Ultra-Quantum Matter Studies Receive Funding
Full release from the Chicago Quantum Exchange ~
May 28th, 2019
Dam T. Son, University Professor in the Department of Physics, and Michael Levin, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, have been awarded a Simons Foundation grant as part of the newly established Simons Collaboration on Ultra-Quantum Matter [UQM].
UQM allows for entirely new physical properties, which may help future technologies by enabling the nonlocal storage of quantum information, and the creation of quantum materials with new functionalities.
The collaboration, directed by Ashvin Vishwanath, Professor of Physics at Harvard University, is one of twelve supported under the Simons Collaborations in Mathematics and Physical Sciences program, which aims to “stimulate progress on fundamental scientific questions of major importance in mathematics, theoretical physics and theoretical computer science.”
Along with fifteen theoretical physicists from eleven other institutions, Son and Levin will study quantum mechanical behavior arising in systems of large numbers of electrons or atoms. Such ultra- quantum matter (UQM), which is characterized by robust, non-local quantum entanglement, defies conventional expectations that quantum effects are important only in very small systems. UQM allows for entirely new physical properties, which may help future technologies by enabling the nonlocal storage of quantum information, and the creation of quantum materials with new functionalities.
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