Sarah Embacher

Welcome to Héctor and Marc!

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We welcome two new members to our theory team!

Héctor Briongos is a visiting PhD student, staying from September 8 to December 6, and Marc Camus is starting his PhD in our group.

Héctor completed his bachelor studies in physics at the University of Valladolid and his master studies in quantum science and technology at the University of Barcelona. For his master thesis, he collaborated with Dr. Jose Ramón Martinez Saavedra at Quside Technologies. In January 2024, he started his PhD at the University of Barcelona, supervised by Montserrat Guilleumas and Bruno Juliá-Díaz.

Marc completed his bachelor and master studies in physics at the University of Barcelona. His master’s thesis, supervised by Bruno Juliá-Díaz, focused on a system of spin-polarized fermions in a one-dimensional harmonic trap interacting via p-wave scattering. After graduating in July 2025, he joins our theory team in September 2025 as a PhD student.

 

Topology meets superconductivity in a one-dimensional t-J model of magnetic atoms

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We have published a new paper by our theory + erbium team on arxiv!

In this work, we leverage the special properties of ultracold magnetic lanthanide atoms trapped in optical lattices, to create a highly controllable version of the iconic t-J model, a cornerstone of quantum many-body physics. We uncover a wide range of exotic phases, including superconducting, topological, and—most strikingly—topological superconducting states. The latter presents several aspects of novelty. The most intriguing one is that differently from the paradigmatic example of one-dimensional topological superconductivity appearing in the celebrated Kitaev chain, this phase is purely induced by competing interactions. We also outline how these phases can be realized and detected with current experimental tools, opening a powerful new route for a deeper understanding of strongly interacting fermionic quantum matter.

Elena defends her PhD!

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Today, Elena Poli from our Theory team successfully defended her PhD thesis, titled “Unveiling the Superfluid and Solid Behaviour in Dipolar Supersolids”!

Elena began her PhD journey in 2019, she was the first member of our Theory team, together with our postdoc at the time, Tom Bland. She played a major role when our group experimentally observed a dipolar supersolid in 2D and extended this work by studying rotating supersolids in 2D, in close collaboration with the Er-Dy lab. She also spent a research stay abroad in New Zealand, joining the group of Prof. Blair Blakie. Most recently, she explored a possible application of her research to glitches in rotating neutron stars.

In total, Elena achieved an impressive list of 10 publications during her PhD.

Beyond her scientific contributions, we thank Elena for organizing barbecues in a wonderfully responsible way, for sharing her excellent taste in music and TV shows, and for carrying our team through long sports nights with her marvelous volleyball skills.

Thank you, Elena — and we wish you all the very best for the future!

 

 

Our Aurora Students of 2025

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This summer, we are once again welcoming four master’s students from the University of Naples Federico II through the Aurora program. Each student will stay for a period of three to four weeks and complete a project within one of the teams in our group.

Our guests and their projects are:

  • Luigi Petillo – Feasibility study of a stochastic super-resolution imaging method in the Erbium Lab

  • Carlo Valentino – Magnetic field stabilization in the Er-Dy Lab

  • Paolo Palumbo – Survival probability of atoms in an optical tweezer in the TREQS Lab

  • Krishan Joshi – Injection locking of the 401 nm diode laser in the TREQS Lab

We wish the students an enjoyable stay in Innsbruck and much success with their projects!

 

 

 

Eva awarded with the Euregio Young Researcher Award 2025!

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© EFA/Philipp Huber

We are proud to announce that Eva Casotti has won first place in the Euregio Young Researcher Award 2025.

Now in its 14th edition, the award invited young researchers from the Euregio region (Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino) to submit their work on the theme “Competitiveness and the Euregio as a Business Location.”

During the final round at the Euregio Days 2025 in Alpbach, the finalists presented their research to a jury of leading experts from research institutions across all three Euregio regions. Eva convinced the jury with our work on “Observation of vortices in a dipolar supersolid”, carried out at the IQOQI in Innsbruck and University of Innsbruck, and recently published in Nature.

The award was presented by Arno Kompatscher (Governor of South Tyrol), Anton Mattle (Governor of Tyrol), and Simone Marchiori (Regional Minister from Trentino). Please click here to find more information about the event.

Congratulations to Eva on this outstanding achievement!

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