QUANTI in the mountains
News //For journalists 27 Ottobre 2025 On November 5th at 5:00 PM, in the Auditorium of the San Gaetano Center, there will be an event titled “QUANTI in the mountains”, a dialogue between Gianni Battimelli, historian of physics at the University of Rome La Sapienza, and Manolo, one of the most renowned Italian climbers and mountaineers. The event is part of the “Conversations on Quantum Mechanics”, a series of public lectures organized within the framework of the Departments of Excellence Project 2023-2027. Book your seat at https://quanti.eventbrite.it
Quantum Sensors: The Silent Revolution is Already Underway
News //For journalists Giugno 3, 2025 A dialogue between Nicolò Crescini, researcher at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, and Caterina Braggio, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Padua.June 20th at 5:00 PM, Sala Paladin – Palazzo Moroni, via del Municipio, 1 – PaduaReservations: https://sensoriquantistici.eventbrite.it Quantum mechanics, often perceived as abstract and distant, is silently revolutionizing our world. For over a century, counterintuitive concepts such as superposition and entanglement have been challenging our ability to understand and inspiring scientists to transform theories into concrete technologies.While quantum computers promise to solve problems that are currently intractable in various fields, another quantum technology is already showing its impact: quantum sensors. Paradoxically, what makes it difficult to build a quantum computer – the extreme sensitivity of quantum states to external disturbances – is precisely what makes quantum sensors so powerful. This sensitivity allows for measuring physical quantities with a precision unattainable by traditional sensors.In this meeting, we discover how quantum sensors are already revolutionizing geophysics and dark matter research. We do this with Nicolò Crescini, researcher at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, in dialogue with Caterina Braggio, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Padua.
CERN: Science beyond the limits of human knowledge
News //For journalists Aprile 28, 2025 Gian Francesco Giudice, one of the most prestigious international figures in theoretical particle physics, tells us about the fascination of the research carried out at CERN in GenevaWednesday, May 28, 2025, 5:00 PMAula Magna of the University of Padua, Palazzo Bo “CERN: Science beyond the limits of human knowledge.” This is the title of the seminar that Gian Francesco Giudice, one of the most prestigious international figures in theoretical particle physics, will hold in Padua on May 28. The public will have the opportunity to participate in the informative seminar by the Director of the Department of Theoretical Physics at CERN in the magnificent Aula Magna of the University of Padua at Palazzo Bo. “An opportunity not to be missed for all those curious and interested in science,” declares Flavio Seno – Director of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “It is a great honor for us to host such an important figure in the international scientific landscape, and a prominent exponent of an institution with which our department collaborates assiduously. Another element of pride is the fact that he graduated in Padua and is therefore a personality of great inspiration for our students.” “CERN,” explains Gian Francesco Giudice, “is a testament to the success of European scientific research. Its past tells how international collaboration can lead to extraordinary progress in the name of peace and scientific knowledge. Its present reveals the fascination of the microscopic world of particles and the amazing technological developments necessary to explore it. Its future is a symbol of human ambition to not abandon the path towards understanding the universe.” Brief BiographyGian Francesco Giudice is Director of the Department of Theoretical Physics at CERN and a member of the Accademia dei Lincei. He is one of the most prestigious international figures in theoretical particle physics. A graduate of the University of Padua, he has conducted research in the United States and Europe, making fundamental contributions to the understanding of the subnuclear world and its consequences for the primordial history of the universe. Author of two popular science books: “Odyssey in Zeptospace” (Springer, 2010), which describes the scientific goals of the LHC particle collider operating at CERN, and “Before the Big Bang” (Rizzoli, 2023), which recounts current scientific knowledge about the origin of the universe. Event ContextThe public event is organized by the Department of Physics and Astronomy, in collaboration with the Padua section of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, with the patronage of the University of Padua and co-funded by the “Quantum Frontiers” Excellence Project. The event is part of the international conference “Planck 2025: 27th Conference – From the Planck scale to the Electroweak Scale” which sees more than 200 participants including PhD students, postdocs, and researchers from all over the world. Participation in the event is free upon reservation at the link:https://www.eventbrite.it/e/cern-la-scienza-oltre-i-limiti-della-conoscenza-umana-tickets-1317412990719?aff=oddtdtcreator
Quantum Industry Day
News //For journalists Dicembre 2, 2024 6 December 2024 From 14:00 to 19:00 Le Village Congress Centre by CA Triveneto, piazzaGiacomo Zanellato 23, Padua. The Quantum Industry Day (QID) is an event organised by the Department of Physics and Astronomy within the Project of Excellence ‘Quantum Frontiers’ and will be held in Padua on 6December 2024 from 14:00 onwards at the Centro Congressi Le Village by CA Triveneto, piazzaGiacomo Zanellato 23, Padua.QID is a unique opportunity for companies in the area wishing to get closer to the world of quantum technologies and learn about the potential offered by their application. In an open and stimulating context, the real implications of this revolution will be explored, with particular attention to the industrial, research and development sectors.Representatives of leading companies in the field of quantum technologies will share experiences and perspectives on the emerging market for innovative products and solutions. The speakers will present case studies, practical applications and the growth opportunities offered by these technologies for areas such as cryptography, secure communication, sensing, computing and imaging. This event aims to provide a platform for dialogue and networking for all those whowant to play a leading role in this technological revolution that is already underway. Participation is free after registration. Further information and registration on the QID website https://indico.dfa.unipd.it/event/1288
Exotic states of matter
News //For journalists Giugno 5, 2024 100 years after the Bose-Einstein condensation When and Where: 14-05-2024 | 17:30 | Sala Paladin, Palazzo Moroni, Via del Municipio 1, Padua One hundred years ago, on 4 June 1924, a young Indian physicist called Satyendra Nath Bose sent Einstein an article in English on the collective behavior of ‘light quanta’, the photons, offering a new deduction of the results obtained by Planck in 1900 on black body radiation. Bose asked Einstein if the paper seemed noteworthy to him and, if so, if it could be translated into German and published in some prestigious journal, such as the Zeitschrift für Physik. Einstein was not only enthusiastic about the article but translated it himself and sent it to the Zeitschrift für Physik. In the following months, he deepened Bose’s work by applying it not only to quanta of light but to a gas of atoms. From these contributions came the first quantum statistic, the one now known as the Bose-Einstein statistic, which applies to the collective behavior of bosons, particles characterized by integer values (0, 1, 2 …) of a particular quantum quantity, spin. For the sake of completeness, let us say that the second quantum statistic, that of Fermi-Dirac per particle, known as fermions, with half-integer spin (1/2, 3/2 ..), only appeared in 1926 thanks to the independent contributions of Enrico Fermi and Paul Dirac. In November 1924, Einstein realized that the gas of atoms he had studied manifested a paradoxical property: ‘From a given temperature, the molecules “condense” without attractive forces, i.e. they aggregate at zero velocity’. In practice, he envisaged a state with indistinguishable particles all occupying the same volume. Experimental proof of the existence of ‘Bose-Einstein condensation’ (BEC) would only come many years later, in 1995, because the temperatures at which BEC occurs are very low indeed, close to absolute zero. The exotic properties of quantum matter as a consequence of the Bose-Einstein statistic have enabled the understanding of phenomena, e.g. superconductivity, which like BEC are proof that quantum properties manifest themselves not only in the ultra-small, but also in macroscopic or quasi-macroscopic situations at very low temperatures. Over the last thirty years, with the refinement of techniques for cooling matter, the applications of BEC have become increasingly numerous, ranging from the creation of atomic lasers to atomic clocks, from sensors for measuring gravitational or magnetic forces to quantum computers and telecommunications. Chiara Fort, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Florence, will talk about how Bose-Einstein condensation came about and what its applications were, are and will be at the meeting ‘Conversations on Quantum Mechanics’. This is the second annual meeting promoted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy (DFA) of the University of Padua as part of the project entitled ‘Quantum Frontiers’. This project, financed by the Ministry of University and Research through the call for proposals ‘Departmental Projects of Excellence’, aims to enhance the DFA’s expertise in all frontier areas of research in which the quantum nature of matter and radiation plays a fundamental role. These scientific and technological developments are also of undoubted interest outside the scientific community. For this reason, the project envisages a series of dissemination initiatives to enable the general public to grasp the importance of this research, its spin-offs in the technological sphere, and the challenges it poses in the cultural, social and economic spheres.
Conversations on Quantum Mechanics
News //For journalists Maggio 23, 2024 POPULAR MEETING OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AT PALAZZO DEL MONTE DI PIETÀ On Friday, October 27, at 5:30 p.m., in the Conference Room at Palazzo del Monte di Pietà, (Piazza Duomo 14 – Padua), the first of the meetings in the “Quantum Frontiers” series will be held. It is an event open to the interested public and of a popular nature entitled “Conversations on Quantum Mechanics,” not a lecture, but a dialogue between Guido Bacciagaluppi, from Utrecht University, an expert on the history and interpretations of quantum mechanics, and Federica D’Auria, a journalist who collaborates with the University of Padua’s ilBolive magazine. This series of meetings, which originated within the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Padua, winner of a grant of more than 9 million euros provided by the MUR thanks to the call for proposals Progetto Dipartimenti di eccellenza, aims to strengthen and raise awareness of the activities and expertise within it. In fact, the project also includes a series of popular initiatives on topics related to the “quantum world” that will enable the general public to grasp the importance of research in this field, its spin-offs in the technological sphere and the challenges that open up in the cultural, social and economic spheres. “God does not play dice with the Universe,” says Flavio Seno, Director of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, “is one of Einstein’s most famous phrases regarding the interpretation to be given to quantum mechanics, which was born almost a century ago between 1925 and 1926 and from which the great physicist’s discontent with a theory that immediately proved to be highly effective in understanding and predicting the behavior of the minute components of matter and light and their interactions, but which from the point of view of interpretation raised great controversy. Controversies that immediately triggered a debate in the scientific community, emblematically represented by the debate, in many ways philosophical, between the figures of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr.” Since then, scientific and technological developments in quantum mechanics have shown their full fruitfulness, sparking the first quantum revolution around the middle of the last century with the development of electronics, computers and lasers. Instead, the second quantum revolution is being talked about in the very last few years, when many of the singular and counterintuitive behaviors of the quantum world have opened and are opening new and fascinating prospects for the realization of new communication systems and quantum computers. It is precisely these latest developments that the project entitled “Quantum Frontiers” of the Department of Physics and Astronomy (DFA) of the University of Padua will address. 2 “The Ministry of University and Research established in 2016 the call for proposals ‘Progetto Dipartimenti di eccellenza,’” Flavio Seno continued, “which selects the best Italian departments in all disciplinary fields. This selection is made on the basis of five-year projects submitted by Departments and gives access to additional funding. The DFA, already ranked among the Departments of Excellence in the five-year period 2018-2022, was the Department of Physics and Astronomy that won the selection with the best evaluation in Italy in the five-year period 2023-27 precisely with the project “Quantum Frontiers.”” This project aims to enhance the expertise of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, whose activities are already recognized as being of the highest profile nationally and internationally, in all frontier areas of research in which the quantum nature of matter and radiation plays a fundamental role. The first meeting could only address the history of the birth of quantum mechanics and the interpretative debate that, since the time of the confrontation between Einstein and Bohr, has accompanied it, also marking significant turning points in its technological applications. Biographical notes by Guido Bacciagaluppi His training took place between ETH Zurich and the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. His fields of research include the philosophy of physics, and in particular the philosophy of quantum mechanics, and the history of physics. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at Utrecht University.
