Research Highlights

  • Model of a bloch sphere, representing a qubit, part of a quantum computer
    The word 鈥渜uantum鈥� can be mysterious and unfamiliar to the general public. Most of the public鈥檚 exposure to quantum technology has been Hollywoodized and framed as a 鈥渃atch-all鈥� for hard-to-define scientific processes. This misunderstanding causes problems, as quantum technology is quickly being developed and commercialized. With the聽 鈥渂oom鈥� in quantum technology predicted by experts, it is important to realize the repercussions of this misunderstanding. Particularly, writers, scientists, and citizens need to be aware of how to communicate and invoke to the public, an appreciation of the true science of quantum physics.
  • A model of the optical cavity created by the Thompson laboratory聽with collaboration by the Rey Group to study BCS superconduction
    The idea of quantum simulation has only become more widely researched in the past few decades. Quantum simulators allow for the study of a quantum system that would be difficult to study easily and quickly in a laboratory or model with a supercomputer. A new paper published in Physical Review Letters, by a collaboration between theorists in the Rey Group and experimentalists in the Thompson laborator,y proposes a way to engineer a quantum simulator of superconductivity that can measure phenomena so far inaccessible in real materials.
  • Image of a black hole
    An international team of scientists, including a University of Colorado Boulder researcher, has taken the most detailed look yet at the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy called Messier 87. The results suggest the celestial object is surrounded by strong magnetic fields鈥攌ey ingredients that could help generate galaxy-length jets of particles that shoot out around it.
  • Model of Atomic Clock Comparisons between JILA and NIST
    In a significant advance toward the future redefinition of the international unit of time, the second, a research team led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has compared three of the world鈥檚 leading atomic clocks with record accuracy over both air and optical fiber links.
  • Model of the type three secretion system in Salmonella Bacteria
    In a new paper, JILA physicist Thomas Perkins collaborated with CU Biochemistry Prof. Marcello Sousa to dissect the mechanisms of how certain bacteria become more virulent. The research brings together the Perkins lab expertise in single-molecule studies and the Sousa lab expertise in the type III secretion system, a key component of Salmonella bacteria.
  • Model of the quantum gas pancake with quantum interactions
    Entangled particles have always fascinated physicists, as measuring one entangled particle can result in a change in another entangled particle, famously dismissed as 鈥渟pooky action at a distance鈥� by Einstein. By now, physicists understand this strange effect and how to make use of it, for example to increase the sensitivity of measurements. However, entangled states are very fragile, as they can be easily disrupted by decoherence. Researchers have already created entangled states in atoms, photons, electrons and ions, but only recently have studies begun to explore entanglement in gases of polar molecules.
  • Photo of Quantum Knot model showing entanglement
    When looking within a quantum internet, the Sun Lab is looking at specifically photons. By entangling these photons, scientists tie little quantum knots between them, so they jointly represent the information to be delivered. The photons aren鈥檛 just paired off within these quantum knots. They鈥檙e connected to hundreds of other photons in a tree-shaped pattern. The robust redundancy of these photons means that scientists can still read the information, even if a few photons are lost.
  • An Image of the HAYSTAC system
    For nearly a century, scientists have worked to unravel the mystery of dark matter鈥攁n elusive substance that spreads through the universe and likely makes up much of its mass, but has so far proven impossible to detect in experiments. Now, a team of researchers have used an innovative technique called 鈥渜uantum squeezing鈥� to dramatically speed up the search for one candidate for dark matter in the lab.
  • False-color image of a gas of potassium-rubidium polar molecules (left) becoming denser and colder in reaching a state called quantum degeneracy (right), in which the individual molecules鈥� matter waves overlap to create an interdependent system.
    For the first time,聽researchers can turn on an electric field to manipulate molecular interactions, get them to cool down further, and start to explore collective physics where all molecules are coupled to each other.
  • Shadows of atoms trapped in layers of a web of laser light, or an optical lattice, before they are paired into ultracold potassium-rubidium molecules. JILA researchers then used an electric field to precisely control molecular collisions and suppress chemical reactions that would otherwise occur within the layers.
    Building on their newfound ability to induce molecules in ultracold gases to interact with each other over long distances, JILA researchers have used an electric 鈥渒nob鈥� to influence molecular collisions and dramatically raise or lower chemical reaction rates.
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