Martin LaroccaStaff Scientist
T-4 Quantum information and computation 
Office: TA-3, Bldg 524, Room 134
Email: larocca@lanl.gov
Research highlightI work at the interface of physics, mathematics, and computer science. My research leverages symmetry and representation theory to design quantum algorithms and quantum neural networks (QNNs). I led a multi-year effort to understand quantum optimization landscapes—covering gradient concentration (barren plateaus), overparametrization, and generalization—and helped articulate a framework for geometric QML and equivariant architectures.
Talks at CNLS:
|  | Educational Background/Employment:- Ph.D. in Physics, Universidad de Buenos Aires (2018–2021). Supervisor: Diego Wisniacki.
- Licentiate in Physics (M.Sc. equiv.), Universidad de Buenos Aires (2014–2018). GPA: 9.18 / 10.00.
- Employment:
- Staff Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory — Theoretical Division (2025–present)
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, LANL — Quantum Computing / QML (2022–2025)
- Graduate Research Assistant, LANL — Variational Quantum Algorithms / Control (2021)
- CONICET Fellow, U. de Buenos Aires — Quantum Control & Optimization Landscapes (2018–2021)
Research Interests:
- Symmetry & representation theory for QML
- Equivariant/invariant quantum architectures
- Optimization landscape geometry (barren plateaus, overparametrization)
- Quantum algorithms via group-theoretic methods
- Reliable, reproducible QML engineering (HPC, PyTorch/JAX)
Google ScholarSelected Recent Publications:
- D. Garcia-Martin, M. Larocca, M. Cerezo. Quantum Algorithms for Representation-Theoretic Multiplicities (2025) 10.1103/k5tx-xtr3
- M. West, A. A. Mele, M. Larocca, M. Cerezo. Real classical shadows (2024) 10.48550/arXiv.2410.23481
- M. Ragone, B. N. Bakalov, F. Sauvage, A. F. Kemper, C. O. Marrero, M. Larocca, M. Cerezo. A Lie algebraic theory of barren plateaus for deep parameterized quantum circuits (2024) 10.1038/s41467-024-49909-3
CNLS Publications:
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Sauvage, Frederic; Larocca, Martin. Symmetric Classical Shadows. Quantum 2024 https://arxiv.org/html/2408.05279v1
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Larocca, Martin; Sornborger, Andrew Tyler; Barthe, Alice Marie, et al. Gate-based quantum simulation of Gaussian bosonic circuits on exponentially many modes. Physical Review Letters 2024 https://arxiv.org/html/2407.06290v1
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Nguyen, Quynh T.; Schatzki, Louis; Braccia, Paolo, et al. Theory for Equivariant Quantum Neural Networks. 2024 10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.020328
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Larocca, Martin; Thanasilp, Supanut; Wang, Samson, et al. A Review of Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Computing. Nature Review Physics 2024 10.48550/arXiv.2405.00781
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Garcia-Martin, Diego; Larocca, Martin. Effects of quantum noise on the overparametrization of quantum neural networks. 2024 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.013295
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Schatzki, Louis; Larocca, Martin; Sauvage, Frederic Antoine. Theoretical Guarantees for Sn-Equivariant Quantum Neural Networks. 2024 10.1038/s41534-024-00804-1
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Larocca, Martin; Garcia Martin, Diego; Diaz, Nahuel Luciano, et al. Does provable absence of barren plateaus imply classical simulability? Or, why we need to rethink variational quantum computing. Quantum Machine Intelligence 2023 10.48550/arXiv.2312.09121
- Wierichs, David ); East, Richard ); Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Larocca, Martin, et al. Symmetric derivatives of parametrized quantum circuits. Physical Review X Quantum 2023 10.48550/arXiv.2312.06752
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Diaz, Nahuel Luciano; Kazi, Sujay; Garcia Martin, Diego, et al. Showcasing a Barren Plateau Theory Beyond the Dynamical Lie Algebra. Physical Review Letters 2023 10.48550/arXiv.2310.11505
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Ragone, Michael; Bakalov, Bojko; Larocca, Martin, et al. A Unified Theory of Barren Plateaus for Deep Parametrized Quantum Circuits. Nature Physics 2023 10.48550/arXiv.2309.09342
- Goh, Matthew; Cincio, Lukasz; Larocca, Martin; Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian, et al. Efficient classical simulation of quantum neural networks with Lie-algebraic methods. arXiv, Quantum 2023 10.48550/arXiv.2308.01432
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Larocca, Martin; Garcia Martin, Diego. Deep quantum neural networks form Gaussian processes. Nature Physics 2023 10.48550/arXiv.2305.12664
- Kazi, Sujay; Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Larocca, Martin. Subspace controllability and failure of universality of Sn-equivariant k-body gates. NPJ Quantum Information 2023 10.1088/1367-2630/ad4819
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Ragone, Michael; Braccia, Paolo; Nguyen, Quynh T., et al. Representation Theory for Geometric Quantum Machine Learning. Quantum 2022 10.48550/arXiv.2210.07980
- Larocca, Martin; Czarnik, Piotr; Sharma, Kunal; Muraleedharan, Gopikrishnan, et al. Diagnosing barren plateaus with tools from quantum optimal control. QUANTUM 2022 10.22331/Q-2022-09-29-824
- Larocca, Martin; Sauvage, Frederic; Sbahi, Faris M.; Verdon, Guillaume, et al. Group-Invariant Quantum Machine Learning. PRX QUANTUM 2022 10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.030341
- Cerezo de la Roca, Marco Vinicio Sebastian; Larocca, Martin; Sauvage, Frederic Antoine; Verdon, Guillaume, et al. Group-Invariant Quantum Machine Learning Models. 2022 10.1103/PRXQuantum.3.030341
- Ramsey, Marilyn Leann; Adams, Claire Leeanne; Archer, Emma Marie; Arzola Roig, Angelic Marie, et al. 2021 Virtual Theoretical Division Lightning Talk Series. 2021 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1836977/
|
