News

Category for non scientific news

Fano-suppression in scattering resonances of erbium

by

Check out our latest paper on arxiv!

Through a combined effort between the Erbium Lab, Prof. Nirav Mehta from Trinity University and Prof. Seth Rittenhouse from the United States Naval Academy, our new preprint demonstrates the first observation of Fano profiles in scattering resonances of ultracold atoms. We show that these features arise from destructive interference between multiple scattering pathways, which we theoretically capture using a simplified multichannel model. Our work opens the door to detailed investigations of multispin, strongly coupled scattering phenomena.

Francesca is Scientist of the Year!

by
Copyright: Roland Ferrigato

 

Fantastic news: Francesca Ferlaino, is Austria’s Scientist of the Year 2025!

This prestigious award, granted by the Austrian Association of Science and Education Journalists, honours Francesca’s outstanding scientific achievements and her exceptional commitment to science communication. It acknowledges her dedication to making complex quantum phenomena accessible to a general audience, as well as emphasizing the importance of fundamental research for society.

Read more here.

We are part of a new special research area (SFB)!

by
Copyright: David Jordan / IQOQI Innsbruck

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has approved a new special research area on quantum systems of neutral atoms. We are excited to announce that our group will be part of the project, together with the groups led by Hannes Bernien and Hannes Pichler from Innsbruck, and many more national and international collaborators.

The FWF will provide funding of approximately €4 million over a period of four years. The goal of the collaborative research network “Highly Connected Quantum Systems of Neutral Atoms” is to achieve a high degree of networking and quantum mechanical entanglement of many particles, even those that are far apart. With the realization and investigation of quantum systems that are now becoming experimentally accessible for the first time, the planned cooperation promises not only a deeper understanding of novel states of matter, but also practical breakthroughs in the field of quantum technology.

 

Group Hike and Törggelen

by

 

Our group went on a trip to South Tyrol to go hiking at the astonishing Barbian Waterfalls. For dinner, we visited a Buschenschank, where we enjoyed the Tyrolean tradition of Törggelen — a sociable, extended meal featuring traditional regional dishes such as chestnuts roasted over a wood fire, as well as locally produced sausages and wine.

Synchronization in rotating supersolids

by

Our paper “Synchronization in rotating supersolids” is now published in Nature Physics here!

Read the news article by Nature Physics here and the news article by the University of Innsbruck here.

Synchronization is a widespread phenomenon in natural and engineered systems, governing the emergence of collective dynamics in different domains including biology and classical and quantum physics. Supersolids—quantum phases that combine crystalline order and superfluidity—offer a platform to explore synchronization in systems with coexisting broken symmetries.

In this work, we investigate the dynamics of a dipolar supersolid subjected to external rotation. We show that, above a critical driving frequency, the crystal revolution undergoes a sudden synchronization with the rotating field seeded by the nucleation of quantized vortices, hallmark of superfluidity.

This transition reflects the interplay between the solid-like and superfluid responses of the system. By comparing simulations of the extended Gross–Pitaevskii equation with experimental observations, we demonstrate that synchronization can serve as a dynamical indicator for vortex nucleation. This approach provides a complementary method to determine the critical rotation frequency for vortex formation in supersolids.

Elena defends her PhD!

by

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!

 

 

+ More