Asa Skuladottir - RTDa Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - 1a classificata
4DWARFS: 4MOST survey of dwarf galaxies and their stellar streams
The Milky Way is an environment rich with satellite galaxies, stellar streams and accreted systems, tracing galaxy evolution and chemical enrichment throughout cosmic time. The 4DWARFS project led by Dr. Ása Skúladóttir aims to take advantage of the new instrument 4MOST, on the 4m VISTA telescope in the Paranal Observatory in Chile, to study dozens of nearby dwarf galaxies and their stellar streams. The 5-year 4DWARFS survey will provide stellar ages, radial velocities and chemical abundances for 130,000 stars, and will thus increase the number of stars in dwarf galaxies and streams with detailed abundance information by several orders of magnitude, ensuring the far- reaching impact of this survey. This revolutionary new data will be used to further our understanding of the first stars in the Universe, the origin of the chemical elements, the structure of dark matter and hierarchical galaxy evolution. 4DWARFS will thus enable us to paint a comprehensive picture of the formation and evolution of the Milky Way, from cosmic dawn until the present day.
Leonardo Salvi - RTDa Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - 3o classificato
NanoAtom – A Quantum Link between Levitating Nano-Objects and Ultracold Atoms
Quantum entanglement is nowadays considered as one of the most promising avenues in quantum science and technology. Entangled systems are expected to provide considerable computation and simulation resources as well as enhanced sensing capabilities. Until recently, quantum entanglement has been realized in microscopic systems such as atoms and photons only. NanoAtom aims at exploring long-distance quantum correlations between a cold atomic cloud and a mechanical oscillator formed by a levitating nanosphere. The quantum correlations will be generated through the enhanced light-matter interaction that occurs in a high-quality optical resonator. Thanks to the recent achievement of the quantum ground state of motion for these nanoparticles, exotic collective states of the oscillator and of the atoms will be engineered. The project will therefore allow to study quantum entanglement involving increasingly macroscopic systems at a distance. The light-mediated interaction between the two systems will pave the way for inertial measurements (of forces for example) beyond classical limits. Moreover, the availability of long-lived optically excited states in atoms will be used to map for the first time the short-lived mechanical oscillator state of motion into the atomic state thus storing and accumulating the motional information and allowing for repeated measurements to be performed. The measurement sensitivity will be further enhanced by exploring the interplay between the atom-oscillator coupling and the atom-atom coupling which leads to entangled atomic squeezed states.
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