To celebrate World Quantum Day, the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI)---a research partnership between the University of Maryland College Park, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the Laboratory for Physical Sciences, has brought together three physicists to answer your questions about all things quantum, from the basics of wavefunctions and entanglement to cutting edge research and technology. We will be conducing a Reddit AMA (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/). There are no stupid questions (and hopefully no stupid answers). The researchers participating in this AMA are:
Steve Rolston: Rolston’s research has focused on ultracold atoms—neutral atoms cooled to just above absolute zero. At these frigid temperatures, the atoms’ behavior is ruled by quantum mechanics. Rolston and his collaborators have studied how these atoms act in the presence of strong disorder, used them to create an ultracold plasma, used them to create a quantum light source, coupled them to ions using light in an effort to build a quantum network, and more. Rolston received his PhD from SUNY Stony Brook in 1986, and has been a professor at UMD since 2003, a JQI Fellow since its founding in 2006, and Chair of the UMD Department of Physics since 2016.
Alicia Kollár: Kollár’s research focuses on circuit quantum electrodynamics (circuit QED), a way of studying the quantum mechanical interactions between light and matter on a convenient chip. Kollár’s lab uses coplanar waveguides to trap light on a chip and organizes them into novel patterns. These patterns allow the chips to host states known as ‘flat bands’ where energy does not change with velocity, or support hyperbolic lattices where photons act as though they are not in normal Euclidian space but on a MC Escher style curved ‘hyperbolic’ surface. Kollár received her PhD from Stanford University in 2016 and has been an assistant professor at UMD and a JQI fellow since 2019.
Norbert Linke: Linke’s research focuses on trapping and manipulating individual ions. Linke’s team has an ion-based universal quantum computer that they are using it to implement quantum algorithms and optimize its performance with machine learning tools. They also use ions to perform analog simulations of complex quantum phenomena and are working on developing quantum networking tools. Linke received his PhD from the University of Oxford in 2012 and has been an assistant professor at UMD and a JQI fellow since 2019.
For more details, please visit: https://askmeanythi.ng/ama/aJJm0hWNlCDu
Organiser: Joint Quantum Institute
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*Disclaimer: The World Quantum Day is not responsible for the accuracy of the information submitted about this event.