One of the great insights of cryptography and computational complexity is the notion of computationally-bounded algorithms, which allow us to reason about properties that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. Could these ideas also be relevant to quantum information and quantum mechanics? In this talk, we discuss how computational thinking changes the landscape of quantum cryptography: What…
All the information we will ever obtain from the early universe is imprinted in the spatial correlations of primordial fluctuations at the hot Big Bang. I will explain how an influx of ideas from various areas of fundamental physics is providing us with new conceptual and practical tools to decode the physics of these primordial fluctuations. A thorough understanding of the fluctuations will give…
The gravitational two-body problem has been fundamental to physics since Newton's time. With the advent of gravitational wave astronomy and the anticipated third generation of gravitational wave detectors in the 2030s, there is an increasing need for high-precision predictions from Einstein's theory of gravity regarding the encounters of black holes and neutron stars in our universe.…
We present Denario, an AI multi-agent system designed to be a scientific research assistant. Denario can perform many different tasks, such as generating ideas, checking the literature, developing research plans, writing and executing code, making plots, and writing a scientific paper. Denario is built as a modular system, and therefore, can perform either very specific tasks, such as generating…
An appealing and challenging route towards engineering materials with specic properties is to find ways of designing or selectively manipulate materials, especially at the quantum level. We will provide an overview of how well-established concepts in the fields of quantum chemistry and materials have to be adapted when the quantum nature of light becomes important. We will pursue the question…
Tensor Network States, like matrix product or projected entangled pair states play an important role in both, quantum information theory and many-body physics. They offer a compact and efficient representation, enabling accelerated numerical computations and providing intuitive insights into many-body phenomena. In this talk, I will discuss how certain states can be efficiently prepared and…
A hallmark of living systems is their ability to generate and maintain order under constant fluctuations. In cells, such order often emerges from chemomechanical pattern formation, where proteins both sense and remodel the geometry of the cell. Here, I will discuss how theoretical modeling and simulations can capture this feedback across different spatial scales, using three example systems: on…
Already within the Standard Model, we expect that the fundamental scale of gravity, the scale where gravity becomes strong, is slightly lower than the Planck scale. Theories with extra dimensions or with many additional particle species enhance this effect and are motivated by giving a unified solution to the Hierarchy problem, Dark Matter, and neutrino masses. In this talk, we will discuss their…
At a singularity the continuum description of spacetime breaks down and one can hope that the microscopic constituents will be revealed. Over 50 years ago, Belinski-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz (BKL) argued that the dynamics of spacetime close to the Big Bang singularity (or inside black holes) is chaotic and inhomogeneous. I will revisit the BKL scenario within a modern understanding of quantum chaos and…
In the development of animals, tissues self-organise starting from a single cell into lay- ers, shapes and patterns. This active mechanical process operates beyond the theoretical framework of reaction-diffusion equations such as Turing patterns. At the same time, combining active driving with careful mechanical design of a system is distinct route to pattern formation and artificial…