About

Rebeca Ortiz Worthington, MD MA is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at The University of Chicago. She is a clinician educator in the section of General Internal Medicine, with a focus on primary care and women’s health. Dr. Ortiz Worthington has expertise in breast cancer, breast cancer screening, chronic disease management, family planning, and LGBTQ health, including care for gay and bisexual men, lesbian and bisexual women, and gender-affirming care. She also cares for patients referred for specialized issues such as menopause, osteoporosis, cervical cancer screening, non-surgical gynecologic issues, contraception for medically complex patients, high-risk breast cancer identification and prevention, lactation medicine, and eating disorder medical management. As a dedicated educator, she serves in leadership roles within the Internal Medicine Residency Program and medical school. Fluent in Spanish, Dr. Ortiz Worthington is committed to providing comprehensive, gender-sensitive, and culturally competent care.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Quantum mechanics
• Physics
• Electronic engineering
• Computer architecture
• Quantum electrodynamics
• Engineering
• Electrical engineering

Selected publications

• Entangling Superconducting Qubits via Energy-Selective Local Reservoirs

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-05-12

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Engineered dissipation provides a powerful route to controlling and stabilizing quantum states in open systems. Superconducting circuits are particularly suited to this approach due to their tunable coupling to dissipative environments. Here we realize programmable local reservoirs for superconducting qubits through parametrically driven coupling to readout resonators, creating energy-selective incoherent pump and loss. Using coupled superconducting qubits, we autonomously stabilize entangled single-excitation states with fidelity up to 90.8%. We probe the stabilization dynamics under varying initial conditions and bath parameters, and implement robust classical shadow estimation for accurate and scalable state characterization. Finally, we numerically study a configuration where the engineered pump and loss share a common dissipative mode, leading to reservoir-mediated interference and classically correlated steady states. Our results demonstrate a scalable and hardware-efficient framework for dissipative preparation and control of correlated many-body states in superconducting circuits.

  PublisherDOI

• Programmable Superradiance in an Interacting Qubit Array

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-05-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  When multiple quantum emitters couple to a common electromagnetic environment, interference in their collective radiative dynamics gives rise to superradiance and subradiance. In regimes where coherent interactions and collective dissipation compete, the microscopic many-body dynamics and quantum correlations among the emitters that underlie superradiance and subradiance are theoretically challenging and remain experimentally elusive, even though collective emission has been observed in many physical systems. Here, we realize a superconducting qubit array coupled to a common microwave waveguide that mediates collective dissipation, with simultaneous access to coherent interactions and microscopic measurements of many-body dynamics. Engineered qubit-waveguide couplings with tunable amplitude and phase enable control of collective interference and the resulting super- and subradiant states. Leveraging site-resolved control and readout, we directly observe the microscopic decay dynamics of multi-qubit states across different excitation manifolds and track the evolution of populations and tunable quantum correlations. We reveal collective decay in regimes beyond the ideal Dicke model, where strong qubit-qubit interactions stabilize superradiance and subradiance against local dephasing and reshape decay pathways through spatially and spectrally structured many-body eigenstates. Our results establish a flexible platform for exploring collective phenomena in many-body quantum optics and driven-dissipative approaches to robust quantum information processing.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Programmable Superradiance in an Interacting Qubit Array

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2026-05-12

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  When multiple quantum emitters couple to a common electromagnetic environment, interference in their collective radiative dynamics gives rise to superradiance and subradiance. In regimes where coherent interactions and collective dissipation compete, the microscopic many-body dynamics and quantum correlations among the emitters that underlie superradiance and subradiance are theoretically challenging and remain experimentally elusive, even though collective emission has been observed in many physical systems. Here, we realize a superconducting qubit array coupled to a common microwave waveguide that mediates collective dissipation, with simultaneous access to coherent interactions and microscopic measurements of many-body dynamics. Engineered qubit-waveguide couplings with tunable amplitude and phase enable control of collective interference and the resulting super- and subradiant states. Leveraging site-resolved control and readout, we directly observe the microscopic decay dynamics of multi-qubit states across different excitation manifolds and track the evolution of populations and tunable quantum correlations. We reveal collective decay in regimes beyond the ideal Dicke model, where strong qubit-qubit interactions stabilize superradiance and subradiance against local dephasing and reshape decay pathways through spatially and spectrally structured many-body eigenstates. Our results establish a flexible platform for exploring collective phenomena in many-body quantum optics and driven-dissipative approaches to robust quantum information processing.

  PublisherDOI

• Data and simulation code for "Entangling Superconducting Qubits via Energy-Selective Local Reservoirs"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-15

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Authors: Qihao Guo, Botao Du, and Ruichao Ma, arXiv: 2605.12429 FIG. 2 (b)-(c): dataset information and plot in Fig2_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 3 (b)-(d): dataset information and plot in Fig3_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 4 (a)-(b): dataset information and plot in Fig4_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 6: dataset information and plot in Fig6_data_plot.ipynb The demo code of numerical simulation for FIG.2, 3, 4, 6 (stabilization with a pump and a loss bath) can be found in FIG. 4 (a)-(b): dataset information and plot in Two_Bath_Simulation.ipynb For simulation of FIG. 5: Interference effects from incoherent pump and loss implemented through a shared dissipative mode, see Single_Bath_Simulation.ipynb. The resource code of quantum state tomography can be found in Fig_3_data_plot.ipynb.

  PublisherDOI

• Entangling Superconducting Qubits via Energy-Selective Local Reservoirs

  ArXiv.org · 2026-05-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Engineered dissipation provides a powerful route to controlling and stabilizing quantum states in open systems. Superconducting circuits are particularly suited to this approach due to their tunable coupling to dissipative environments. Here we realize programmable local reservoirs for superconducting qubits through parametrically driven coupling to readout resonators, creating energy-selective incoherent pump and loss. Using coupled superconducting qubits, we autonomously stabilize entangled single-excitation states with fidelity up to 90.8%. We probe the stabilization dynamics under varying initial conditions and bath parameters, and implement robust classical shadow estimation for accurate and scalable state characterization. Finally, we numerically study a configuration where the engineered pump and loss share a common dissipative mode, leading to reservoir-mediated interference and classically correlated steady states. Our results demonstrate a scalable and hardware-efficient framework for dissipative preparation and control of correlated many-body states in superconducting circuits.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Data and simulation code for "Entangling Superconducting Qubits via Energy-Selective Local Reservoirs"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-15

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Authors: Qihao Guo, Botao Du, and Ruichao Ma, arXiv: 2605.12429 FIG. 2 (b)-(c): dataset information and plot in Fig2_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 3 (b)-(d): dataset information and plot in Fig3_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 4 (a)-(b): dataset information and plot in Fig4_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 6: dataset information and plot in Fig6_data_plot.ipynb The demo code of numerical simulation for FIG.2, 3, 4, 6 (stabilization with a pump and a loss bath) can be found in FIG. 4 (a)-(b): dataset information and plot in Two_Bath_Simulation.ipynb For simulation of FIG. 5: Interference effects from incoherent pump and loss implemented through a shared dissipative mode, see Single_Bath_Simulation.ipynb. The resource code of quantum state tomography can be found in Fig_3_data_plot.ipynb.

  PublisherDOI

• Data and simulation code for "Programmable Superradiance in an Interacting Qubit Array"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-14

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Data and simulation code for paper "Programmable Superradiance in an Interacting Qubit Array", arXiv: 2605.12442 author: Botao Du, Qihao Guo, Ruichao Ma. FIG. 2 (b)-(d): dataset information and plot in Fig2_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 3: dataset information and plot in Fig3_data_plot.ipynb, also including information for Fig. S5. FIG. 4 (c)-(h): dataset information and plot in Fig4_data_plot.ipynb, also including information for Fig. S11, and the numerical code and results are in the notebook Collective_Decay_simulation.ipynb FIG. 5 (b), (d): dataset information and plot in Fig5_data_plot.ipynb, also including information for Fig. S13, Fig. S14, and the numerical code and results are in the notebook Collective_Decay_simulation.ipynb We also include numerical simulaion code based on SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION D, E. Numerical simulation code based: Collective_Decay_simulation.ipynb Emission spectra and engineered emission rates: Decay_Rate_Calculator_inphase.ipynb

  PublisherDOI

• Data and simulation code for "Programmable Superradiance in an Interacting Qubit Array"

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-05-14

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Data and simulation code for paper "Programmable Superradiance in an Interacting Qubit Array", arXiv: 2605.12442 author: Botao Du, Qihao Guo, Ruichao Ma. FIG. 2 (b)-(d): dataset information and plot in Fig2_data_plot.ipynb FIG. 3: dataset information and plot in Fig3_data_plot.ipynb, also including information for Fig. S5. FIG. 4 (c)-(h): dataset information and plot in Fig4_data_plot.ipynb, also including information for Fig. S11, and the numerical code and results are in the notebook Collective_Decay_simulation.ipynb FIG. 5 (b), (d): dataset information and plot in Fig5_data_plot.ipynb, also including information for Fig. S13, Fig. S14, and the numerical code and results are in the notebook Collective_Decay_simulation.ipynb We also include numerical simulaion code based on SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION D, E. Numerical simulation code based: Collective_Decay_simulation.ipynb Emission spectra and engineered emission rates: Decay_Rate_Calculator_inphase.ipynb

  PublisherDOI

• Tunneling spectroscopy in superconducting circuit lattices

  Physical Review Research · 2025-05-19

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We demonstrate tunneling spectroscopy of synthetic quantum matter in superconducting circuit lattices. We measure site-resolved excitation spectra by coupling the lattice to engineered driven-dissipative particle baths that serve as local tunneling probes. Using incoherent particle source and drain, we independently extract quasiparticle and quasihole spectra and reconstruct the spatial structure of collective excitations. We perform spectroscopy of a strongly interacting Bose-Hubbard lattice to measure changes in energy spectra for superfluid and Mott-insulator states at different densities and observe the effects of three-body interactions. Our results provide a toolset for characterizing many-body states in analog quantum simulators.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Analysis and Prospects of the Current Research Status of Robotics for In-Situ Inspection in Confined Spaces

  Lecture notes in computer science · 2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Synthetic quantum materials in superconducting circuits

  NSF · $629k · 2022–2027

Frequent coauthors

• Jonathan Simon

  41 shared

• David Schuster

  Electronics for Imaging (United States)

  29 shared

• Markus Greiner

  Harvard University

  29 shared

• Philipp M. Preiss

  27 shared

• Brendan Saxberg

  University of Chicago

  25 shared

• M. Eric Tai

  21 shared

• Clai Owens

  21 shared

• Aman LaChapelle

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Physics

  Harvard University

  2014