SFB 1227:  Designed Quantum States of Matter (DQ-mat) - generation, manipulation, and detection for metrological applications and tests of fundamental physics

• Subject Area: Physics
• Term: since 2016
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 274200144

Our understanding of physics evolves hand in hand with advances in our ability to measure and control the properties of light and matter. Well-isolated atoms and molecules have long served as one of the best-controlled systems for studying and answering fundamental questions in physics. The latest developments in metrology, including optical clocks accurate to 18 digits and matter-wave interferometers that split atomic wave packets by several decimetres, are striking demonstrations of the mastery that has been achieved over single-particle quantum dynamics. Many-body systems, in which interactions and quantum correlations between particles play an essential role, exhibit even richer quantum features. Within this CRC, we will extend the control already exerted over single-particle systems to large interacting and entangled quantum systems and develop applications of such systems in metrology. For this purpose, experts from many-body physics, quantum information, quantum gases, and metrology will work together to develop novel methods for generating, manipulating, and detecting quantum states of matter. The investigation of these states will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the quantum properties of many-body systems, one of the great challenges in modern physics. At the same time, mastery of many-body effects combined with novel state preparation and interrogation protocols and the design of composite quantum systems, promises significantly enhanced performance for quantum sensors. High-precision measurements with such next generation optical clocks and matter-wave interferometers will open up new regimes for tests of fundamental physics. We will address questions concerning a possible change in fundamental constants, searches for dark matter candidates, a violation of fundamental symmetries in physics, and the coupling of quantum systems to gravity. With these investigations, we make an important contribution to the understanding of the foundations of physics.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Current projects

• A01 - Trapped-ion quantum magnetism (Project Head Ospelkaus, Christian )
• A02 - Entanglement in momentum space (Project Heads Ertmer, Wolfgang ;  Klempt, Carsten ;  Santos, Luis )
• A03 - Detecting and engineering non-classical quantum many-body states of polar molecules (Project Heads Ospelkaus, Silke ;  Zenesini, Ph.D., Alessandro )
• A04 - Controlling polar molecules in optical lattices (Project Heads Santos, Luis ;  Weimer, Hendrik )
• A05 - Theory of LMT atom interferometers involving gravitational fields (Project Heads Gaaloul, Naceur ;  Giulini, Domenico ;  Hammerer, Klemens )
• A06 - Representation of quantum correlations in complex systems (Project Heads Hammerer, Klemens ;  Osborne, Tobias J. ;  Werner, Reinhard F. )
• A07 - Dynamics of ion Coulomb crystals (Project Heads Mehlstäubler, Tanja E. ;  Santos, Luis ;  Weimer, Hendrik )
• B01 - Single-particle-resolved entangled atomic ensembles for quantum metrology (Project Heads Ertmer, Wolfgang ;  Klempt, Carsten ;  Santos, Luis )
• B02 - Optical clocks testing fundamental physics (Project Heads Huntemann, Nils ;  Lisdat, Christian ;  Sterr, Uwe )
• B03 - Multi-ion spectroscopy for optical clocks (Project Heads Mehlstäubler, Tanja E. ;  Schmidt, Piet Oliver )
• B04 - Coherent excitation of a nucleus (Project Head Peik, Ekkehard )
• B05 - Quantum engineering molecular ions for precision spectroscopy (Project Head Schmidt, Piet Oliver )
• B06 - Quantum metrology with trapped (anti-)protons (Project Head Ospelkaus, Christian )
• B07 - Macroscopically delocalised quantum states of matter (Project Heads Ertmer, Wolfgang ;  Rasel, Ernst Maria ;  Schlippert, Dennis )
• B09 - Quantum clock interferometry (Project Heads Schlippert, Dennis ;  Schubert, Christian )
• Z - Central Tasks (Project Head Schmidt, Piet Oliver )
• Ö - The out-of-school laboratoy foeXlab: Science education – science communicaton – science (Project Heads Rasel, Ernst Maria ;  Schmidt, Piet Oliver ;  Weßnigk, Susanne )

Completed projects

• B08 - Quantum dynamics under gravitation (Project Heads Giulini, Domenico ;  Lämmerzahl, Claus )

• Applicant Institution: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover
• Participating Institution: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Piet Oliver Schmidt