Session A02: Graduate Student Symposium

Live

Welcome and Overview (8:55am-9:00am)   

Live

Atomic, molecular, and optical systems often exhibit long-range interactions, which decay with distance r as a power law $1/r^\alpha$. In this talk, we will derive bounds on how quickly quantum information can propagate in such systems. We will then discuss applications of these bounds to numerous phenomena including classical and quantum simulation of quantum systems, prethermal phases in Floquet systems, entanglement area laws, sampling complexity, and scrambling.   

Break (10:15am - 10:25am)

Break (10:15am - 10:25am)   

Live

Polar molecules possess rich internal degrees of freedom and intrinsic dipolar interactions. These properties make them prime building blocks for quantum engineering. Furthermore, molecules can undergo chemical reactions to transform between species. By cooling molecules to ultracold temperatures and controlling all of their quantum degrees of freedom, we are interested to provide a detailed microscopic picture of chemical reaction and to harness the molecular resources for quantum simulations broadly defined. I will introduce techniques that our field developed in the last 15 years to tame molecules with a focus on optical tweezer assembling of molecules.   

Break (11:40am - 11:50am)

Break (11:40am - 11:50am)   

Live

In recent years, atom interferometry and atomic clocks have made impressive gains in sensitivity and time precision. The best atomic clocks have stability corresponding to a loss of less than one second in the lifetime of the universe. Matter wave interferometers have achieved record-breaking coherence times (seconds) and atomic wavepacket separations (over half a meter), resulting in a significant enhancement in accelerometer and gravity gradiometer sensitivity. Leveraging these advances, atomic sensors are now poised to become a powerful tool for discovery in fundamental physics. I will provide a detailed introduction to light-pulse atom interferometry, and explain various techniques that are being pursued to further enhance sensitivity. I will then discuss several specific applications, including direct detection of dark matter, tests of general relativity, searches for new forces, and gravitational wave detection. I will also describe a new type of atom interferometry based on narrow-line transitions in clock atoms that is central to the Mid-band Atomic Gravitational wave Interferometric Sensor (MAGIS) proposal, which is targeted to detect gravitational waves in a frequency band complementary to existing detectors (0.03 Hz – 10 Hz), the optimal frequency range to support multi-messenger astronomy. I will conclude with a brief discussion of MAGIS-100, a 100-meter tall atomic sensor now being constructed at Fermilab that will serve as a prototype of such a gravitational wave detector, and that will be sensitive to proposed ultra-light dark matter (scalar and vector couplings) at unprecedented levels.   

Break (1:05pm - 1:15pm)

Break (1:05pm - 1:15pm)   

Live

Atomic ensembles constitute a dominant platform for realizing quantum interfaces between light and matter. In dense and ordered arrays, interference in photon emission leads to the emergence of correlated states, with very different decay rates and lifetimes. This phenomenon has attracted a lot of interest recently, with work showing that collective emission can be used to realize improved quantum memories as well as atomic waveguides and mirrors. I will give a pedagogical overview of recent work on collective phenomena in light-matter interaction, discussing both experimental and theoretical advances as well as applications for quantum information and metrology.