The next quantum revolution will involve understanding and controlling the properties and dynamics of increasingly large-sized quantum systems. A better understanding of universal rules governing many-body quantum systems and deep understandings of more and more complex molecules will impact areas of science beyond quantum physics, including condensed matter and material physics, chemical and biophysics, high-energy physics, astrophysics, and nuclear physics. The Physics Frontiers Center (PFC) award to the JILA PFC will continue work begun during past PFC awards to harness interacting and interconnected atoms, molecules and photons to address frontier challenges presented by the complexity of quantum matter, and to probe elusive secrets of nature. The center program will also train a large number of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with cutting-edge expertise in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical 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. Continuing efforts to expand the undergraduate research program and a predominantly minority-serving after-school program will allow the JILA PFC to contribute to attracting the next generation of all students into science.
The JILA PFC will capitalize on the development of extreme light sources and spectrographic techniques that have allowed the JILA PFC investigators to precisely engineer quantum states, probe complex interactions of atomic nuclei and electrons, and control matter in dynamic states far from equilibrium. The JILA PFC research is organized around four areas of research. The first two focus on aspects of many-body physics, including the construction of quantum matter from basic constituents and the development of quantum resources for precision measurements of physical systems including strongly interacting quantum many-body systems. The third area focuses on observations of coupled dynamics in different forms of matter, mainly solids and molecules, as well as the formation and transformation of constituents on unprecedented time scales, ranging from hundredths of a femtosecond to microseconds. The fourth area looks for 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.
