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Notice: All in-person JQI seminars and events are canceled until Fall 2020.

We will share updates as we receive more guidance from the University of Maryland. Please visit the University's page for more information about the COVID-19 outbreak.

Latest News and Research

Manucharyan Receives Second Consecutive Google Faculty Research Award

JQI Fellow Vladimir Manucharyan has received a 2019 Google Faculty Research Award. It is the second consecutive year that Manucharyan, who is also an Associate Professor of Physics at UMD, has earned the honor.This year’s award will continue to support research by Manucharyan and his team into quantum computing hardware based on superconducting circuits. They are pursuing the development of special quantum bits—called fluxonium qubits—for use in a new generation of computers. Continue Reading
Quantum Gases Won’t Take the Heat

The quantum world blatantly defies intuitions that we’ve developed while living among relatively large things, like cars, pennies and dust motes. The quantum behavior of dynamical localization bucks the assumption that a cold object will always steal heat from a warmer object.Until now, dynamical localization has only been observed for single quantum objects, which has prevented it from contributing to attempts to pin down where the changeover occurs. JQI researchers and colleagues have investigated mathematical models to see if dynamical localization can still arise when many quantum particles interact. To reveal the physics, they had to craft models to account... Continue Reading
Peeking into a World of Spin-3/2 Materials

Researchers have been pushing the frontiers of the quantum world for over a century. And time after time, spin has been a rich source of new physics. Spin is essential when delving into virtually any topic governed by quantum mechanics, from superconductors to the Higgs Boson. In the past couple years, researchers have discovered materials in which electrons behave like their spin has been bumped up, from 1/2 to 3/2. JQI postdoctoral researcher Igor Boettcher explored the new behaviors these spins might produce in a recent paper featured on the cover of Physical Review Letters. Continue Reading
New Protocol Helps Classify Topological Matter

Topological materials have captured the interest of many scientists and may provide the basis for a new era in materials development. On April 10, 2020 in the journal Science Advances, physicists working with Andreas Elben, Jinlong Yu, Peter Zoller and Benoit Vermersch, including JQI Fellow Mohammad Hafezi and former JQI postdoctoral researcher Guanyu Zhu (currently a research staff member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center), presented a new method for identifying and characterizing topological invariants on various experimental platforms, testing their protocol in a quantum simulator made of neutral atoms.... Continue Reading
Donuts, Donut Holes and Topological Superconductors
Topology—the mathematical study of shapes that describes how a donut differs from a donut hole—has turned out to be remarkably relevant to understanding our physical world. For decades, it’s captured the hearts and minds of physicists, who have spent that time uncovering just how deep the connection between topology and physics runs. Among many other things, they’ve unearthed a prediction, born of topology, for a new particle with promising applications to quantum computing. In this episode of Relatively Certain, Dina Genkina sits down with JQI Fellow Jay Sau, an associate professor of physics at UMD, and Johnpierre Paglione, a professor... Continue Reading
To Tune Up Your Quantum Computer, Better Call an AI Mechanic
New paradigm for “auto-tuning” quantum bits could overcome major engineering hurdle.

A high-end race car engine needs all its components tuned and working together precisely to deliver top-quality performance. The same can be said about the processor inside a quantum computer, whose delicate bits must be adjusted in just the right way before it can perform a calculation. Who’s the right mechanic for this quantum tuneup job? According to a team that includes scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), it’s an artificial intelligence, that’s who.The team’s paper in the journal Physical Review Applied outlines a way to teach an AI to make an interconnected set of adjustments to tiny quantum... Continue Reading
Two JQI Fellows Participate in New MURI Awards

JQI researchers are part of two teams that have received Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) awards from the Department of Defense (DoD). DoD awards these competitive grants annually to promote multidisciplinary work by teams spanning several universities. MURI awards focus on topics that are important to DoD and that may promote development of new technologies. Continue Reading
JQI Researchers Receive Quantum Award from Google

JQI Fellow Mohammad Hafezi and JQI Graduate Researchers Alireza Seif and Hwanmun Kim have received an award from Google to support research identifying and developing problems that simple quantum computers might help solve. The work could bridge the divide between demonstrating quantum supremacy, as Google claimed to do in October, and building practical quantum computers that can run established algorithms.“It is an exciting time when industry and academia work together on quantum problems,” Hafezi says. “I am looking forward to collaborating with the Google AI team,” he adds, referring to Google’s artificial intelligence research arm.... Continue Reading
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Latest News and Research

  • Manucharyan Receives Second Consecutive Google Faculty Research Award

    JQI Fellow Vladimir Manucharyan has received a 2019 Google Faculty Research Award. It is the second consecutive year that Manucharyan, who is also an Associate Professor of Physics at UMD, has earned the honor.This year’s award will continue to support research by Manucharyan and his team into quantum computing hardware based on superconducting circuits. They are pursuing the development of... Continue Reading
  • Quantum Gases Won’t Take the Heat

    The quantum world blatantly defies intuitions that we’ve developed while living among relatively large things, like cars, pennies and dust motes. The quantum behavior of dynamical localization bucks the assumption that a cold object will always steal heat from a warmer object.Until now, dynamical localization has only been observed for single quantum objects, which has prevented it from... Continue Reading
  • Peeking into a World of Spin-3/2 Materials

    Researchers have been pushing the frontiers of the quantum world for over a century. And time after time, spin has been a rich source of new physics. Spin is essential when delving into virtually any topic governed by quantum mechanics, from superconductors to the Higgs Boson. In the past couple years, researchers have discovered materials in which electrons behave like their spin has been... Continue Reading
  • New Protocol Helps Classify Topological Matter

    Topological materials have captured the interest of many scientists and may provide the basis for a new era in materials development. On April 10, 2020 in the journal Science Advances, physicists working with Andreas Elben, Jinlong Yu, Peter Zoller and Benoit Vermersch, including JQI Fellow Mohammad Hafezi and former JQI... Continue Reading
  • Donuts, Donut Holes and Topological Superconductors
    Topology—the mathematical study of shapes that describes how a donut differs from a donut hole—has turned out to be remarkably relevant to understanding our physical world. For decades, it’s captured the hearts and minds of physicists, who have spent that time uncovering just how deep the connection between topology and physics runs. Among many other things, they’ve unearthed a prediction, born... Continue Reading
  • To Tune Up Your Quantum Computer, Better Call an AI Mechanic
    New paradigm for “auto-tuning” quantum bits could overcome major engineering hurdle.

    A high-end race car engine needs all its components tuned and working together precisely to deliver top-quality performance. The same can be said about the processor inside a quantum computer, whose delicate bits must be adjusted in just the right way before it can perform a calculation. Who’s the right mechanic for this quantum tuneup job? According to a team that includes scientists at the... Continue Reading
  • Two JQI Fellows Participate in New MURI Awards

    JQI researchers are part of two teams that have received Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) awards from the Department of Defense (DoD). DoD awards these competitive grants annually to promote multidisciplinary work by teams spanning several universities. MURI awards focus on topics that are important to DoD and that may promote development of new technologies. Continue Reading
  • JQI Researchers Receive Quantum Award from Google

    JQI Fellow Mohammad Hafezi and JQI Graduate Researchers Alireza Seif and Hwanmun Kim have received an award from Google to support research identifying and developing problems that simple quantum computers might help solve. The work could bridge the divide between demonstrating quantum supremacy, as ... Continue Reading
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Recent Publications

"Type II Photoinitiator and Tuneable Poly(Ethylene Glycol)-Based Materials Library for Visible Light Photolithography," X. Yang, M. Mohseni, O. Bas, C. Meinert, E.J. New, N.J. Castro, Tissue Eng. Part A, , (2020)
"Photonic materials in circuit quantum electrodynamics," I. Carusotto, A.A. Houck, A.J. Kollar, P. Roushan, D.I. Schuster, J. Simon, Nat. Phys., 268-279, 16 (2020)
"Interplay of Topology and Electron-Electron Interactions in Rarita-Schwinger-Weyl semimetals," I. Boettcher, Phys. Rev. Lett., 127602, 124 (2020)
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