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ERC Starting Grant for CUI physicist

Dr. Christof Weitenberg from the Institute of Laser Physics at Universität Hamburg will receive an ERC Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) worth € 1.5 million. He will be analyzing exotic particles within the new research project “Engineering and exploring anionic quantum gases”, ANYON in short. Such particles, which are called anyons, can be found in specific systems only and are rarely investigated.

Credit: Studioline Photography

All particles in nature can be split into two categories: they are either fermions or bosons. All particles that build up matter are fermions. They obey the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that two identical fermions cannot occupy the same quantum states at any given time. Bosons, on the contrary, usually stick together and form condensates.

An additional category of particles occurs in two-dimensional systems: the so-called anyons have so far only been predicted for the fractional quantum Hall effect, which is a physical phenomenon which occurs at very high magnetic fields and for very strong interactions. These exotic particles are only rarely investigated.

In the research project “Engineering and exploring anyonic quantum gases” (ANYON), Dr. Christof Weitenberg will analyze these particles by using ultracold quantum gases. “We can simulate the anyons in these systems, analyze them in detail, and thereby open the physics of anyons for experimental research,” says the scientist who works on quantum matter in the group of Prof. Klaus Sengstock at the Institute of Laser Physics. “We hope to gain fundamental knowledge about anyons. In the long run our findings could help to create a quantum computer which would be very resistant to noise.”

ERC Starting Grants are awarded by the European Research Council Researchers to outstanding young researchers with 2-7 years of experience since the completion of their PhD. Dr. Christof Weitenberg studied physics and music in Saarbrücken. He did his doctor’s degree in Mainz and Munich before he worked as a postdoc in Paris. Since 2013, the physicist, who is a member of the cluster of excellence CUI, has been working at Universität Hamburg. The ERC project will be awarded € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years. Text: UHH, Maria Latos (German version), ed.