@quantumaephraim.bsky.social
Quantum physicist and generally curious human. (Physics prof, Univ Toronto; Director, CIFAR programme on Quantum Information Science; New Yorker / Parisian –in-absentia)
Happy 2026, and
hearty Congratulations to Antoine Browaeys, Misha Lukin, and Mark Saffman
on the 9th biennial John Stewart Bell Prize
for their ground-breaking work developing quantum computational technologies relying on tweezer arrays of Rydberg atoms!
cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca/bell-prize/b...
Holiday throwback... our group around the turn of the Millennium, when we were younger and (even) more playful.
CW from upper left, Stefan Myrskog, Jalani Kanem, some kid I don't recognize, Marcelo Martinelli, Ana Jofre, Mirco Siercke, & Samansa Maneshi.
Find me another school whose fundraiser performances include a dramatic recitation of Catullus (in the original, certe) !
Vivat #TheAbelardSchool !
😞
The end of an era.
[Extended 20th century, I guess.]
Tom Stoppard, playwright who dazzled with verbal gymnastics, dies aged 88 - www.reuters.com/world/uk/bri...
I love quantum computing (& quantum information science, even more), don't get me wrong --
but we have to acknowledge how much of the so-called "ecosystem" this captures:
Put in mind of the Infinite Improbability Drive, as I listen to Bárbara Amaral explain over @cqiqc-uoft.bsky.social Quantum Tea how contextuality may power anomalous heat flow…
see journals.aps.org/prxquantum/a... for more on her actual work...
#Contextuality #QuantumThermodynamics
Happy day of Quantum, and congratulations to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, & John Martinis!
There's no stopping it now!
#NobelPrize #SuperconductingQubits #QuantumTunneling
nobelprize.org/prizes/physics…www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025...df
Crazy milestone passed over (I think) in silence – as of last November or so, I have spent over half my life as a professor at the University of Toronto.
[Since as people my age understand, I firmly believe I'm in my early 30s, this implies that I became a professor at around 16.]
Thx, Sylvain -- I do not know and am now thrilled to take a look!
Excited, elated, chuffed, stoked, even!
[But off to prepare & give a lecture first...]
Looking forward to more great things from Josiah! You're lucky to have him.
On the British theme, I'm torn between "dreary" and "bleak."
^* – excuse the Briticism, but I'm running out of synonyms for "excited" in this context, and "thrilled" is too stereotypically LInkedIn/Twitter overhype–ish for my taste. (Our next experiment will be on measuring how long an atom spends in its chuffed state.)
22.09.2025 23:08 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Hopefully the exp't paper will follow its sibling into print shortly, once we remove all the objectionable stuff about what the results actually mean, and deliver "just the facts, ma'am," to mollify our referees, at the risk of putting our readers to sleep+teaching them nothing
22.09.2025 23:08 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Chuffed^* to announce our theory on how long an unabsorbed photon causes atoms to spend in the excited state is out: lnkd.in/gF--eQgV
It extends the dichotomy to a confounding "simple to state, but looks wrong; turns out to be right, but this is difficult to prove."
and
U of T Engineering
is seeking an Assistant Professor in #Photonics #QuantumTechnologies (jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...)
Send us your best, your brightest, your yearning to do #QuantumInCanada!
Please reshare.
We are also seeking an Associate/Full Professor in #QuantumComputing, joint in
Physics and CS
(jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-... –– **closes 18 Sep**!);
In the Department of Physics, we
are seeking an Assistant Professor in theoretical #QuantumOptics (including AMO, applications to Quantum Information, et cetera – jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-... );
U of T is thrilled to celebrate the Year of Quantum by advertising three new faculty positions!
Please spread the word, encourage friends/mentees to apply, or consider applying yourself.
(Links in rest of thread)
#QuantumOptics #QuantumInformation #AMO
@cqiqc-uoft.bsky.social
Nominations for the 2026 #BellPrize are being accepted through September 30th, 2025 – please consider nominating the work from the past 6 yrs which you believe has done the most to advance #Quantum science.
Please RT.
(See cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca/bell-prize/n... .)
@CQIQC_Toronto
But after a colossal vacuum failure, this experiment had been down for just over 12 mths, so seeing any cold atoms here at all is just like bringing 3 of my students (& a part of me) back from the dead.
Congratulations Kyle, Vida, & Andy on the fruit of a very frustrating year!
Lazaro Felice!
Seeing atoms floating in vacuum and glowing bright in the laser beams that suspend them there (while cooling them millions of times below room temp) should always be inspirational, even if it's now routine for AMO physicists & the MOT is nearing its 40th birthday.
Nominate the most innovative work on Fundamental Issues in Quantum Mechanics and their Applications for the 2026 John Stewart Bell Prize!
(Pls rebleep!)
See
cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca/bell-prize/n...
Deadline 30 August 2025.
#QuantumInformation #FoundationsOfQM #BellPrize #QuantumPhysics
Heads-up: we'll be searching this Fall for a tenure-stream faculty member in Theoretical #QuantumOptics (#AMOPhysics #QuantumInformation)
at U of T Physics
@cqiqc-uoft.bsky.social
Official ad out next month – please alert potential strong candidates you may know!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3-5...
(See also Alessandro Fedrizzi & Fabio Biancalana's N&V, www.nature.com/articles/d41... )
02.07.2025 20:30 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Super-fascinating new article out, on the speed of particles in a forbidden region.
For me, it raises more questions than it answers, which is of course my favorite kind of experiment.
Kudos to the authors for a novel approach and technical tour de force!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Meanwhile, let's all keep trying to learn this lesson about understanding in what way every one is right (even when they're wrong).
01.07.2025 19:22 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Finally got around to reading this fascinating article by Amanda Gefter -- kudos on an epic investigation and a gripping story!
Sad but also inspiring.
Thanks for making his writings publicly available - I hope this will lead to new inspirations as well as to restoring his legacy.
Disgusting
Weaponizing the justice department, and research funding, against what the US has left of intellectual institutions.
Against one of the real good guys, at that.
His crime?
Not dismantling efforts in support of equity vigorously enough.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...
Fearing yet more war;
hoping for peace.
May war-mongering leaders be removed, and innocents everywhere be safe. What else is worth saying?
RIP Ray Laflamme, gone too soon.
Ray was a stellar scientist, the founding director of the IQC and of CIFAR's Quantum Information program, but more importantly a warm & generous human who built community and helped many (particularly junior researchers).
May his memory be a blessing.
Krister Shalm in the news again, with a new paper on the Colorado Random Number beacon.
Well, we always did say that getting a paper into Nature was a roll of the dice...
Always exciting to see our group members go on to lead such creative & successful efforts!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
