Physics Colloquium: Exploring quantum phases of matter with light

abstract:

Driven by the potential for realizing quantum sensors and quantum computers, the past decade has seen tremendous progress towards well controlled quantum devices. Particular improvements in superconducting electronics and control of individual microwave domain photons suggest that new correlated phases of matter may be engineered in regimes where classical computing power can no longer predict the behavior of materials — a simultaneous realization of quantum computational advantage and also engineered matter. At the same time, tremendous progress in the optical domain, driven by the need for better sensors and metrology such as in LIGO, have spurred rapid development of new approaches for combined optical and mechanical systems in the quantum domain. Here we consider how these coherent systems enable new realizations of the Kelvin (as part of the metric system of units, the SI), the potential to transduce quantum information between microwave and optical domains, and even the ability to realize new, correlated states of matter in optomechanical and Josephson junction systems. 

Event Organizer: Dr. Ishay Pomerantz