Dr. Tom Manovitz

The group studies quantum systems assembled from individual neutral atoms held in reconfigurable arrays of optical tweezers. By trapping atoms one at a time and exciting them to highly polarizable Rydberg states, the strong, tunable interactions between atoms can be switched on and off and routed across the array, turning a collection of isolated particles into a controllable, strongly correlated quantum system. The aim is to use these platforms both as quantum processors, where atomic qubits carry and entangle information, and as quantum simulators that emulate models of interacting matter too complex to solve on classical computers.

This dual role makes atom arrays a uniquely flexible setting for exploring quantum many-body physics: with single-atom imaging and the ability to rearrange atoms between shots, the group can prepare specific geometries, drive them out of equilibrium, and read out correlations site by site. The work probes questions such as how entanglement spreads, how quantum phases and their transitions emerge, and how errors can be detected and corrected, while developing the control techniques that bring large, high-fidelity atomic systems within reach. Progress here advances both the practical pursuit of scalable quantum computation and the basic understanding of how collective quantum behavior arises from many interacting constituents.