Center: JILA-PFC: Comprehension and Control of Emerging Complexity at the Quantum Frontier

授予JILA-PFC的物理前沿中心(PFC)奖将开发和加强对光-物质相互作用的控制，以推进对一系列不断增加的大小和复杂性的量子系统的研究，从超冷原子和分子的组装到真实的材料和生物系统。为了追求这些进展，该中心将开发和应用一系列最先进的光源，包括高度非经典光源、真空紫外光激光器和单光子光源，同时努力改进冷却和测量技术。这些新工具将允许研究人员阐明多体物理中的公开问题，这些问题涉及从原子、分子和光学(AMO)物理到凝聚态物理、化学和生物学等学科，并针对基础物理问题推进前沿精确测量。该中心计划还将为研究生和博士后学者提供原子、分子和光学(AMO)相关物理方面的尖端专业知识，并将开发工具和技术来加强国家的技术基础设施。JILA-PFC将通过举办研讨会和学校以及JILA访客计划，为连接科学社区做出贡献，并将继续其非常成功的教育和外联努力，以吸引下一代所有学生进入科学。JILA-PFC的研究是围绕四个相互关联的主要活动组织的，这些活动反过来又建立在AMO物理学紧密交织的方面。第一个重点是理解和操纵量子粒子之间的相互作用，从在单个组成粒子水平上操纵的超冷原子和分子的原始阵列，到通过超快探测器研究的复杂材料。第二个将通过开发新的光源，广泛地推进光科学和光物质相互作用的前沿。第三个将寻求控制日益复杂的分子的量子态，用于实际和基本的应用，包括在标准模型之外寻找新的物理。第四个领域寻求交流想法和技术的机会，这些想法和技术可能导致JILA-PFC中心重点之外的项目，但将使PFC的核心工作或其他科学领域受益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) award to the JILA-PFC will develop and enhance control over light-matter interactions to advance investigations of an array of quantum systems of increasing size and complexity, ranging from assemblies of ultracold atoms and molecules to real materials and biological systems. In pursuit of these advances, the center will develop and apply a broad range of state-of-the-art light sources, including sources of highly non-classical light, vacuum ultraviolet lasers and single-photon sources, while simultaneously striving to improve cooling and measurement techniques. These new tools will permit researchers to shed light on open questions in many-body physics relevant to disciplines ranging from atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, to condensed matter physics, chemistry, and biology, and to advance frontier precision measurements targeting issues in fundamental physics. The center program will also provide graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with cutting-edge expertise in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) related physics, and it will develop tools and techniques to enhance the Nation's technological infrastructure. The JILA-PFC will contribute to connecting scientific communities by hosting workshops and schools and through the JILA visitor program and will continue its highly successful education and outreach efforts to attract the next generation of all students into science. The JILA-PFC research is organized around four interconnected major activities that are in turn built upon closely intertwined aspects of AMO physics. The first will focus on the understanding and manipulation of interactions between quantum particles, from pristine arrays of ultracold atoms and molecules manipulated at the level of individual constituent particles, to complex materials studied via ultrafast probes. The second will broadly advance the frontier of light-science and light-matter interactions via the development of novel light sources. The third will seek to control quantum states of increasingly complex molecules for practical and fundamental applications including searches for new physics beyond the standard model. The fourth area seeks opportunities to exchange ideas and technologies that could lead to projects outside of the central focus of the JILA-PFC, but which would benefit either the core work of the PFC or other areas of science.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.