ARC Discovery grant success for CQOS

CQOS has again enjoyed success in the latest round of ARC grants, winning two Australian Research Council Discovery Project grants to commence in 2019.

Simulation of exponentially complex quantum technologies.

Professor Peter Drummond, Professor Margaret Reid, Dr Garnett Bryant

Total $375,000 over three years

Project Summary
This project aims to develop computational tools to study exponentially complex many-body systems, and use them to model novel quantum technologies. Physics has a deep and broad impact on our modern lives, via computing, the internet, mobile telephones, GPS, space travel and medical technologies. This project will demonstrate the potential of quantum devices, with significance and impact both inside and outside physics. The project will simulate quantum systems ranging from quantum circuits for early universe simulation to boson sampling devices using Bose-Einstein condensates and plasmonic systems. Through modelling recent advances, and proposing robust, ultra-sensitive interferometers as one application, the project expects to enhance capability and understanding of quantum science.

Building time crystals with ultracold atoms

Professor Peter Hannaford, Professor Krzysztof Sacha, Professor Andrei Sidorov, Dr Jia Wang

Total $483,401 over three years

Project Summary
This project aims to create a new exotic form of quantum matter in which a many-body system of ultracold atoms bouncing on a vibrating mirror spontaneously self-organises its motion with a period tens of times longer than the driving period of the mirror. Such "time crystals" are predicted to be robust against external perturbations and to persist for very long times. The project expects to generate new knowledge on exotic non-equilibrium crystalline phenomena in the time domain, such as many-body localisation with temporal disorder, which has counter-intuitive characteristics such as absence of thermalisation and vanishing direct current transport. Time crystals could provide significant benefits for the storage and transfer of quantum information, and this, and other outcomes may ultimately lead to commercial products.