The MCQST Colloquium Series features interdisciplinary talks given by visiting international speakers. The monthly colloquial covers topics spanning all MCQST research units and will be broadcasted live, being made available to audiences worldwide. The main goal of the series is to create the framework for idea exchange, to strengthen links with QST leading groups worldwide, as well as to act as an integral part of the local educational environment.

MCQST Colloquium: Eugene Polzik

On 18 May 2021, we are excited to invite you to attend the colloquium offered by Eugene S. Polzik, Professor of Physics at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen and the leader of QUANTOP – Quantum Optics Center.

Quantum physics with macroscopic objects

Recent ideas and technological developments make possible generation of entangled and other non-classical states of truly macroscopic objects [1,2]. In this talk I will discuss experiments with macroscopic mechanical and atomic systems where measurements with sensitivity exceeding the standard quantum limits have been performed. Progress towards application of those ideas to kg-scale mirrors of gravitational wave detectors [3] will be reported. Generation of single quantum excitations of motion [4] and a collective atomic spin [5] will be discussed.

1. Nature, 547, 191 (2017).
2. Nature Physics (2020) 10.1038/s41567-020-1031-5.
3. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 031101 (2018).
4. Optica, 7(6), 718 (2020).
5. arXiv:2010.06875, to appear in Nature Comm.

About the Speaker

Eugene S. Polzik, Professor of Physics, Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University, is an experimental quantum physicist who has made ground breaking contributions within quantum optics with emphasis on quantum state engineering and control of light and matter.

Polzik received M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from Leningrad University in 1976 and 1980, respectively. Upon completion of his Ph.D., he became an associate professor of physics at the Mining Institute in Leningrad. Since then, he has held a number of positions at California Institute of Technology, the University of Aarhus, Institute Henri Poincare, the Institute for Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, and the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark.

He has had more than 160 papers published in refereed journals and given over 150 plenary or invited talks. His research has helped to lead the development of quantum optics throughout Europe, which includes his leadership of the QUROPE project from 2006-2009. In Denmark, he established the first quantum-optics lab, and later the QUANTOP at the University of Copenhagen.

Polzik has received many awards for his work, including the Danish Physical Society Prize, the Scientific American Research Leadership Award, the Gordon Moore Distinguished Scholar Award, two European Research Council Advanced Grant Awards, and the Danish Academic Association Research Prize in Natural Sciences. He is a Fellow of OSA, the American Physical Society, and the Institute of Physics, UK. He is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and has been selected as a Danish Research Result of the Year.

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