Quantum simulators for many-body phenomena
Name of applicant
Kristian Knakkergaard Nielsen
Title
Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany
Amount
DKK 1,994,507
Year
2024
Type of grant
Reintegration Fellowships
What?
Quantum simulators are novel probes of quantum many-body systems. By pristinely controlling light-matter interactions, they obtain spatial correlations, yielding key insights unattainable in other platforms. My project goes beyond these current capabilities. It theoretically develops ways of examining their physical character, and explores novel many-body phenomena testable in quantum simulators.
Why?
Quantum simulators may give us important insights into important and complex quantum phenomena like high-temperature superconductivity. Such insights may, in turn, aid the development of new materials key to an energy sustainable future. More fundamentally, these systems provide flexible ways of testing how such many-body phenomena arise, and allow engineered scenarios with exciting new prospects.
How?
I develop novel spectroscopic probes that discern whether quasi-particles are present or not, using, e.g., duality transformations that allows one to learn about one system by measuring on an entirely different, but equivalent system. By partnering with state-of-the-art experiments, these ideas will be tested and may contribute with evidence that distinguishes mechanisms behind superconductivity.