Prof. James Thompson - Photon-Mediated Interactions for Quantum Sensing and Simulation

Photon-Mediated Interactions for Quantum Sensing and Simulation     

James K. Thompson

JILA, NIST, and Dept. of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder

Photons bouncing back and forth many times between highly reflecting mirrors provides a powerful way to mediate interactions between laser-cooled atoms held between the mirrors. These all-to-all photon-mediated interactions provide a unique set of tools for both quantum simulation and sensing.  In this talk, I will discuss our efforts to sculpt these interactions in order to expand the palette of cavity-mediated interactions that can be a realized, including exchange interactions [1, 2], many-body gap protection of quantum coherence [1-3], XYZ interactions [4], 3 & 4-body interactions [5], and dissipative interactions [6-7].  I will high light applying these interactions to simulate dynamical phases of superconductors [8-11] and enhancing matterwave interferometers [2-5, 12] and optical clocks [13-15].

[1] Norcia et al, Science 361 259 (2018)

[2] Luo et al, Science 384 551 (2024)

[3] Niu et al, PRL 134 (11) 113403 (2025)

[4] Luo et al, Nature Physics 21 916 (2025)

[5] Luo et al, Science 390 925 (2025)

[6] Schafer et al, Nature Physics 21 902 (2025)

[7] Song et al, Science Adv. 11, eadu5799 (2025)

[8] Muniz et al, Nature 580 602 (2020)

[9] Young et al, Nature 625, 679 (2024)

[10] Young et al, PRL 134 (18) 183404 (2025)

[11] Maruko et al, arrive:2610.14171 (2026)

[12] Greve et al, Nature 610 472 (2022)

[13] Robinson et al, Nature Physics 20 208 (2024)

[14] Bohnet et al, Nature 484, pages 78 (2012) 

[15] Norcia et al, Science Adv. 2:e1601231 (2016)