Tuesday, 3 March 2026, 14:00, RW 1

Antoine Browaeys, CNRS, Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Palaiseau, France
Herbert-Walther-Prize 2026
is speaking about

"Assembling quantum matter one atom at a time: Many-body physics with arrays of Rydberg atoms"

Abstract:
Over the last twenty years, physicists have learned to manipulate individual quantum objects: atoms, ions, molecules, quantum circuits, electronic spins... It is now possible to build "atom by atom" a synthetic quantum matter. By controlling the interactions between atoms, one can study the properties of these elementary many-body systems: quantum magnetism, transport of excitations, superconductivity... and thus understand more deeply the N-body problem. More recently, it was realized that these quantum systems may find applications in the industry, such as finding the solution of combinatorial optimization problems.

This talk will present an example of a synthetic quantum system, based on laser-cooled ensembles of individual atoms trapped in microscopic optical tweezer arrays. By exciting the atoms into Rydberg states, we make them interact, even at distances of more than ten micrometers. In this way, we study the magnetic properties of an ensemble of more than a hundred interacting 1/2 spins, in a regime in which simulations by usual numerical methods are already very challenging. Some aspects of this research led to the creation of a company, Pasqal.

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Tuesday, 3 March 2026, 14:50, RW 1

Clara Christina Wanjura, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany
Gustav-Hertz-Prize 2026
is speaking about

"Complex scattering systems: from non-Hermitian topology to neuromorphic computing"

Abstract:
Recent experimental advances allow us to realise complex optical systems that can be explored for quantum science and technological applications, ranging from sensors based on optomechanical systems harnessing the interaction between light and mechanical vibrations to analogue computing systems based on nanophotonics. In my talk, I will discuss two different kinds of complex scattering systems enabled by these advances.

In the first part, I will discuss a notion of topology only arising in systems exhibiting gain and loss and how these systems can be harnessed to devise quantum devices such as quantum-limited directional amplifiers and sensors, e.g., based on cavity optomechanics. Specifically, we have shown that this notion of non-Hermitian topology corresponds one-to-one with the phenomenon of directional amplification, which is highly sought-after for applications including quantum information processing. Non-Hermitian topology is also a resource for sensing as we recently demonstrated in an optomechanical system.

In the second part, I will discuss our work on neuromorphic computing systems based on optical scattering. Neuromorphic computing is born out of the demand for more energy-efficient hardware for machine learning and artificial intelligence. As such, neuromorphic computing aims to replace or complement our digital hardware with analogue physical neural networks. In particular, I will show how one can perform fully non-linear neuromorphic computing with a purely linear scattering system. This approach greatly simplifies the experimental requirements on neuromorphic hardware platforms and can be widely applied in existing state-of-the-art scalable platforms, such as optics, microwave and electrical circuits.