Colloquia

Reconfigurable arrays of neutral atoms have emerged as a leading platform for quantum science. Their excellent coherence properties combined with programmable Rydberg interactions have led to intriguing observations such as quantum phase transitions, the discovery of quantum many-body scars, and novel quantum computing architectures. [more]

I will discuss advances in photonic computing architectures leveraging hardware noise as a computational resource. Using nanoscale phase-change materials allows in-memory processing of probabilistic data. Photonic crossbar arrays utilizing chaotic light as entropy sources enable parallel, energy-efficient, high-speed probabilistic machine learning beyond traditional hardware limits. [more]

Two energy levels of an atom can represent a binary bit of information. Quantum systems can also exist in “superposition states”, storing both states of the bit simultaneously - a quantum bit or “qubit.” N qubits could store 2N binary numbers yielding an exponential increase in memory and processing capacity. Qubit operations with trapped atomic ions are described, and could eventually lead to an analog of Schrödinger's famous cat. [more]

I will present our work developing optogenetic vision restoration technologies for blind patients with retinal degenerative diseases. I will discuss how we transform surviving retinal cells into photoreceptor-like cells capable of responding to light stimuli. Our approach has progressed from initial proof-of-concept studies in animal models to clinical applications in blind human patients, demonstrating meaningful visual perception restoration. [more]

Quantum many-body scars are highly excited states with atypical properties. They are remarkable because they do not follow the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis and lead to interesting dynamics. After a general introduction to the field, I will discuss how similar quantum scars are to ground states. In particular, quantum scars can undergo both adiabatic evolution and phase transitions. I will also introduce inverted quantum many-body scars. [more]