Research
Researchers to investigate the mysteries of quantum thermodynamics
Dr Mauro Paternostro, Principal Investigator
Researchers in the School of Mathematics and Physics have been awarded a grant to investigate the mysteries of quantum thermodynamics.
The Quantum Technology Group at Queen’s (QTeQ) has received a £350k grant from the John Templeton Foundation to investigate the reformulation of quantum mechanics at medium-to-large scales. The Foundation is a philanthropic organisation that funds interdisciplinary scientific research on "Big Questions".
The Principal Investigator is Dr Mauro Paternostro, Reader at the Centre for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (CTAMOP) and EPSRC Fellow with Dr Gabriele De Chiara and Dr Alessandro Ferraro, both Lecturers in Quantum Information at CTAMOP, co-investigators of the grant. They will build an international research team to study theoretically the implications that the occurrence of quantum features at mesoscopic scales have in our understanding of nature. In particular, they will focus on the implications that such a new framework for quantumness at large scales can have on thermodynamics, likely the most general and widely applicable theory around.
Speaking about the grant Dr Paternostro said: "The Templeton grant embodies a tremendous opportunity for us to dig deep into tantalising questions at the border between the foundations of quantum mechanics and technological advances grounded into the quantum realm, a hybrid area where our group has been traditionally very strong over the past few years.
"We are now in the process of hiring a research fellow to support us in the research to undertake in the next three years, while an international PhD student has just been recruited. We are very pleased of this funding success, which is even more relevant as it comes at a time when it is very difficult to secure financial support for fundamental theoretical research, and from a scheme that is very competitive."
For further information on the Quantum Technology Group at Queen's, visit http://web.am.qub.ac.uk/wp/qo/
