START Fellowship Interview Day

START Fellowship candidates are invited to present their research proposals. This also gives them the opportunity to discover the research environment in Munich and to get to know the MCQST community.

As first part of the program, the candidates will introduce themselves and present their previous work as well as their research proposal for their START projects. In the afternoon, the program continues with interviews in closed sessions.

All talks are open to the entire MCQST community.

Program

09:30 | Welcoming remarks

09:40 | Titus Franz from MPI of Quantum Optics: A Phase-Stable Fermionic Quantum Processor

Quantum simulation of electronic structure and strongly correlated matter is one of the most compelling promises of quantum computing. Fermionic processors based on ultracold atoms in optical lattices offer a natural route toward this goal by directly encoding fermionic statistics, but lattice inhomogeneities currently limit phase stability and scalable gate operations. In this talk, I will present my research on high-fidelity collisional gates with fermionic atoms and show how new control protocols together with a cavity-based lattice module establish a phase-stable fermionic quantum processor—opening a path from near-term hybrid analog–digital simulations towards universal error-corrected quantum computation.

10:05 | Sabri Koraltan from TU Wien: 3D Magnetic Nanoresonators: A Versatile Platform for Hybrid Quantum Devices

Mechanical resonators are promising for storing quantum information due to their long coherence times, yet their integration into hybrid quantum systems remains challenging: conventional structures operate at MHz frequencies, far from the quantum ground state and orders of magnitude from the GHz frequencies of magnons, superconducting qubits, and photons needed for coherent coupling. I will introduce 3D magnetic nanoresonators as a versatile platform to bridge this gap. Fabricated by focused electron beam induced deposition and coated with functional magnetic materials, these nanostructures offer complete freedom in geometry and material choice, enabling engineering of mechanical eigenmodes into the GHz range where the quantum ground state becomes accessible and coupling to magnons, qubits, and photons feasible. 3D reconfigurabity allows in-situ tuning of interactions, promising a flexible platform for quantum-enhanced sensing and coherent transduction in hybrid quantum devices.

10:30 | Coffee Break

10:45 | Poetri Sonya Tarabunga from TU Munich: Quantum Resources in Many-Body Quantum Systems: From Non-stabilizerness to Non-Gaussianity

Quantum computers hold the promise of providing significant computational advantages over classical computers, commonly referred to as quantum advantage. Achieving this goal requires understanding which physical features of quantum states prevent efficient classical simulation. In this talk, I will present recent progress in characterizing quantum resources in many-body systems beyond entanglement: non-stabilizerness in qubit systems and non-Gaussianity in fermionic systems, which quantify deviations from efficiently simulable states. These tools provide new insights into the complexity of quantum many-body systems and help clarify the boundary between classical simulability and quantum advantage.

11:10 | Vitaly Wirthl from MPI of Quantum Optics: Terahertz precision spectroscopy of circular Rydberg states in atomic hydrogen

The universe is dominated by dark matter and dark energy: 95% of its mass-energy content remains unexplained. Precision spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen offers a powerful new physics probe, where tiny deviations from the Standard Model could signal weakly interacting bosons modifying the Coulomb potential. In my recent work, the 2S–6P transition measurement achieves one of the most stringent Standard Model tests to date, thereby constraining bosons with masses near 1 keV. Yet, the 1–100 eV mass range remains unexplored. I propose to pioneer the study of circular Rydberg terahertz (THz) transitions in atomic hydrogen, which exhibit exceptional sensitivity to weakly coupled bosons in this regime. By using novel laser-based comb-locked THz sources, I plan to establish a new experimental platform at the intersection of fundamental physics and quantum metrology, which advances new physics tests and pushes the frontiers of THz frequency-domain spectroscopy.

We look forward to the talks and wish all candidates the best of luck for their applications!