Center: Center for Ultracold Atoms

理解、控制和利用日益复杂的多体量子系统是一个重要的科学前沿，对新材料的发展和量子信息科学的进步至关重要。阐明微观物理如何决定量子系统的宏观行为是现代科学和物理学前沿的重大开放问题之一。超冷原子中心（CUA）是麻省理工学院和哈佛大学的共同努力，目标是创造、控制和研究量子系统中的有意复杂性。CUA以协作和协同的方式解决了这一基本挑战，使用的系统可以很好地理解微观尺度上粒子的性质和相互作用，精确量化，并在量子水平上高度可控。该协会还将通过针对科学界和一般公众的一系列广泛活动，推进教育和外联工作。核心外展计划“参与ua”将这些活动的参与扩展到整个ua社区。中国科学院的研究活动分为四个主要领域。第一个领域专注于原子和分子的量子气体，旨在从多个方向扩展对多体系统的控制，包括远程力和新几何形状（双层系统、受挫晶格、规范场）。第二个领域是里德伯原子和分子的可编程阵列。它们将用于探索物质的高度纠缠相，进行纠错的基础研究，并追求新的应用，例如量子化学。第三个领域利用类原子和混合系统，包括自旋缺陷和二维几何中的捕获电子和激子。这些固态系统将使量子模拟具有强大的相互作用，并在传感和计量方面有新的应用。第四个领域的重点是强耦合原子和光子。更大的目标是为原子和光子的多体态工程提供新的能力，应用于量子非线性光学、量子计量和网络。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding, controlling, and harnessing increasingly complex many-body quantum systems is an important frontier of science, and is essential for the development of new materials and the advance of quantum information science. Elucidating how microscale physics determines the macroscale behavior of quantum systems is one of the grand, open questions of modern science and a physics frontier. The Center for Ultracold Atoms (CUA) is a joint effort between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University with the goal of creating, controlling, and studying intentional complexity in quantum systems. The CUA addresses this fundamental challenge in a collaborative and synergistic manner, using systems where the properties and interactions of particles at the microscopic scale are well understood, accurately quantified, and highly controllable at the quantum level. The CUA will also advance education and outreach with a broad portfolio of activities aimed at both the scientific community and the general public. The core outreach program, EngageCUA, extends participation in these activities to the whole CUA community.The CUA research activities are divided into four major areas. The first area focuses on quantum gases of atoms and molecules and aims at expanding control over many-body systems in multiple directions, including long-range forces and novel geometries (bilayer systems, frustrated lattices, gauge fields). The second area is programmable arrays of Rydberg atoms and molecules. They will be used to explore highly-entangled phases of matter, to perform fundamental research on error correction, and to pursue new applications, e.g., to quantum chemistry. The third area exploits atom-like and hybrid systems, including spin defects and trapped electrons and excitons in two-dimensional geometries. These solid-state systems will enable quantum simulations with strong interactions and new applications in sensing and metrology. The fourth area focuses on strongly coupled atoms and photons. The larger goal is to enable new capabilities for engineering many-body states of atoms and photons, with applications in quantum nonlinear optics, quantum metrology, and networking.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.