Biography
Before coming to Cambridge in 2015, Prof Schneider worked as a Senior Scientist/Group Leader in the Quantum Optics group at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich. Before that, he did a PhD at the Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz supervised by Prof. Immanuel Bloch and read physics at the Universität Kaiserslautern.
His main research interest is in quantum many-body dynamics. Following a statement by P. W. Anderson, 'More is Different', genuine many-body phenomena are emergent phenomena that only appear when many particles come together, typical examples being superfluidity or magnetism.
Prof Schneider is the recipient of the IOP 2023 Joseph Thomson Medal, the 2016 Rudolf-Kaiser Preis, and the 2015 Aspen Winter Prize. Funding for his research includes an ERC Starting Grant (2016), an ERC Consolidator Grant (2021) and several UKRI grants including Programme Grants and the UK Quantum technology Hubs.
Research
Our group is mainly working on many-body phenomena at the interface between quantum optics and solid state physics.
We study this physics using ultracold atoms, that is Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases, which we load into optical lattices. These periodic optical potentials play the role of the electrostatic potential felt by electrons in a conventional solid. Thereby, we effectively build a Quantum Simulator for condensed matter physics, where we can study many-body physics in a very clean and precisely controlled system and have all the tools from quantum optics at our disposal.
In addition to the above work on Quantum Simulators, we are also working on Quantum Sensors in the form of large-scale atom interferometry.
For details see:
www.manybody.phy.cam.ac.uk
Publications
Large-Scale Atom Interferometry for Fundamental Physics
Oliver Buchmueller, John Ellis, Ulrich Schneider
Contemporary Physics, 64(2), 93–110 (2023)
Realizing discontinuous quantum phase transitions in a strongly-correlated driven optical lattice
Bo Song, Shovan Dutta, Shaurya Bhave, Jr-Chiun Yu, Edward Carter, Nigel Cooper, Ulrich Schneider
Nature Physics 18, 259 (2022)
Observing localisation in a 2D quasicrystalline optical lattice
Matteo Sbroscia, Konrad Viebahn, Edward Carter, Jr-Chiun Yu, Alexander Gaunt, Ulrich Schneider
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 200604 (2020)
AION: An Atom Interferometer Observatory and Network
L. Badurina et al. (AION Collaboration)
JCAP 05(2020), 011 (2020)
Matter-wave diffraction from a quasicrystalline optical lattice
Konrad Viebahn, Matteo Sbroscia, Edward Carter, Jr-Chiun Yu, Ulrich Schneider
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122,110404 (2019)
Signatures of Many-Body Localization in a Controlled Open Quantum System
Henrik P. Lüschen, Pranjal Bordia, Sean S. Hodgman, Michael Schreiber, Saubhik Sarkar, Andrew J. Daley, Mark H. Fischer, Ehud Altman, Immanuel Bloch, Ulrich Schneider
Phys. Rev. X 7, 011034 (2017)
Bloch state tomography using Wilson lines
T. Li, L. Duca, M. Reitter, F. Grusdt, E. Demler, M. Endres, M. Schleier-Smith, I. Bloch, U. Schneider
Science 352, 1094 (2016)
Observation of many-body localization of interacting fermions in a quasi-random optical lattice
M. Schreiber, S. S. Hodgman, P. Bordia, H. P. Lüschen, M. H. Fischer, R. Vosk, E. Altman, U. Schneider, I. Bloch
Science 349, 842 (2015)
An Aharonov-Bohm interferometer for determining Bloch band topology
L Duca, T Li, M Reitter, I Bloch, M Schleier-Smith, U Schneider
Science 347 (6219), 288-292 (2015)
Emergence of coherence and the dynamics of quantum phase transitions
S. Braun, M. Friesdorf, S. S. Hodgman, M. Schreiber, J. P. Ronzheimer, A. Riera, M. del Rey, I. Bloch, J. Eisert, and U. Schneider
PNAS 112, 3641 (2015)
Expansion dynamics of interacting bosons in homogeneous lattices in one and two dimensions
J.P. Ronzheimer, M. Schreiber, S. Braun, S.S. Hodgman, S. Langer, I.P. McCulloch, F. Heidrich-Meisner, I. Bloch and U. Schneider
Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 205301 (2013)
Negative Absolute Temperature for Motional Degrees of Freedom
Simon Braun, Jens Philipp Ronzheimer, Michael Schreiber, Sean S. Hodgman, Tim Rom, Immanuel Bloch, Ulrich Schneider
Science 339, 52 (2013)
Metallic and insulating phases of repulsively interacting fermions in a 3D optical lattice
U. Schneider, L. Hackermuller, S. Will, Th. Best, I. Bloch, T. A. Costi, R. W. Helmes, D. Rasch, A. Rosch
Science 322,1520 (2008)
