VCQ & quantA Summer School :: Speaker
Prof. Michael Buchhold (University of Cologne)
Introduction to many-body physics and quantum information theory
Michael Buchhold is a Full Professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, starting in September 2025. Previously, he served as a Privatdozent and research group leader at the University of Cologne (2023-2025) and was a Feodor Lynen Fellow at Caltech, USA (2017-2019). Michal completed his PhD in Theoretical Physics at Technical University of Dresden in 2015. His research is at the interface of condensed matter, quantum optics, quantum information and statistical physics, where he for example explores entanglement transitions and self-organized criticality driven Ryberg systems. Among his awards, Michael received the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Feodor Lynen Fellowship.
Prof. Yuao Chen (University of Science and Technology of China)
Quantum Simulations from Fermi Hubbard Model
In quantum simulation, systems comprising hundreds up to millions of atoms can be artificially created and controlled to mimic complex systems, which facilitates the validation or prediction of novel quantum phenomena, exploration of the underlying microscopic mechanisms. Utilizing small-scale and manageable ultracold fermionic systems, important critical dynamics or unsolved models in condensed matter physics can be simulated, aiming to acquire phase diagrams of strongly correlated fermionic systems at low temperatures. In this talk, I will start with some basic experimental techniques, then introduce the latest developments in quantum simulation based on ultracold fermionic systems in USTC.
Yu-Ao Chen is a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), specializing in experimental quantum information processing through the manipulation of photons and atoms. He earned his PhD from the University of Heidelberg in 2008 and has conducted research at Heidelberg, Mainz, and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. In 2011, he returned to USTC, where he has made outstanding contributions to quantum communication, computation, and simulation.
A Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and OPTICA, he has pioneered quantum manipulation techniques that have been systematically applied across various quantum technologies. He has published 129 papers in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Physics/Photonics, PNAS, and PRL/X, accumulating over 23,991 citations (Google Scholar) with an h-index of 66. Notably, 51 of his papers have each been cited over 100 times.
Simon Cornish (Durham University,UK)
Introduction to Ultracold Molecules
Simon L. Cornish is a Professor in the Department of Physics at Durham University working in the Quantum Light and Matter research group. He was educated at Oxford University where he received his PhD in experimental atomic physics in 1998. He developed an interest in ultracold gases at the University of Colorado, where he undertook pioneering experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation with tunable interactions. His current research focuses on the study of ultracold polar molecules formed by associating pairs of ultracold atoms, inspired by the prospect of using molecules as a platform for quantum simulation and quantum computation. He leads a national research program in the UK focused on the study of quantum science with ultracold molecules and was awarded the 2019 Institute of Physics Joseph Thomson medal and prize for outstanding contributions to experiments on ultracold atoms and molecules.
Prof. Jean Dalibard (Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Collège de France, Paris
Coherence and Superfluidity in Cold Atomic Gases
In these lectures, I will present some remarkable phenomena related to quantum gases, including their superfluid properties, their phase coherence, and the stabilization of topological structures such as solitons and vortices. I will show how the possibility of working with mixtures of quantum gases greatly enriches the range of observable phenomena, and discuss some recent illustrative experiments conducted around these systems.
Jean Dalibard completed his graduate studies in 1986 under the supervision of Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. He spent the first part of his career at the CNRS. Since 2012, he has been a professor at the Collège de France, where he holds the chair of „Atoms and Radiation“. He was also a professor at the Ecole Polytechnique between 1989 and 2016. His first research topics concerned the elucidation of mechanisms for cooling and trapping atoms (Sisyphus cooling, magneto-optical trap), and he also contributed to the development of the quantum trajectory approach. His current research focuses on ultracold matter, which consists of gases of atoms cooled to extremely low temperatures, in the sub-microKelvin range. Among his achievements in this field are the observation of quantum vortices in rotating condensates, the observation of a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a 2D fluid, and the generation of artificial gauge fields for quantum gases made of neutral atoms.
Prof. Oleksandr Kyriienko (University of Sheffield, UK)
Quantum simulation of many-body systems with machine learning
Quantum machine learning (QML) explores how quantum computers can enhance machine learning tasks. In this lecture series, I will introduce different QML paradigms, including variational, kernel-based, and generative approaches. Over the two lectures will learn the fundamentals of QML models, covering quantum circuits, data embeddings via feature maps, kernel methods, and quantum measurements. We will explore applications in classification, scientific machine learning, and generative modeling. Finally, we will discuss current challenges in QML and possible directions for future research.
Oleksandr Kyriienko is a Ukrainian theoretical physicist based at the University of Sheffield, where he is Chair in Quantum Technologies and Director of the Sheffield Quantum Centre. He earned his Ph.D. in quantum optics from the University of Iceland in 2014 and held postdoctoral positions at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2017, he received a 2-year fellowship to conduct an independent research programme at NORDITA in Stockholm, Sweden. He moved to the University of Exeter as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the end of 2019. His broad area of research includes quantum simulation, quantum computing, and quantum machine learning. Together with industrial collaborators he has proposed various protocols for solving PDEs and generative modelling, contributing to the development of emerging near-term quantum computers.
Dr. Manfred Mark (University of Innsbruck)
Many-body Physics and Supersolidity in Dipolar Quantum Matter
Dipolar quantum gases represent a fascinating and rapidly evolving field at the forefront of many-body quantum physics and quantum simulation. These gases, composed of strongly magnetic lanthanide atoms such as erbium and dysprosium, exhibit unique and tunable long-range interactions, distinct from the short-range interactions in traditional atomic gases. This lecture provides an overview of recent developments and insights in the study of many-body physics and genuine quantum phases of dipolar quantum gases in various experimental setups, such as optical lattices and bulk systems. This ranges from the discovery of the supersolid state of matter with its key ingredients – the rotonic excitation spectrum and the stabilization through quantum fluctuations – to the realization of “extended” quantum simulators in optical lattices.
Manfred Mark is a senior scientist in the Dipolar Quantum Gases group at the University of Innsbruck. With a PhD and habilitation from the Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Innsbruck, he has co-authored over 60 publications, which include papers in Nature and Science. His pioneering contributions include the First preparation of rovibronic groundstate molecules (2010), Realization of First degenerate dipolar quantum gas mixtures (2018), First observation of long-lived dipolar supersolid states (2019), First realization of quantum vortices in a supersolid (2024).
His current research spans Bose-Einstein Condensates, Ultracold molecules, Lanthanide Rydberg physics, Beyond Mean-field effects, and Supersolidity. He has taught various Basic and Advanced lectures and lab courses in electronics, Atomic and molecular physics, and solid-state physics. He has also Co-supervised multiple Master’s and PhD students in Dipolar Quantum Gases and Strongly Correlated Quantum Matter groups.
Prof. Géza Tóth (University of the Basque Country
Entanglement and Metrology in Many-Body Systems
We will discuss the definitions of separability and entanglement in multipartite quantum systems. We will present various methods for detecting entanglement using entanglement witnesses and also criteria that are nonlinear in expectation values. We will demonstrate how to detect entanglement through measurements of collective quantities in large particle ensembles, employing both spin-squeezing and generalized spin-squeezing criteria. Additionally, we will explore quantum metrology, showing how to estimate the strength of a magnetic field using spin-squeezed states in atomic ensembles. We will also discuss the use of other quantum states for parameter estimation, particularly those without a large mean spin, such as Dicke states and singlet states. We will examine the Cramér-Rao bound and quantum Fisher information as fundamental concepts in quantum metrology. Furthermore, we will demonstrate that high levels of multiparticle entanglement are essential for achieving high-precision metrology in linear interferometers. Throughout the presentation, we will highlight experimental examples using photons and cold atoms.
Géza Tóth is based in Bilbao, Spain, as a Research Professor at the University of the Basque Country and associated with the Donostia International Physics Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and held postdoctoral positions at Oxford, the Max Planck Institute, and ICFO. His research broadly focuses on quantum information, entanglement detection, quantum metrology etc.. He has made significant contributions to the study of multipartite entanglement, methods for characterizing large-scale entangled states and their applications in quantum technologies. Notably, he received the Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation and secured several prestigious grants, including an ERC Starting Grant.
Prof. Maia Vergniory (University of sherbrooke, Canada
Topological Quantum Chemistry
These lectures will introduce the fundamentals of Topological Quantum Chemistry (TQC), covering key concepts ranging from band theory, symmetry, to topology. We will explain how TQC is used to classify topological materials. The second part of the lecture series will point towards limitations of TQC in the presence of strong many-body interactions, which constitutes an active research topic.
Maia Vergniory is a professor in computational physics at the University of Sherbrooke, specializing in topological materials and condensed matter physics. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of the Basque Country, researching many-body effects in electronic states. Since 2012, she has focused on discovering and classifying topological materials using computational methods. As a research fellow at Ikerbasque and the Donostia International Physics Center, Maia helped identify numerous topological materials, including the high-order topological insulator Bi₄Br₄. Her work combines theoretical analysis and supercomputer simulations to predict material properties based on crystalline symmetries. She now explores organic materials and chiral topological crystals, aiming to uncover new quantum phenomena with potential applications in advanced electronics.
Prof. Jorge Kurchan, Public Speaker (LPENS, Paris)
Quantum bounds and fluctuation-dissipation relations
Jorge Kurchan is the Director of Exceptional Class Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). His primary areas of study include statistical physics, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and complex systems. He completed his Ph.D. in 1989, in physics at the University of Buenos Aires under Daniel R. Bes.. Kurchan’s research has significantly enhanced the understanding in the topics such as glassy dynamics, stochastic processes, and the behavior of disordered systems. He focuses on understanding the fundamental principles underlying the statistical mechanics of complex and out-of-equilibrium systems. In recognition of his work, Kurchan has been awarded the Prix Paul Langevin in 2002, the Prix Servant from the French Academy of Sciences in 2005, and is selected to receive the Lars Onsager Prize from the American Physical Society in 2025.