@article{Bassi2026,

title = {Quantum foundations for quantum technologies in the International Year of Quantum (2025)},

author = {A Bassi},

doi = {10.1088/2058-9565/ae49bc},

issn = {2058-9565},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-06-01},

journal = {Quantum Sci. Technol.},

volume = {11},

number = {2},

publisher = {IOP Publishing},

abstract = {Abstract

                  From the very beginning, quantum mechanics has been accompanied by crucial foundational questions: the possibility of visualizing physical processes, the limits of measurement epitomized by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the existence of a deeper underlying reality with additional degrees of freedom, the role of measurements, and the status of locality. Long regarded as philosophical speculations, these issues were progressively reformulated into precise mathematical statements and ultimately subjected to experimental verification. The trajectory proved unpredictable: questions once dismissed as metaphysical gave rise to experimental platforms, which in turn matured into devices and technologies powering quantum computation, communication, and sensing. Yet this development is not unidirectional: advances in technology also feed back into foundations, enabling tests of principles that were previously out of reach—for example, whether quantum superposition persists at larger and larger scales and whether reality, gravity included, is fundamentally quantum. In this way, the dialogue between foundational inquiry and technological progress continues to shape both our theoretical understanding and the practical realization of quantum phenomena.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Wilson2025,

title = {Oligonucleotide Selective Detection by Levitated Optomechanics},

author = {Timothy Wilson and Owen J. L. Rackham and Hendrik Ulbricht},

doi = {10.1021/acsnanoscienceau.5c00128},

issn = {2694-2496},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-02-18},

journal = {ACS Nanosci. Au},

volume = {6},

number = {1},

pages = {28--34},

publisher = {American Chemical Society (ACS)},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Pi2025,

title = {Levitation and controlled MHz rotation of a nanofabricated rod by a high-NA metalens},

author = {Hailong Pi and Chuang Sun and Kian Shen Kiang and Tiberius Georgescu and Bruce Jun-Yu Ou and Hendrik Ulbricht and Jize Yan},

doi = {10.1038/s41378-025-00886-7},

issn = {2055-7434},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-12-00},

journal = {Microsyst Nanoeng},

volume = {11},

number = {1},

publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},

abstract = {Abstract

          An optically levitated nanoparticle in a vacuum provides an ideal platform for ultra-precision measurements and fundamental physics studies because of the exceptionally high-quality factor and rich motion modes, which can be engineered by manipulating the optical field and the geometry of the nanoparticle. Nanofabrication technology with the ability to create arbitrary nanostructure arrays offers a precise way of engineering the optical field and the geometry of the nanoparticle. Here, for the first time, we optically levitate and rotate a nanofabricated nanorod via a nanofabricated a-Si metalens which strongly focuses a 1550 nm laser beam with a numerical aperture of 0.953. By manipulating the laser beam’s polarization, the levitated nanorod’s translation frequencies can be tuned, and the spin rotation mode can be switched on and off. Then, we showed the control of rotational frequency by changing the laser beam’s intensity and polarization as well as the air pressure. Finally, a MHz spin rotation frequency of the nanorod is achieved in the experiment. This is the first demonstration of controlled optical spin in a metalens-based compact optical levitation system. Our research holds promise for realizing scalable on-chip integrated optical levitation systems.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Piccione2025d,

title = {Hybrid classical-quantum Newtonian gravity with stable vacuum},

author = {Nicolò Piccione and Angelo Bassi},

doi = {10.1088/1361-6382/ae1540},

issn = {1361-6382},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-11-21},

journal = {Class. Quantum Grav.},

volume = {42},

number = {22},

publisher = {IOP Publishing},

abstract = {Abstract

                  We investigate the gravitational Poissonian spontaneous localization (GPSL) model, a hybrid classical-quantum model in which classical Newtonian gravity emerges from stochastic collapses of the mass density operator, and consistently couples to quantum matter. Unlike models based on continuous weak measurement schemes, we show that GPSL ensures vacuum stability; this, together with its applicability to identical particles and fields, makes it a promising candidate for a relativistic generalization. We analyze the model’s general properties, and compare its predictions with those based on continuous weak measurement schemes. Notably, here the gravitational feedback enters entirely through the non-Hermitian jump operators, without modifying the unitary part of the dynamics. We show that this leads to a short-range gravitational back-reaction and permits decoherence rates below those of any model based on continuous weak measurement schemes. We provide explicit examples, including the dynamics of a single particle and a rigid sphere, to illustrate the distinctive phenomenology of the model. Finally, we discuss the experimental testability of GPSL, highlighting both interferometric and non-interferometric strategies to constrain its parameters and distinguish it from competing models.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}