COHERENCE · Cooperativity in Highly Excited Rydberg Ensembles - Control and Entanglement

Cooperativity in Highly Excited Rydberg Ensembles - Control and Entanglement

The European Marie Curie ITN “Cooperativity in Highly Excited Rydberg Ensembles — Control and Entanglement (COHERENCE)” was devoted to the creation and manipulation of Rydberg atoms and their applications in fundamental science and technology. The field of Rydberg gases is at the crossroads between various scientific areas, including condensed matter physics, biophysics, molecular physics, quantum optics and quantum information, surface science, plasma physics, and laser technology. As perspective applications of Rydberg systems are already in sight, two optics and laser development companies have joined the network delivering technological expertise and in-depth training in business matters. The network funded 17 early stage researcher positions (ESR) and 3 experienced researcher positions (ER). It involves 20 research institutes and industrial partners located in 9 European countries and the USA. In the four years of the project, the network has already significantly shaped the international community in this rapidly growing field of research. Success of COHERENCE has also inspired the FET Proactive network “Rydberg Quantum Simulators” funded within the framework of the Horizon 2020 program. The network brought together established and young research leaders plus two laser and optics companies to address the following Central Objectives: I. Extend European capacities in atomic, molecular and optical (AMO) physics and quantum information science. II. Strengthen and stimulate interactions between the fields of AMO, condensed matter, molecular, and surface physics, quantum information processing, ultra-cold chemistry, and laser development by exploiting the interdisciplinary character of “COHERENCE”. III. Deliver in-depth scientific and technological training to ESRs based on international Thesis Advisory Boards (TABs) together with network-wide training activities. IV. Strengthen the interface between fundamental research and industry and enhance the competitiveness of Europe’s high-technology industry. The training objective of the “COHERENCE” network was the development of highly qualified human potential with specific competencies in basic research and the capability to grow as team leaders in academia, R&D leaders in industry, and eventually leaders of future knowledge-based businesses. The training covered the development of both scientific and complimentary skills. In the spirit of an individually structured training programme for each ESR, the ITN has implemented a 3-tiered training structure: Training Tier 1: local training provided by the host institution and local graduate programmes Training Tier 2: secondary individual training provided by international Thesis Advisory Boards (TABs) plus short and long-term secondments. Training Tier 3: network-wide training provided by schools, conferences and workshops, partly organized by the students (YEAs). All elements of this 3-tiered training structure have been successfully implemented. The Training program has been successful completed; all five main training events as well as seven additional training events have been implemented. During the final COHERENCE conference the COHERENCE fellows presented their achievements to an international audience of leading research group leaders. Dissemination activities: - The scientific advances have been discussed with the broader scientific community at the conferences – in particular during workshops in Gif-sur-Yvette (July 2012), Dresden (July 2013), Granada (September 2014) and especially during final COHERENCE conference (Durham, June/July 2015). - The research activities of the network members including ESRs have been published in 116 articles in high-impact journals. - The annual highlights report gives a summary over the achieved results and is published on the network webpage, updated yearly. - The popular science web site presents the research in a way that is accessible to the public without requiring detailed scientific knowledge. These contributions are to be written by young researchers (ESRs, ERs). - A special dissemination event was the "Long-Night of Sciences", presented during the YEA-Meeting in Dresden 2013. The COHERENCE fellows prepared a presentation for this event which took place in different German cities where scientific institutions held lectures and demonstrations for a general, non-expert audience in order to present themselves and an overview of their research topics. These tasks were accomplished by COHERENCE Young fellows. - Another outreach action of the network activities will be a special journal issue in the European Physical Journal - Special Topics with the results of COHERENCE activities. The contribution will consist of a series of mini-reviews based upon the thesis results of the COHERENCE PhD students (being written by them). The Submission Deadline is set to December 31, 2015. Further information is available via http://coherence.physi.uni-heidelberg.de/ Contact: Prof. Dr. Matthias Weidemüller, Institute of Physics, University of Heidelberg (Germany) http://www.physi.uni-heidelberg.de/Forschung/QD/index.php?show=home

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