Three researchers from Leiden University have received awards in the Quantum Technology programme within the National Growth Fund, organised by NWO in collaboration with Quantum Delta NL. Read more about these three futuristic projects.

The elementary excitations of magnets are called spin waves, and their corresponding quasi-particles are known as magnons. The rapidly growing field of Magnonics aims at using them as information carriers in a new generation of electronic devices, (almost) free of electric currents.

‘We hope our paper highlights the possibilities and benefits of including artificial intelligence in quantum physics to do new discoveries.’ Vedran Dunjko of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science contributed to a paper that was published in PNAS last year and now received a Cozzarelli Prize…

The main topic of this PhD thesis is the Arakelov ray class group of a number field, an algebraic object that contains both the ideal class group structure and the unit group structure.

The first larger quantum computers will soon be available. These computers need new software. Researchers at Leiden University have been awarded a Gravitation grant to develop the necessary software. They will be collaborating with colleagues from other research institutions.

Physicists understand little about quantum matter, which is a building block of future quantum computers. Theorists have now discovered that black holes with ‘dreadlocks’ harbor a similarly exotic order pattern, which makes calculations on quantum matter easier. Publication in Physical Review Letter…

Astronomer Koen Kuijken and physicist Tjerk Oosterkamp have each been awarded a major subsidy by NWO. The funding will allow them to construct new research facilities.

Over the past two years, the Physics department has been supporting high school physics education with a set of challenging quantum experiments. School classes can visit Leiden University to learn about quantum mechanics, in preparation for their final exams. As of early 2018, this lab has evolved into…

Understanding interactions in quantum many-body systems remains one of the most profound and difficult challenges in condensed matter physics.

Most of current public-key cryptography is considered insecure against attacks from sufficiently powerful quantum computers. Post-quantum cryptography studies methods to secure information resistant against such attacks. One proposal is isogeny-based cryptography, which bases its security on computational…

An international collaboration, including Leiden physicist and computer scientist Vedran Dunjko, showed that quantum technology can speed-up the learning process of artificial intelligence (AI). To prove this, the physicists and computer scientists used a quantum processor for single photons. Their…

Quantum Delta NL, a research programme in which Leiden University participates, has been awarded 615 million euros from the National Growth Fund to help develop the Netherlands into a top player in quantum technology. This has been announced at the presentation of the honoured proposals in The Hague…

This thesis is a collection of experimental attempts to enhance photoluminescence of fluorescent molecules and quantum dots with single gold nanorods (GNRs) and relevant applications.

Leiden University organizes a course on quantum mechanics for high school Physics teachers. As the curriculum gains a new quantum component, the university enables teachers to give the best possible guidance to their students.

The most famous cat in science is Schrödinger's cat, the quantum mechanical mammal, which can exist in a superposition, a state that is alive as well as dead. The moment you look at it, one of both options is chosen. Leiden University physicists simulated an experiment to catch this mysterious moment…

Telling sensationalised stories, exaggerating benefits and understating the risks: creating ‘hype’ about something doesn't sound like something a responsible scientist would indulge in. Or could we also use hype in a ‘good way'? What could we achieve by opening up quantum futures for wider discussions,…

American physicist and quantum computing pioneer Seth Lloyd is the 65th Lorentz professor. He will deliver the Ehrenfest lecture on 5 June, and several more lectures on quantum computing on 11, 18 and 25 June.

Rare-earth materials are prime candidates for storing quantum information, because the undesirable interaction with their environment is extremely weak. Consequently however, this lack of interaction implies a very small response to light, making it hard to read and write data. Leiden physicists have…

In this thesis, classes of strongly interacting quantum field theories, have been studied.

The worldwide race to the quantum computer is in full swing. This computer can bring about a breakthrough in discovering medicines and new materials. Leiden researchers, together with the TU Delft, are taking part in the race. There is now a dossier online about their work.

In a recent Physics World podcast, PhD candidate Felix Frohnert from Leiden University explains how his team uncovered hidden connections in scientific literature by using machine learning routines. With this information, it’s possible to predict promising new research ideas in quantum physics. Listen…

Koen Bastiaans and his colleagues discovered a new quantum liquid unlike anything ever seen. They did it by using a technique that can be compared to listening to the sound of raindrops falling on a roof. Publication in Science 29 October.

Are Weyl particles the ideal conductors? Do cells without a cell wall play a role in chronic Tuberculosis infections? Carlo Beenakker and Dennis Claessen want to answer these questions. They both received a KLEIN grant from the NWO. With these grants, NWO wants to stimulate innovative, fundamental r…

To mark the university’s 450th anniversary, the Leiden Discoveries science route has been updated and was relaunched on the Night of Discoveries. New signs in town and a revamped website tell Leiden residents and visitors the stories of the city’s spectacular discoveries.

Minister Wiersma heeft circa vijftien informatieverzoeken, over de hoeveelheid vee en de locaties van stallen van veehouders stilgelegd. Universitair hoofddocent Staats- en bestuursrecht, Annemarie Drahmann, stelt in het NRC dat de wet verplicht dat dergelijke milieugegevens openbaar moeten worden g…

Promotores: Prof.dr. D. Bouwmeester, Prof.dr. A. Fiore (TU Eindhoven)

Promotor: Prof.dr. E. R. Eliel, Co-Promotor: M.J.A. de Dood

In unconventional high temperature superconductors, supercurrent vortices are known to spoil the Landau levels. In this thesis the emergence of Landau levels is studied in different types of superconductors: Weyl superconductors, and the Fu-Kane heterostructure.

Materials with strongly correlated electrons show some of the most mysterious and exotic phases of quantum matter, such as unconventional superconductivity, quantum criticality and strange metal phase.

The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics states that a measurement collapses a wavefunction onto an eigenstate of the corresponding measurement operator.

Atoms and molecules are the basic units of matter. If we keep dividing a bar of gold or a glass of water into smaller parts, at the end we are left with a single gold atom or a water molecule.

In some condensed matter systems, such as the surface of a 3D topological insulator, the electrons are effectively massless and we must necessarily use the massless Dirac equation to describe them.

This thesis studies the geometry of representation varieties and character stacks. These are spaces parametrizing the representations of a finitely generated group, typically the fundamental group of a compact manifold, into an algebraic group G.

Prof. Dr. Richard Gill has recently joined as a member of the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi). FQXi is an international association of scientists who explore the foundations of physics and cosmology.

In the spirit of 'unity in diversity', our objective is to promote insight into and appreciation for the wonder that the same physical laws and mathematical concepts apply to the whole of nature, from the largest to the smallest energy and length scales. We strive for the application of abstract theoretical…

One of the most important correlation functions in physics, especially in cosmology, is the energy density, which describes how much energy is present at each point in spacetime due to matter fields. A key contribution to the energy density of the primordial universe comes from gravitational waves (GWs),…

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Leer meer over de Educatieve Master Primair Onderwijs tijdens de Online Master's Open Dag van de Universiteit Leiden.