During the QuCoM project (2024/25 and 2025/26), the experimental teams at the University of Southampton and Leiden University held regular monthly coordination meetings, taking place on the first Wednesday of each month at 10:00 am UK time. These meetings provided an important platform for continuous exchange on the progress of gravity sensing experiments at both institutions. Discussions covered the development and operation of cryogenic systems, implementation of Meissner traps, and techniques for detecting the motion of levitated particles. A major focus was the challenge of particle loading while avoiding trapped magnetic flux in the type-I superconducting traps, for which several loading concepts and mitigation strategies were explored collaboratively. The teams also coordinated different experimental approaches for the planned two-mass gravity experiments, including source-mass modulation inside cryogenic environments, low-temperature actuation methods, conditioning of the probe mass, optimisation of mechanical modes, and suitable interaction distances. Although both groups pursued complementary experimental strategies, the work remained closely coordinated through continuous discussion of technical improvements, encountered issues, and possible solutions. The meetings further included exchanges on vibration-isolation strategies, sharing of preliminary data and experimental results, and joint brainstorming sessions to address challenges in the setups. This close collaboration significantly accelerated experimental progress and strengthened the coherence of the overall QuCoM gravity-sensing effort.
Hotel Marcora - San Vito di Cadore, IT
23/7/2025 - 25/7/2025
The third edition of workshop will gather young researchers working on topics at the interface between gravity and quantum mechanics. The topics will range from models describing non-standard coupling between gravity and matter, to recent proposals of experimental setups for studying the nature of gravity via table-top experiments. PhD students and PostDocs will be given the opportunity to present their research activity and interact with their colleagues, and share motivations, techniques and perspectives, in a friendly and informal environment. A great amount of time will be dedicated to discussions and perspectives.
All the information about the conference can be found at https://www.qmts.it/conferences/a-look-at-the-interface-between-gravity-and-quantum-theory-2025-edition/
University of Trieste, IT
17/6/2025 - 19/6/2025
Fifth school on quantum foundations dedicated to Prof. GianCarlo Ghirardi.
Quantum mechanics is extremely successful in predicting experimental results and has a vast range of applications. Nonetheless, many unanswered questions remain. The school will introduce Master and PhD students to the still outstanding problems in our understanding of quantum foundations.
To give a deep look into the foundations of quantum mechanics, lectures will be given by experts in the field. An extensive time will be dedicated to selected contributed talks.
All the information about the conference can be found at https://www.qmts.it/conferences/fpqp2025/
In the morning of the 6th of September 2024, a QuCoM Steering Committee took place among the PIs of QuCoM partner organization to discuss the development of upcoming deliverables and milestones. The participants also discussed the outcomes of the dissemination strategy and adjustment of the collection of information. The overall evaluation of scientific progresses is positive while the management continues to work smoothly.
In the afternoon of the 6th and in the morning of the 7th of May, the Workshop “QuCoM meeting in Palermo” took place with 10 scientific talks. The schedule of the meeting is below.
Tuesday, 6th May 2025: (seminar room F of the Department)
10:00 am Steering Committee meeting (only members of the Committee required. Attendance in person & remote) – first part
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 13:00 Steering Committee meeting (only members of the Committee required. Attendance in person & remote) – second part
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
Tuesday, 6th May 2025: (Lecture room D6, 2nd floor of the Department)
14:15 am Start of workshop, welcome (all attendees)
14:30 – 15:10 Quantum metrology of G with levitodynamics; Francis Headley (Tübingen)
15:15 – 16:00 State preparation of nano-mechanical resonators; Jakub Wardak (Southampton)
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break16:30 – 17:15 TBA; Matteo Carlesso (Trieste)
17:15 – 18:00 TBA; Qiongyuan Wu (Kings College London & Belfast)
18:00 – 18:45 TBA; Rafael Mufato Reis (Rio de Janeiro & Southampton)
Wednesday, 7th May 2025: (seminar room F of the Department)
09:00 – 09:45 Hybrid Classical-Quantum Newtonian Gravity with stable vacuum; Nicolò Piccione (Trieste)
09:45 – 10:30 Coherent macroscopic mechanical states generation by post-selective photocounting; Matteo Bordin (Belfast & Palermo)
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 – 11:30 Cryogenic magnetic levitation for gravity at small scales; Dennis Uitenbroek (Leiden)
11:30 – 12:15 Non-equilibrium thermodynamics of gravitational objective-collapse models; Gabriele Lo Monaco (Palermo)
12:15 – 13:00 Measuring decoherence due to quantum vacuum fluctuations; Anirudh Gundhi (Trieste)
13:00 – End of meeting & lunch
In the afternoon of the 6th and in the morning of the 7th of May, the Workshop “QuCoM meeting in Palermo” took place with 10 scientific talks. The schedule of the meeting is below.
Tuesday, 6th May 2025: (seminar room F of the Department)
10:00 am Steering Committee meeting (only members of the Committee required. Attendance in person & remote) – first part
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 13:00 Steering Committee meeting (only members of the Committee required. Attendance in person & remote) – second part
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
Tuesday, 6th May 2025: (Lecture room D6, 2nd floor of the Department)
14:15 am Start of workshop, welcome (all attendees)
14:30 – 15:10 Quantum metrology of G with levitodynamics; Francis Headley (Tübingen)
15:15 – 16:00 State preparation of nano-mechanical resonators; Jakub Wardak (Southampton)
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break16:30 – 17:15 TBA; Matteo Carlesso (Trieste)
17:15 – 18:00 TBA; Qiongyuan Wu (Kings College London & Belfast)
18:00 – 18:45 TBA; Rafael Mufato Reis (Rio de Janeiro & Southampton)
Wednesday, 7th May 2025: (seminar room F of the Department)
09:00 – 09:45 Hybrid Classical-Quantum Newtonian Gravity with stable vacuum; Nicolò Piccione (Trieste)
09:45 – 10:30 Coherent macroscopic mechanical states generation by post-selective photocounting; Matteo Bordin (Belfast & Palermo)
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 – 11:30 Cryogenic magnetic levitation for gravity at small scales; Dennis Uitenbroek (Leiden)
11:30 – 12:15 Non-equilibrium thermodynamics of gravitational objective-collapse models; Gabriele Lo Monaco (Palermo)
12:15 – 13:00 Measuring decoherence due to quantum vacuum fluctuations; Anirudh Gundhi (Trieste)
13:00 – End of meeting & lunch
On 10th September 2024, a QuCoM Steering Committee took place among the PIs of QuCoM partner organization to discuss the development of upcoming deliverables and milestones. The participants also discussed the outcomes of the dissemination strategy and adjustment of the collection of information. The partners viewed the project video that was created by the group of the University of Southampton and published in late May 2024. The partners discussed the possibility to meet in person in the spring 2025 to discuss project progresses and results in view of the project end in September 2025. The overall evaluation of scientific progresses is positive while the management continues to work smoothly.
University of Trieste, IT
10/9/2024 - 12/7/2024
Fourth school on quantum foundations dedicated to Prof. GianCarlo Ghirardi.
Quantum Mechanic is extremely successful in predicting experimental results and has a vast range of applications. Nonetheless, many unanswered questions remain. The school will introduce Master and PhD students to the still outstanding problems in our understanding of quantum foundations.
To give a deep look into the foundations of quantum mechanics, lectures will be given by experts in the field. An extensive time will be dedicated to selected contributed talks.
All the information about the conference can be found at https://www.qmts.it/conferences/fpqp2024/
Hotel Marcora - San Vito di Cadore, IT
02/7/2024 - 04/7/2024
The workshop will gather young researchers working on topics at the interface between gravity and quantum mechanics. The topics will range from models describing non-standard coupling between gravity and matter, to recent proposals of experimental setups for studying the nature of gravity via table-top experiments. PhD students and PostDocs will be given the opportunity to present their research activity and interact with their colleagues, and share motivations, techniques and perspectives, in a friendly and informal environment. A great amount of time will be dedicated to discussions and perspectives.
All the information about the conference can be found at https://www.qmts.it/conferences/a-look-at-the-interface-between-gravity-and-quantum-theory-2024-edition/
University of Trieste, IT
10/5/2024
A century after its birth, quantum mechanics continues to collect extraordinary successes. Nevertheless, there are still open problems at its FOUNDATIONS. Specifically, the quantum measurement problem, exemplified by the famous Schrödinger cat paradox, poses several questions still lacking an answer. Why a cat cannot be prepared in a quantum superposition? What is the real meaning of the wavefunction? How one can interpret or modify the quantum theory to solve the MEASUREMENT problem?
This workshop wants to give a glimpse into some of the open questions in the foundations of quantum mechanics from different perspectives. We will tackle the ontology of the wavefunction, the quantum measurement problem, the spontaneous collapse models, the Bohm mechanics and the many world interpretation of quantum mechanics.
The workshop is limited in the number of attendee. If you are interested to attend, please consider registering as soon as possible. Please register here: https://www.qmts.it/conferences/as-for-the-cat-models-and-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics/
The deadline for the registration is the 26th of April.
Online
4/10/2022 - 26/9/2022
QuCoM experimentalists continue to hold regular online meetings every second Tuesday of every month. At both experiment sites, Leiden and Southampton, there are setups which are used to detect gravity with levitated masses. These experiments are cryogenic and involved advanced vibration isolation techniques.
Leiden labs are using tantalum superconductors and asymmetric shaped particles to preferentially detect selected oscillation modes, while Southampton is using lead traps and mostly spherical particles. Experimentalists have also been discussing techniques and protocols to acquire data of the motion of levitated particles for highly sensitive force and acceleration detection as well as manipulation techniques to prepare selected states of motion, such as squeezed and cooled thermal states. The intermediate goal is to achieve thermal noise limited motional modes at the temperature of the cryogenic environment.
Presently, most modes are still driven and therefore heated by vibrations coupling into the particle motion. The best results have been achieved with a passive cryogenic system to be close to the thermal noise limit at 300 mK at Southampton. Therefore, vibration isolation strategies are discussed, and knowledge is shared for inverted pendulum GAS filters and other spring-mass type vibration isolation approaches. Leiden University has the most advanced setup on vibration isolation while using a pulsed tube cooled cryostat. A creative idea is to use a liquid-based vibration damper for future improved isolation at low frequencies.
The QuCoM team is also, with occasional participation from theorists across the project team, discussing different ideas for setting up gravity experiments with the source mass implemented inside the cryostat, which will allow to reduce the size of the source mass significantly and likely below the current smallest mass gravity measurement achieved. The main idea is still to use close to resonance excitation of the source mass to enhance detection sensitive and use some sort of mass modulation of the source mass inside the cryostat. Rotation based platforms as well as linear modulation systems are under consideration.
University of Trieste, IT
13/9/2023 - 15/7/2023
Third school on quantum foundations dedicated to Prof. GianCarlo Ghirardi.
Quantum Mechanic is extremely successful in predicting experimental results and has a vast range of applications. Nonetheless, many unanswered questions remain. The school will introduce Master and PhD students to the still outstanding problems in our understanding of quantum foundations.
To give a deep look into the foundations of quantum mechanics, lectures will be given by experts in the field. An extensive time will be dedicated to selected contributed talks.
All the information about the conference can be found at http://www.qmts.it/?q=fpqp2023
