Fans of Fermilab know that our scientists are experts in the weird realm of quantum physics. For decades, they’ve studied a world that operates on mind-bending principles such as quantum superposition (famously illustrated by Schrödinger’s cat), quantum entanglement (spooky action at a distance!) and quantum of solace (just checking that you’re paying attention).
In recent years, they’ve been harnessing the strange properties of the quantum world to develop game-changing technologies in quantum computing, quantum sensors and quantum communication.
Learn more about the burgeoning field of quantum information science and Fermilab’s contributions by browsing the offerings below. Find out how this research advances our understanding of the universe’s subatomic structure and how this knowledge supports new developments in quantum technology.
Enjoy!
The quantum landscape
Fermilab Quantum Institute
Find out how Fermilab is tackling the challenges of quantum science and technology.
The future of quantum information science
Fermilab Deputy Director of Research Joe Lykken discusses the future of quantum computing and sensing, including the role institutions such as Fermilab will play.
Quantum physics playlist
What is quantum entanglement? Loop quantum gravity? Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln has you covered with these quantum-themed videos.
Fermilab Summer Science Series
Sign up for Fermilab’s free Summer Science Series, online lectures followed by a question and answer session with the presenter and Fermilab staff. It covers a wide variety of topics, including quantum science on Aug. 23, 2020.
Quantum science and particle accelerator technology
Particle accelerator technology could solve one of the most vexing problems in building quantum computers
Researchers are working to determine whether devices used in particle accelerators can help maintain longer qubit lifetimes.
Quantum progress
Fermilab scientists are adapting the lab’s cutting-edge accelerator technology for qubits and quantum sensors.
Quantum computing and engineering
A leap in particle simulation
A Fermilab group finds a way to simulate, using a quantum computer, a class of particles that had resisted typical computing methods.
Worldwide experts gather at Fermilab for first international workshop on cryogenic electronics for quantum systems
Fermilab cryoelectronics experts and leaders in quantum technologies take on the challenges of designing computer processors and sensors that work at ultracold temperatures.
Community and software applications on display at Fermilab quantum science workshop
Representatives from industry join physicists to present software and share ideas about the future of quantum science and technology.
Quantum science and the dark sector
Fermilab scientists to look for dark matter using quantum technology
Their efforts apply research from multiple disciplines to hunt for dark matter – in particular, the much sought-after axion.
Quantum and accelerator science enable mysterious dark sector searches at Fermilab
Fermilab technology developed for particle accelerators offers a valuable opportunity to search for a hypothesized particle that would resemble a particle of light.
MAGIS-100: Atoms in free fall to probe dark matter, gravity and quantum science
A collaboration led by Fermilab and Stanford University combines their expertise in quantum science and accelerator technologies to build the world’s largest atom interferometer.
Fermilab’s quantum science program is supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science.
Fermilab is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.
Physics poster sessions: a heady mix of science, networking and robots. That last one isn’t so common at in-person science conferences, but it was a regular sight at the recently concluded Neutrino 2020 conference, where virtual reality poster sessions hosted thousands of robotic avatars belonging to particle physicists from around the world. While most walked through the virtual world as a robot in vaguely human clothing, others donned panda suits, uploaded custom skins with gigantic human heads or particle tracks or – in one case – turned themselves into a jar of Jif peanut butter.
“It’s both more weird and more fun than I expected,” said Diana Parno, a physicist at Carnegie Mellon University who presented in one of the virtual poster sessions. “And one of the nice things about poster sessions is meeting with new people and colleagues, and making introductions – and we’ve still been able to do that.”
The 29th International Conference on Neutrino Physics is the largest gathering of neutrino scientists in the world. This year the conference was hosted jointly by the Department of Energy’s Fermilab and the University of Minnesota and, for the first time, held entirely online. The change brought many advantages to the conference. Notably, more than 3,400 people from 67 countries and covering all seven continents tuned in to the 79 talks – more than four times the typical number of attendees. (Almost half of attendees were early in their career, identifying as undergraduate or graduate students.) Instead of full days of talks, half-days were spread over two weeks, allowing greater involvement from participants in different time zones. Going virtual also meant some individuals with monetary restrictions, travel restrictions, or obligations at home or work could participate.
All who enter are interested in neutrinos. Image: Lauren Biron
“What we really wanted from this platform is a way for people to interact with others as if they were in person,” said Marco Del Tutto, a Fermilab physicist who created the virtual poster sessions using open source software from Mozilla Hubs. “It’s hard to tell if this is going to work until you try. It made me proud when I went into a poster session and saw people explaining their poster to a crowd, or walking through a room and running into people.”
Over the course of four sessions, presenters showed off 532 posters on display in 30 different virtual reality rooms. (A standard list of posters and short videos from the presenters were also available on a webpage). While in-person posters are typically set up in one concentrated area, spreading the posters across virtual rooms gave avatars more space – and reduced the amount of bandwidth to run each interactive area. It also gave Del Tutto a chance to add a neutrino twist. Four different styles of room represented four different sources of neutrinos: Fermilab’s iconic bison and Wilson Hall were the backdrop for accelerator neutrinos, a nuclear power plant represented reactor neutrinos, an enormous sun hung low in the sky for solar neutrinos and an exploding star overhead for supernova neutrinos. To complete the conference vibe, there were tables, couches and cookies scattered around.
Participants could talk in real time, their avatars’ heads rapidly bouncing around. Directional sound in headphones gave a sense of where different people were in the room and allowed users to stumble upon conversations. Walking around, one overheard all the usual topics of discussion at a physics conference – results, experimental status, careers, life updates – as well as discussion of the oddities of virtual environment – the digital bison standing nearby, how to make your avatar wear a tuxedo, the underlying technology and the inevitable glitch here or there.
“It’s clearly the kind of thing that will get better and better,” said Kate Scholberg, a neutrino physicist at Duke University and a member of the International Advisory Committee for the conference. She also gathered together about 20 members of the COHERENT collaboration for an avatar group photo in Grant Park. “It’s different, and I think it’s been really fun. I’ve been having conversations with people, and it replicates many of the in-person aspects.”
Del Tutto and the organizers also set up social rooms for researchers to hang out and chat, as well as virtual tours of Fermilab locations and spots in downtown Chicago.
“The other part of a conference is that, if it’s really in Chicago, it’s a chance to see the city with your colleagues, get to know them better and improve your working relationship with them,” Del Tutto said.
Of course, virtual reality was not the only way to interact with colleagues. Attendees also connected through chat on a dedicated Neutrino 2020 Slack account. Organizers set up channels for subsets of neutrino research (such as sterile neutrinos or long-baseline neutrinos) where attendees could drop in additional questions for the speakers and discuss ideas from the talks. There were also specific channels for topics such as the future of conferences, posters, help from the organizers, virtual reality and job opportunities. The Neutrino 2020 Slack saw more than 23,000 messages over the two-week conference.
“We had to change our plans quickly and explore creative options for making the conference as interactive as possible,” said Tanaz Mohayai, a Fermilab neutrino physicist and the webpage lead for Neutrino 2020. “It’s been wonderful to see the excitement surrounding the latest results in our field, as well as the many meaningful conversations taking place on Slack and in the poster sessions in the virtual world.”
Many attendees expect to see the virtual reality and chat features of Neutrino 2020 replicated in future online physics conferences – but it may not stop there. As conferences return to having an in-person component, there’s potential to keep the best of what works from the online world. One can envision a hybrid conference that allows for participation from around the world, virtual interactions and greater discussion through chat. And maybe, just maybe, there will be people walking around poster sessions dressed as robots – or a jar of peanut butter.
The poster portal, videos and recordings of plenary talks will continue to be available online at the Neutrino 2020 website.
Neutrino research at Fermilab is supported by the DOE Office of Science
Fermilab is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.
A member of the Fermilab magnet team prepares the demonstrator accelerator magnet for testing in March 2020. These tests are an important step toward meeting the requirements of a future hadron collider under discussion in the particle physics community. Photo: Alexander Zlobin
The Fermilab magnet team has done it again. After setting a world record for an accelerator magnet in 2019, they have broken it a year later.
In a June 2020 test, a demonstrator magnet designed and built by the magnet team at the Department of Energy’s Fermilab achieved a 14.5-tesla field strength for an accelerator steering dipole magnet, surpassing their previous record of 14.1 T.
This test is an important step toward addressing the demanding magnet requirements of a future hadron collider under discussion in the particle physics community. If built, such a collider would be four times larger and almost eight times more powerful than the 17-mile-circumference Large Hadron Collider at the European laboratory CERN, which operates at a steering field of 7.8 T. Current future-collider designs estimate the field strength for a steering magnet — the magnet responsible for bending particle beams around a curve — to be up to 16 T.
“Our next goal is to break the ’15-tesla wall’ and advance the maximum field in accelerator steering magnets to 17 T and even above, significantly improve magnet quench performance and optimize cost,” said Fermilab scientist Alexander Zlobin, who leads the magnet project. “Reaching these goals will provide strong foundation for future high-energy colliders.”
Read more about the Fermilab-built future-collider steering magnet.
Research on accelerator magnets is supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science.
Fermilab is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.