Light, the universe and everything – 12 Herculean tasks for quantum cowboys and black diamond skiers

authored by: Girish Agarwal, Roland E. Allen, Iva Bezděková, Robert W. Boyd, Goong Chen, Ronald Hanson, Dean L. Hawthorne, Philip Hemmer, Moochan B. Kim, Olga Kocharovskaya, David M. Lee, Sebastian K. Lidström, Suzy Lidström, Harald Losert, Helmut Maier, John W. Neuberger, Miles J. Padgett, Mark Raizen, Surjeet Rajendran, Ernst Rasel, Wolfgang P. Schleich, Marlan O. Scully, Gavriil Shchedrin, Gennady Shvets, Alexei Sokolov, Anatoly Svidzinsky, Ronald L. Walsworth, Rainer Weiss, Frank Wilczek, Alan E. Willner, Eli Yablonovich, Nikolay Zheludev
Abstract: The Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics (PQE) has been a seminal force in quantum optics and related areas since 1971. It is rather mind-boggling to recognize how the concepts presented at these conferences have transformed scientific understanding and human society. In January 2017, the participants of PQE were asked to consider the equally important prospects for the future, and to formulate a set of questions representing some of the greatest aspirations in this broad field. The result is this multi-authored paper, in which many of the world’s leading experts address the following fundamental questions: (1) What is the future of gravitational wave astronomy? (2) Are there new quantum phases of matter away from equilibrium that can be found and exploited–such as the time crystal? (3) Quantum theory in uncharted territory: What can we learn? (4) What are the ultimate limits for laser photon energies? (5) What are the ultimate limits to temporal, spatial and optical resolution? (6) What novel roles will atoms play in technology? (7) What applications lie ahead for nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond? (8) What is the future of quantum coherence, squeezing and entanglement for enhanced super-resolution and sensing? (9) How can we solve (some of) humanity’s biggest problems through new quantum technologies? (10) What new understanding of materials and biological molecules will result from their dynamical characterization with free-electron lasers? (11) What new technologies and fundamental discoveries might quantum optics achieve by the end of this century? (12) What novel topological structures can be created and employed in quantum optics?.
Organisation(s): Institute of Quantum Optics
QUEST-Leibniz Research School
CRC 1227 Designed Quantum States of Matter (DQ-mat)
External Organisation(s): Texas A and M University
Czech Technical University
Technical University Ostrava
University of Ottawa
University of Rochester
University of Glasgow
Texas A and M University at Qatar
Cornell University
University of Strathclyde
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Ulm University
University of North Texas
University of Texas at Austin
University of California at Berkeley
Baylor University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shanghai Jiaotong University
Arizona State University
Stockholm University
University of Southern California
University of Southampton
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Delft University of Technology
Type: Article
Journal: Journal of modern optics
Volume: 65
Pages: 1261-1308
No. of pages: 48
ISSN: 0950-0340
Publication date: 24.04.2018
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1802.06110 (Access: Open)
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/421036/1/1802.06110.pdf (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1080/09500340.2018.1454525 (Access: Closed)

BibTeX

@article{f2856c5d311b4ff5b22a47842bed77a8,
title = "Light, the universe and everything – 12 Herculean tasks for quantum cowboys and black diamond skiers",
abstract = "The Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics (PQE) has been a seminal force in quantum optics and related areas since 1971. It is rather mind-boggling to recognize how the concepts presented at these conferences have transformed scientific understanding and human society. In January 2017, the participants of PQE were asked to consider the equally important prospects for the future, and to formulate a set of questions representing some of the greatest aspirations in this broad field. The result is this multi-authored paper, in which many of the world{\textquoteright}s leading experts address the following fundamental questions: (1) What is the future of gravitational wave astronomy? (2) Are there new quantum phases of matter away from equilibrium that can be found and exploited–such as the time crystal? (3) Quantum theory in uncharted territory: What can we learn? (4) What are the ultimate limits for laser photon energies? (5) What are the ultimate limits to temporal, spatial and optical resolution? (6) What novel roles will atoms play in technology? (7) What applications lie ahead for nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond? (8) What is the future of quantum coherence, squeezing and entanglement for enhanced super-resolution and sensing? (9) How can we solve (some of) humanity{\textquoteright}s biggest problems through new quantum technologies? (10) What new understanding of materials and biological molecules will result from their dynamical characterization with free-electron lasers? (11) What new technologies and fundamental discoveries might quantum optics achieve by the end of this century? (12) What novel topological structures can be created and employed in quantum optics?.",
keywords = "Bayesian, Bekenstein–Hawking, Bose–Einstein condensate, coherence, equivalence principle, fractal quantum carpets, free-electron laser, gravitational waves, imaging, interferometry, isotope separation, Lamb shift, laser, LIGO, lithography, magnetometer, maser, Maxwell{\textquoteright}s demon, metrology, nanostructure, nitrogen-vacancy centres, non-linear, optics, photon, photonics, Quantum, quantum computing, quantum internet, Rayleigh limit, Riemann hypothesis, sensing, solar energy, super-resolution, superradiance, time crystal, topological",
author = "Girish Agarwal and Allen, {Roland E.} and Iva Bezd{\v e}kov{\'a} and Boyd, {Robert W.} and Goong Chen and Ronald Hanson and Hawthorne, {Dean L.} and Philip Hemmer and Kim, {Moochan B.} and Olga Kocharovskaya and Lee, {David M.} and Lidstr{\"o}m, {Sebastian K.} and Suzy Lidstr{\"o}m and Harald Losert and Helmut Maier and Neuberger, {John W.} and Padgett, {Miles J.} and Mark Raizen and Surjeet Rajendran and Ernst Rasel and Schleich, {Wolfgang P.} and Scully, {Marlan O.} and Gavriil Shchedrin and Gennady Shvets and Alexei Sokolov and Anatoly Svidzinsky and Walsworth, {Ronald L.} and Rainer Weiss and Frank Wilczek and Willner, {Alan E.} and Eli Yablonovich and Nikolay Zheludev",
note = "Funding information: SL would like to thank Texas A&M for its hospitality during the completion of this work. SKL is grateful to REA for excellent supervision of his undergraduate project. WS and colleagues acknowledge many fruitful and stimulating discussions with our colleagues in particular, P. C. Abbott, J. Ankerhold, G. Agarwal, P. M. Alsing, J. S. Ben-Benjamin, C. Bokas, C. Feiler, D. M. Greenberger, M. Knobl, D. Lebiedz, H. Montgomery, G. Nunes Jr., H. Paul, S. T. Stenholm, S. Varro, M. S. Zubairy and J. Zuber. IB is grateful for the financial support from the Grant Agency of the Czech Technical University in Prague, grant number SGS16/241/OHK4/3T/14. HL is grateful for the financial support by the German Science Foundation (DFG) within SFB/TRR21. DML and DLH thank the U.S. National Science Foundation for support over the years including most recently NSF grant DMR 1,707,565. WPS is grateful to the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University for a Faculty Fellowship and to Texas A&M University AgriLife Research for its support. G. Chen is grateful to Qatar National Research Fund Grant # NPRP 8-028-1-001 for partial financial support. OK thanks the NFS for financial support under NSF grant numbers. PHY-1307346 and PHY-1506467. AS is grateful to the Welch Foundation and the NSF for support. ER acknowledges the German Space Agency (DLR) for funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) from the German Bundestag under grant number DLR 50WM1131–1137 as well as support from DFG through the CRCs geo-Q and dq-mat, and FPM and QUANOMET. The Office of Naval Research (Award No. N00014-16-1-3054) and the Robert A. Welch Foundation (Award A-1261) are kindly acknowledged by MS and AS.",
year = "2018",
month = apr,
day = "24",
doi = "10.48550/arXiv.1802.06110",
language = "English",
volume = "65",
pages = "1261--1308",
journal = "Journal of modern optics",
issn = "0950-0340",
publisher = "Taylor and Francis Ltd.",
number = "11",
}