve into some of the more in-depth feature requests and continue to improve
+additional aspects of the project, such as thorough testing, documentation, CI/CD, and tutorials.
+
+In addition to being cited and used in peer-reviewed research papers on quantum information, toqito has also been
+recognized elsewhere. toqito was voted one of the [top quantum simulators for 2024 by
+QuantumInsider](https://thequantuminsider.com/2022/06/14/top-63-quantum-computer-simulators-for-2022/). Recently,
+[KaiCode](https://www.kaicode.org/2024.html) awarded toqito the first place prize for being the best project of 400+
+projects judged on clean code, good project structure, etc. Furthermore, as of September 2024, toqito is now an
+[affiliated project of NumFOCUS](https://numfocus.medium.com/august-september-project-updates-e3dac6f86aa8).
+
+## The future of toqito
+
+The toqito project continues to be used and contributed to by numerous researchers and software developers in the
+quantum ecosystem. For instance, another UF microgrant was recently awarded to [Aidan
+Sims](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-sims) to port [cvxquad](https://github.com/hfawzi/cvxquad) functions written in
+MATLAB into toqito’s channels/ module.
+
+There are many exciting plans for [the future of toqito](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito/wiki). If you feel that
+toqito may enhance your research workflow or the toqito roadmap lacks a particular feature, don’t hesitate to contact
+the developers through the [Discord channel](https://discord.com/channels/764231928676089909/1172282184833454090). If
+you want to contribute to the project, consult the [contribution
+guide](https://toqito.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing.html), open a PR, or add an issue to [the
+board](https://github.com/vprusso/toqito/issues).
+
+We look forward to seeing where toqito goes from here!
+
+------------------------------------------------------
+
+[^1]: Bandyopadhyay, Somshubhro and Russo, Vincent, _Distinguishing a maximally entangled basis using LOCC and shared entanglement_ (2024) [arXiv:2406.13430](https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.13430).  
+
+[^2]: Tavakoli, Armin and Pozas-Kerstjens, Alejandro and Brown, Peter and Araújo, Mateus. _Semidefinite programming relaxations for quantum correlations_ (2023) [arXiv:2307.02551](https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.02551).
+
+[^3]: Johnston, Nathaniel and Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Tight bounds for antidistinguishability and circulant sets of pure quantum states_ (2023) [arXiv:2311.17047]((https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.17047))
+
+[^4]: Pelofske, Elijah and Bartschi, Andreas and Eidenbenz, Stephan and Garcia, Bryan and Kiefer, Boris, _Probing Quantum Telecloning on Superconducting Quantum Processors_ (2023) [arXiv:2308.15579](https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.15579)
+
+[^5]: Philip, Aby and Rethinasamy, Soorya and Russo, Vincent and Wilde, Mark, _Quantum Steering Algorithm for Estimating Fidelity of Separability_ (2023) [arXiv:2303.07911](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.07911)
+
+[^6]: Miszczak, Jarosław Adam, _Symbolic quantum programming for supporting applications of quantum computing technologies_   (2023) [arXiv:2302.09401](https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.09401)
+
+[^7]:  Casalé, Balthazar and Di Molfetta, Giuseppe and Anthoine, Sandrine and Kadri, Hachem, _Large-Scale Quantum Separability Through a Reproducible Machine Learning Lens_ (2023) [arXiv:2306.09444](https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.09444)
+
+[^8]: Russo, Vincent and Sikora, Jamie, _Inner products of pure states and their antidistinguishability_ (2023) [arXiv:2206.08313](https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.08313)