Buechler leads quantum many-body theory at ITP III: strongly interacting quantum systems, quantum optics, and the theory of cold atomic and molecular gases -- in particular Rydberg systems, where he has been a central theorist for interaction-engineered tweezer arrays, dressed interactions and photon-photon interactions in Rydberg media. He is the theory counterpart to Pfau's and Wrachtrup's experiments in the same department. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), a theory-first inclusion: the relevant output is the protocol layer -- how to engineer Hamiltonians in interacting spin/Rydberg ensembles so that entanglement or dressing improves sensitivity beyond the standard quantum limit, which is exactly the theory an NV-ensemble sensing programme needs and rarely has in-house.
Hadzibabic's group uses homogeneous, box-trapped ultracold atomic Bose gases as a highly controllable platform to study fundamental many-body physics far from equilibrium, including superfluidity, Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics, and quantum turbulence.
Sylvain Nascimbène (Assoc. Prof./Maître de conférences, LKB BEC/Collège de France, IUF 2022) leads the Dysprosium lab. Research: (1) large-spin dysprosium Bose-Einstein condensates for quantum simulation of exotic magnetic phases; (2) quantum metrology with entangled spin states; (3) realisation of topological matter (2025: parity anomaly in 2D); also theory on topological quantum simulation (with Nathan Goldman). Strong connection to quantum sensing via entanglement-enhanced metrology.
Pfau's institute spans dipolar quantum gases (first Dy BEC, supersolids), interacting Rydberg atoms for simulation/computing, Rydberg electrometry with thermal atomic vapours and integrated atomic photonics, and laser cooling of molecules. Rydberg vapour electrometry is a leading electric-field quantum sensor. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work complements spin sensing with atom-based electric-field metrology.
Laurent Sanchez-Palencia (CNRS DR / Professor, CPHT, École Polytechnique) leads the Quantum Matter theory group. Research: (1) many-body quantum simulation with cold atoms in optical lattices — disorder and Anderson localisation, strongly correlated phases; (2) ultracold atoms in optical quasicrystals and moiré lattices — exotic band structures and correlated phases; (3) quantum entanglement and metrology — theoretical proposals for entanglement-enhanced sensing; (4) non-equilibrium quantum dynamics and thermalization. Deputy Director Quantum-Saclay. ERC Starting 2011. Prix Leconte 2012 (Académie des Sciences). Moved to CPHT from Institut d'Optique 2016.
Smith's Dipolar Quantum Gases group builds ultracold erbium (and Er-K mixture) experiments to study the effect of long-range, anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions on many-body quantum phenomena including supersolidity, turbulence and impurity/polaron physics.
Yan built the first quantum gas microscope for ultracold molecules and uses programmable tweezer arrays of fermionic atoms and dipolar molecules to realize custom quantum many-body Hamiltonians (Hubbard and spin models) with single-site resolution. This is primarily a quantum-simulation platform rather than a sensing one, so it is kept as an unpreferred/borderline entry; the same site-resolved tweezer/microscope toolkit underlies emerging proposals for distributed tweezer-array quantum sensors, which is the basis for inclusion.