Finding the lost particle: Majorana fermions in ultracold atoms. Majorana fermions – particles that are their own antiparticles – play a key role in future quantum technologies such as fault-tolerant quantum computers. Being considered only as a mathematical possibility over the past 75 years, they might be surprisingly materialised owing to recent rapid experimental advances. In collaboration with the world-leading cold-atom laboratories in Australia, China and the USA, this project aims to pav ....Finding the lost particle: Majorana fermions in ultracold atoms. Majorana fermions – particles that are their own antiparticles – play a key role in future quantum technologies such as fault-tolerant quantum computers. Being considered only as a mathematical possibility over the past 75 years, they might be surprisingly materialised owing to recent rapid experimental advances. In collaboration with the world-leading cold-atom laboratories in Australia, China and the USA, this project aims to pave a new direction to create and manipulate Majorana fermions towards realistic atomtronics devices, by using the highly controllable setting of ultracold atomic Fermi gases. This research complements the search of Majorana fermions in solid-state devices.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100055
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Quantum wires of Fermi atoms. This project aims to understand one-dimensional materials by engineering quantum wires of interacting fermions with ultracold atoms. Particles confined to move in one dimension behave differently than in three-dimensional matter, revealing quantum phases and exotic forms of superfluidity not seen in higher dimensions. Ultracold atoms allow the precise control of interactions and a perfectly isolated and defect free environment to study such phenomena not easily achi ....Quantum wires of Fermi atoms. This project aims to understand one-dimensional materials by engineering quantum wires of interacting fermions with ultracold atoms. Particles confined to move in one dimension behave differently than in three-dimensional matter, revealing quantum phases and exotic forms of superfluidity not seen in higher dimensions. Ultracold atoms allow the precise control of interactions and a perfectly isolated and defect free environment to study such phenomena not easily achieved in solid-state systems. The goal of this project is to provide quantitative insights into the thermodynamic and superfluid properties of one-dimensional quantum materials with potential significance for new innovations and applications in emerging quantum technologies.Read moreRead less
Solid Light: Frontiers and applications of solid-state Cavity Quantum Electro-Dynamics. Our understanding of quantum mechanics directly fuels new technology. We are on the verge of a new revolution in technology, where the aspects of quantum physics that we haven't been able to understand are now within technological reach. Our concept of solid-light joins two of the most important branches of physics, and in so doing develops a new technology of diamond-based quantum processors that will be b ....Solid Light: Frontiers and applications of solid-state Cavity Quantum Electro-Dynamics. Our understanding of quantum mechanics directly fuels new technology. We are on the verge of a new revolution in technology, where the aspects of quantum physics that we haven't been able to understand are now within technological reach. Our concept of solid-light joins two of the most important branches of physics, and in so doing develops a new technology of diamond-based quantum processors that will be built in Australia. This will benefit the Australian scientific community by providing devices to solve important quantum problems, and benefit the wider community by growing a new industry based around diamond quantum nanoscience.Read moreRead less
Spin-orbit coupled quantum gases: understanding new generation materials with topological order. Topological insulators and superconductors are new functional materials discovered very recently in solid-state systems. They have remarkable, topologically protected states on their surfaces that render the electrons travelling insensitive to the scattering by impurities or disorder. Their potential applications in our ordinary life are far-reaching, ranging from novel energy-saving devices to reali ....Spin-orbit coupled quantum gases: understanding new generation materials with topological order. Topological insulators and superconductors are new functional materials discovered very recently in solid-state systems. They have remarkable, topologically protected states on their surfaces that render the electrons travelling insensitive to the scattering by impurities or disorder. Their potential applications in our ordinary life are far-reaching, ranging from novel energy-saving devices to realistic quantum computers. This project will obtain greatly improved understanding of the novel topological states that underlie such new generation materials, by using the highly controllable settings of spin-orbit coupled quantum gases. It will advance Australia’s position at the forefront of ultracold atomic physics research.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101636
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$315,000.00
Summary
Emergent quantum phenomena in ultracold matter with artificial gauge fields. Gauge fields are central in our modern understanding of physics. They are at the origin of many sophisticated states of matter including quantum Hall materials, topological insulators and supersolids that have potential applications in future technologies. This project aims to explore these exotic quantum states emerging in ultracold atomic gases with artificially engineered gauge fields. Unlike the solid-state systems, ....Emergent quantum phenomena in ultracold matter with artificial gauge fields. Gauge fields are central in our modern understanding of physics. They are at the origin of many sophisticated states of matter including quantum Hall materials, topological insulators and supersolids that have potential applications in future technologies. This project aims to explore these exotic quantum states emerging in ultracold atomic gases with artificially engineered gauge fields. Unlike the solid-state systems, in which all details of the material structure are not controlled or even not known with certainty, the unprecedented controllability of the ultracold system provides a unique opportunity to gain key insights on the physics related to the gauge fields, and to advance the studies in both fundamental physics and applications.Read moreRead less
New generation periodic lattices for ultracold quantum gases. Periodic arrays of ultracold atoms trapped by magnetic microstructures will be used to mimic condensed matter systems with nontrivial geometries such as honeycomb lattices. These magnetic lattices will enable us to study exotic quantum states, such as those found in graphene, which has great potential for new-generation atomic-scale electronics.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100592
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$343,450.00
Summary
Many-body localization characterized from a few-body perspective. This project aims to understand the quantum phenomenon of many-body localization, by studying novel theoretical models from an innovative, few-body perspective. The project expects to advance our knowledge in this new frontier of quantum statistical mechanics and to design realistic experimental protocols for observation and manipulation, especially on ultracold quantum-gasplatforms. Expected outcomes of this project include appli ....Many-body localization characterized from a few-body perspective. This project aims to understand the quantum phenomenon of many-body localization, by studying novel theoretical models from an innovative, few-body perspective. The project expects to advance our knowledge in this new frontier of quantum statistical mechanics and to design realistic experimental protocols for observation and manipulation, especially on ultracold quantum-gasplatforms. Expected outcomes of this project include applications in quantum information storage, which expects to enhance Australia's research strength in quantum computation.Read moreRead less
Strongly repulsive ultracold atomic gases as a resource for quantum simulation. At present many leading laboratories are performing experiments to simulate theoretical models of strongly interacting systems using ultracold atomic gases, a program that may be referred to as quantum simulation. At the heart of this new direction is strong correlation, which is often regarded as a domain of extreme complexity behind some long-standing problems in fundamental physics. This project aims to develop no ....Strongly repulsive ultracold atomic gases as a resource for quantum simulation. At present many leading laboratories are performing experiments to simulate theoretical models of strongly interacting systems using ultracold atomic gases, a program that may be referred to as quantum simulation. At the heart of this new direction is strong correlation, which is often regarded as a domain of extreme complexity behind some long-standing problems in fundamental physics. This project aims to develop novel theoretical tools to understand and characterise emergent exotic states of matter in strongly repulsive ultracold atoms. This research will provide testable predictions for on-going experiments in Australia, the USA and elsewhere. It helps maintain Australia’s leadership at the forefront of ultracold atomic physics research.Read moreRead less
Collective dynamics in Fermi superfluids. At very low temperatures, particles such as atoms, electrons and nucleons can display remarkable behaviours, such as superfluidity or flow without resistance. This project will provide new insight into the way superfluids respond to a small disturbance and at the same time obtain precise measurements of a number of their key properties.
Two-dimensional Fermi superfluids: understanding frictionless flow in flatland. At the lowest known temperatures in the universe small samples of atoms can form new states of matter such as superfluids that flow with zero resistance. This project will provide new insight into the important case of two-dimensional Fermi superfluids, which may elucidate the key physics behind high temperature superconductivity.