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2024’s Biggest Breakthrough in Physics

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Quanta Magazine has declared our research on the ‘Observation of vortices in a dipolar supersolid‘ one of 2024’s Biggest Breakthrough in Physics!

Moving from the largest stage to the very smallest one, physicists who manipulate atoms, molecules and crystals in the lab have also spent 2024 in the throes of discovery, having achieved astonishing levels of precision and control over their quantum quarries. A team in Innsbruck created a long-predicted exotic state of matter called a supersolid, and even imaged the hallmark “quantum tornadoes” that formed when they stirred an otherwise rigid crystal of dysprosium atoms. Astrophysicists suspect that this supersolid phase might arise inside incredibly dense, fast-spinning stars called pulsars.

Read the rest of 2024’s Biggest Breakthroug here: The Year in Physics

Watch the Quanta video, featuring Francesca and PhD student Elena Poli, here: Youtube Explainer

Read the feature by Quanta Magazine here: Physicists spot quantum tornadoes twirling in a supersolid

See the article in Nature here: Observation of vortices in a dipolar supersolid

Read the pre-print here: arXiv:2403.18510.

Ferlaino group at the InnFi Meeting 2024

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The Ferlaino group headed down south to Florence from October 29th to the 31st for the Ultracold Florence-Innsbruck Joint Meeting hosted at the beautiful National Institute of Optics (Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR-INO).  We had a great time sharing our latest research with presentations by Elena and Eva (Theory and Er-Dy), Louis (ERBIUM) and Daniel (T-REQS)!

Francesca crowned as the ‘Austrian of the Year 2024’ in the research category

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Francesca Ferlaino received the award from the head of the FFG, Henrietta Egerth-Stadlhuber (right). Photo credit: Clemens Fabry.

Die Presse – the Austrian newspaper of record – has awarded Francesca the title of ‘Austrian of the Year 2024’ in the research category! The six winners of this prestigious award were honored  at the Austria 24 Gala in Vienna’s Sofiensäle on Wednesday, the 23rd of October 2024. The Austrians of the year were chosen in six categories:

  • International success
  • Research
  • Humanitarian commitment
  • Climate initiative
  • Cultural heritage
  • Company with responsibility

You can read more about the award and see the other 2024 winners of Austrians of the year here: https://www.diepresse.com/18999955/die-oesterreicherinnen-des-jahres-2024-stehen-fest

Austria 24: Francesca nominated for ‘Austrian of the Year’ in the research category!

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Die Presse – the Austrian newspaper of record – has nominated Francesca for Austria 24, the Austrians of the year in the research category! This prestigious award is given to personalities who have achieved excellence in their field, and are honored in six categories:

  • International success
  • Research
  • Humanitarian commitment
  • Climate initiative
  • Cultural heritage
  • Company with responsibility

On Saturday the 26th of October 2024, at 17:25 ORF will broadcast the “Austrians of the year” awards ceremony, where Francesca is one of the 3 finalists in the category of research.
You can watch the program here:

https://tv.orf.at/program/orf2/austria-di108.html

 

 

 

 

Welcome to visiting PhD student, Silvia Trabucco, and goodbye to the AURORA Interns!

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Picture of a group lunch outside at 9b restaurant on campus, celebrating the end of the AURORA Internship and the beginning of the visit by a PhD student. From left to right: Leonardo Bellinato, Pramodh Senarath Yapa, Giuseppe Puca, Gianlorenzo De Filippo, Matteo Olimpo, Elena Poli, Francesca Ferlaino and Silvia Trabucco
From left to right: Leonardo Bellinato Giacomelli, Pramodh Senarath Yapa, Giuseppe Puca, Gianlorenzo De Filippo, Matteo Olimpo, Elena Poli, Francesca Ferlaino and Silvia Trabucco.

The first week of September 2024 marked the end of the 3 weeks of the Aurora Excellence Fellowship program and the beginning of a visit by Silvia Trabucco, who is a PhD student at Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila, Italy. Silvia is visiting to build upon an already successful collaboration regarding vortices in a dipolar supersolid and their connection to glitches in neutron stars.

Silvia Trabucco graduated in theoretical physics in Pisa in 2021 with a thesis about thermal properties of acoustic horizons realised with Bose-Einstein condensates. She joined the PhD program at the Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila, Italy. Her research interests include quantum simulation of gravitational black holes and their beyond-equilibrium properties, as well as phases of matter realised in compact stars. She worked with the University of Innsbruck to investigate the glitch mechanism of neutron stars employing dipolar supersolids.

The Aurora interns Gianlorenzo De Filippo, Matteo Olimpo and Giuseppe Puca made remarkable progress in their projects with the Theory team over the last 3 weeks, and we wish them the best of luck with their research at University of Naples Federico II!

 

 

 

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