The workshop will gather young researchers working in topics at the interface between gravity and quantum mechanics. PhD students and PostDocs will be given the opportunity to present their research activity and interact with their colleagues, share motivations, techniques and perspectives, in a friendly and informal environment. A great amount of time will be dedicated to discussions and perspectives. The workshop is limited to a small number of attendee. If you are interested to attend, please consider registering as soon as possible. If your schedule changes and you are not able to attend after having registered, please let us know as soon as possible.

All the information about the conference can be found at qmts.it/?q=gravity-quantum/2023

PIs and team member of the QuCoM project, 17 participants in total, have met in person for a 2-day scientific meeting to update on progress and to define next steps and new collaborations to achieve the objectives of the QuCoM project. The Steering Committee has also met to discuss preparation for the end of the reporting period. Moreover, the host Leiden University organized a lab tour for the participants who had opportunity to have informal discussions in small groups. Experimentalist had a structured meeting for internal updates.

In light of the kicking off of the QuCoM activities in Trieste, Dr. Matteo Carlesso has been invited to deliver a serie of seminars on optomechanics applied to fundamental tests of Quantum Mechanics to the Trieste group. Part of the tasks of the group are to devise novel experimental schemes for exploring the quantum-gravity interplay and  for testing alternative models which try to combine the two theories. Optomechanics, at the core of QuCoM, is among the most promising platforms for such tests

Partners have met on October 14, 2022 for the kick off meeting of the project. Local PIs and teams members were present. The meeting was chaired by Angelo Bassi, PI of QuCoM, who has given a presentation on general facts of the project, work plan, main objectives, structure of the management team, deliverables, milestones, effort, risks, plan for reviews. Hendrik Ulbricht (Southampton) has presented the experimental work to be done while Mauro Paternostro (Queen’s Belfast) has given an overview of the theoretical work to be done. Followed a scientific discussion on the presentations and a Steering Committee Meeting.

The experimental partners of the QuCoM project have been meeting on a regular basis every second Tuesday of the month since the beginning of the project to update on developments of performing magnetic levitation experiments (materials, dimensions, magnetic shielding), design of two-mass gravity experiments, vibration isolation, data acquisition and analysis (electronics, lock-ins), tabulation of trapping parameters to compare different experiments. The agendas of the meetings were roughly as follows: 10:00 Update on ULEI experiments 10:30 Update on UoS experiments 11:00 General discussion about next steps and ideas