Some of the most puzzling phenomena in modern physics involve the collective quantum behavior of many interacting particles: from the strange near-perfect flow of the quark-gluon fluid, the emergence of strongly-correlated topological phases of electrons at high magnetic fields, to the structure of neutron stars. Many of this systems are difficult to probe accurately in the lab, and are very hard to simulate with classical computers.
My group uses ultracold atoms trapped with lasers in ultrahigh vacuum as synthetic ‘toy’ systems to deepen our understanding of such complex phases of quantum matter and provide stringent benchmarks to advanced computational quantum physics methods.
When I’m not working, I enjoy reading, going to concerts, hiking, skiing, and scuba diving.