Wikipedia

Francesca Ferlaino

Francesca Ferlaino (born 1977) is an Italian-Austrian experimental physicist known for her research on quantum matter. She is a professor of physics at the University of Innsbruck.[1][2]

Francesca Ferlaino
Born (1977-12-23) 23 December 1977 (age 48)
Napoli, Italy
Known forQuantum Phenomena in atomic gases
AwardsGrand Prix de Physique "Cécile-DeWitt Morette/École de Physuqye des Houches"

Junior Bec Award The Feltrinelli prize Erwin Schrödinger Prize

Elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society
Scientific career
FieldsExperimental physicist
InstitutionsUniversity of Innbruck

Career

edit

Francesca Ferlaino was born in Naples, Italy. She studied physics at the University of Naples Federico II (1995–2000) and was an undergraduate research fellow at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste (1999–2000). She did a PhD in physics at the University of Florence and the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS) (2001–2004). In 2007, she moved to the University of Innsbruck, Austria, where she was a research and teaching associate and started her own research group. In 2014 she became a professor of physics at the University of Innsbruck and research director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.[3]

Research

edit

Her research activity explores quantum phenomena in atomic gases at ultralow temperatures with contributions spanning topics including quantum matter of atoms and molecules and few-body and scattering physics. Over the last years, she has focused specifically on the strongly magnetic, and rather unexplored, Erbium and Dysprosium atomic species, realizing in 2012 the world's first Bose-Einstein condensation of Erbium,[4] and in 2018, the first dipolar quantum mixture of Erbium and Dysprosium.[5] In 2019, she was able to prepare the first long-lived supersolid state, an elusive and paradoxical state where superfluid flow and crystal rigidity coexist.[6] With these systems, she has explored a variety of many-body quantum phenomena dictated by the long-range and anisotropic dipolar interaction among the atoms. In 2021, she created supersolid states along two dimensions.[7] In 2024 her team reported the observation of quantum vortices in the supersolid phase[8][9]

Awards

edit

Her was awarded the Grand Prix de Physique "Cécile-DeWitt Morette/École de Physique des Houches" from the French Academy of Sciences (2019),[10] the Junior BEC Award (2019),[11] the Feltrinelli Prize (2017)[12] and the Erwin Schrödinger Prize (2017).[13] She was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2019 "for ground-breaking experiments on dipolar quantum gases of erbium atoms, including the attainment of quantum degeneracy of bosons and fermions, studies on quantum-chaotical scattering, the formation of quantum droplets, and investigations on the roton spectrum".[14][15]

She was named Austria's Scientist of the Year 2025[16] and Austrian of the Year 2024 in research[17]. Since 2026, she is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.[18]

References

edit
  1. ↑ "Experimental Physics Innsbruck". University of Innsbruck. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  2. ↑ "Francesca Ferlaino". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  3. ↑ "Francesca Ferlaino – Dipolar Quantum Gases". www.erbium.at. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  4. ↑ Aikawa, K.; Frisch, A.; Mark, M.; Baier, S.; Rietzler, A.; Grimm, R.; Ferlaino, F. (21 May 2012). "Bose-Einstein Condensation of Erbium". Physical Review Letters. 108 (21) 210401. arXiv:1204.1725. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.108u0401A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.210401. PMID 23003221.
  5. ↑ Trautmann, A.; Ilzhöfer, P.; Durastante, G.; Politi, C.; Sohmen, M.; Mark, M. J.; Ferlaino, F. (21 November 2018). "Dipolar Quantum Mixtures of Erbium and Dysprosium Atoms". Physical Review Letters. 121 (21) 213601. arXiv:1807.07555. Bibcode:2018PhRvL.121u3601T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.213601. PMID 30517813.
  6. ↑ Chomaz, L.; Petter, D.; Ilzhöfer, P.; Natale, G.; Trautmann, A.; Politi, C.; Durastante, G.; van Bijnen, R. M. W.; Patscheider, A.; Sohmen, M.; Mark, M. J.; Ferlaino, F. (19 April 2019). "Long-Lived and Transient Supersolid Behaviors in Dipolar Quantum Gases". Physical Review X. 9 (2) 021012. arXiv:1903.04375. Bibcode:2019PhRvX...9b1012C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.9.021012.
  7. ↑ Norcia, M. A.; Politi, C.; Lauritz, K.; Poli, E.; Sohmen, M.; Mark, M. J.; Bisset, R. N.; Santos, L.; Ferlaino, F. (18 August 2021). "Two-dimensional supersolidity in a dipolar quantum gas". Nature. 596 (7872): 357–361. arXiv:2102.05555. Bibcode:2021Natur.596..357N. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03725-7. PMID 34408330.
  8. ↑ Casotti, Eva; Poli, Elena; Klaus, Lauritz; Litvinov, Andrea; Ulm, Clemens; Politi, Claudia; Mark, Manfred J.; Bland, Thomas; Ferlaino, Francesca (2024). "Observation of vortices in a dipolar supersolid". Nature. 635 (8038): 327–331. arXiv:2403.18510. Bibcode:2024Natur.635..327C. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08149-7. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 39506121.
  9. ↑ Savitsky, Zack (6 November 2024). "Physicists Spot Quantum Tornadoes Twirling in a 'Supersolid'". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  10. ↑ "Lauréate 2019 du prix Cécile DeWitt-Morette / École de Physique des Houches: Francesca Ferlaino | Lauréats | Prix et médailles | Encourager la vie scientifique". www.academie-sciences.fr. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  11. ↑ "BEC Award". Bose-Einstein Condensation 2021. 30 September 2020. Archived from the original on 26 April 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  12. ↑ "Accademia dei Lincei: alla napoletana Francesca Ferlaino il premio Antonio Feltrinelli". www.ilmattino.it (in Italian). 9 November 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Francesca Ferlaino". stipendien.oeaw.ac.at. Archived from the original on 26 April 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  14. ↑ "Fellows elected in 2019 from the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics". APS Fellows archive. American Physical Society. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  15. ↑ "Francesca Ferlaino elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)". Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  16. ↑ "Francesca Ferlaino named Austrian Scientist of the Year". Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI). 7 January 2026. Retrieved 8 January 2026.
  17. ↑ Stani, Tina; Köttritsch, Michael (23 October 2024). "Die Österreicherinnen des Jahres 2024 stehen fest". Die Presse (in German). Retrieved 8 January 2026.
  18. ↑ "Neue Mitglieder gewählt: 46 Spitzenforschende verstärken die ÖAW". www.oeaw.ac.at (in German). 26 March 2026. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Francesca_Ferlaino&oldid=1356685083"