HomeResearchPhysics Department Offers Quantum Research Opportunities for Students

Physics Department Offers Quantum Research Opportunities for Students

The study of the “very small” is among the research areas that has brought a huge recognition to Southern: its recent announcement that it has been named a Carnegie R2 research institution.

A focus in the Physics Department on quantum mechanics, including using intensity interferometry to measure the size of distant objects in space, is one significant example of research at Southern, according to Elliott Horch, chair of the Physics Department.

“In essence, quantum is the world of the very small,” Horch said. “And when you investigate the world of the very small, you realize that the atom has a very complicated little structure. We all know that it has a nucleus, it has electrons that swirl about the nucleus, but what are the details? What is the detailed nature of those electron states around the nucleus? That’s quantum.”

In defining quantum, Horch said that while we can physically measure most distances, when looking at the atomic scale, we can’t know distances for sure. Using quantum technology, we can only measure the probability that an object can be found in any specific location.

Horch started out in physics, later specializing in astronomy. “I kind of love both fields, and I love putting them both together, and that’s where quantum optics comes in,” he said.

The R2 designation will give a boost to researchers at Southern, he said. Southern is the only R2 university in Connecticut.

“There are several faculty in the Physics Department that ultimately could benefit from this,” he said. “When you have an R2 designation, you have a seat at the table. I think it gives us more visibility, more credibility with R1 schools like Yale and UConn, that we can be a partner.”

“Also, we have a unique mission, where it’s not just doing the research, it’s engaging the students in the research,” said Physics Professor Christine Broadbridge, executive director of Research and Innovation at Southern.

“The other piece is attracting more students, getting the word out to students that there is a place like Southern that you can come, where you’re going to get the kind of support to be successful at a lower price tag; it’s a public institution, but you’re also going to get a research opportunity, a significant one that’s going to challenge you and prepare you well for success,” she said.

“These research opportunities are on a par with what you would get at Yale or UConn,” Horch said.

Becoming an R2 university also is a challenge to the faculty, who have a full teaching load in addition to their research, Broadbridge said. “It’s really a very heavy lift for our faculty that have and continue to offer doctoral programs, research doctoral programs.”

In 2023, Southern awarded 29 research doctorates. The minimum for an R2 university is 20. The school also spent $8 million in research; the minimum for the R2 designation is $5 million.

One goal of quantum research is to create a quantum computer, which will operate at many factors faster than digital computers, which use ones and zeros.

“If we can start to use quantum computers . . . we can solve some really important questions, come up with new drugs, answer questions in physics that no one’s been able to answer yet. So that’s what people are very excited about,” Broadbridge said.

She cautioned, however, that she believes research ultimately will involve a “hybrid approach,” using both digital and quantum computers.

One student who has benefited from Southern’s increasing research capabilities is Max Martone, who began studying quantum as an undergraduate and who now is a master’s candidate in applied physics, with a concentration in optics. He has received a Werth Industry Academic Fellowship,  received research grants and sat in on a course at Yale University in his first semester as a graduate student.

“The project I’m on right now is working with our intensity interferometer setup,” he said. “Basically, it measures positions of stars, primarily binary star systems. Basically, we’re trying to incorporate, at some point, quantum entanglement into how we collect our data … incorporating quantum phenomena into an already existing classical device.”

Martone also did some work with QuantumCT, a statewide initiative on whose leadership team Broadbridge serves. (Southern is one of a number of partners in the venture, including the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, UConn, and Yale.) QuantumCT seeks to build “the foundation for Connecticut to become a leading hub for quantum technologies,” according to its website.

With QuantumCT, “I did a lot of studying on quantum computation,” Martone said. “I’ve made a poster on quantum computation. And taking that Yale class, the inaugural quantum materials science class, that was a great experience. I learned a lot from that.”

Max Martone and Elliott Horch discuss the Southern Connecticut Stellar Interferometer, or SCSI

Horch compared QuantumCT to an earlier tech boom, when Silicon Valley grew out of microchip research.

“I think this whole process of QuantumCT, the existence of that entity, is to make sure that Connecticut has a chance to become the quantum hub, just the way the Bay Area in California became Silicon Valley,” he said.

Another initiative at Southern is the Quantum Academic and Career Pathway initiative, or the Quantum Path, based on BioPath, a career-development program with the city of New Haven.

“The idea behind it is the same as BioPath,” Broadbridge said. “Start with industry needs. Listen to the industries, do needs assessments. What are they looking for? What kinds of skills, knowledge do they need? And for these particular industries, listen to what the students need.”

Quantum Path and the other initiatives are all ways of showing how Southern has distinguished itself among the state’s other public colleges, Horch said.

“What I think a lot of us at Southern are hoping about R2 status is that it lets people know at the state level that Southern is different,” he said.

“We have achieved something different than the other [Connecticut State Universities] have so far,” Horch said. “We’ve broken new ground, and we’re hoping that that will lead the state to view us in a different way, that would lead to more resources, to support the programs that we’ve been talking about … and to give faculty the time and space to do that.”

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