Valentina Parigi wins ERC Consolidator Grant

Valentina Parigi – LKB’s Quantum Optics team has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant 2018 (one of the most prestigious calls for projects at European level) for her COQCOoN (Continuous Variables Quantum Complex Networks) project. The aim of this project is to study the complex quantum structure of physical systems.

At different scales, from molecular systems to technological infrastructures, physical systems are arranged in structures that cannot be defined as regular or random: these are complex networks. We find the same types of structures in very different phenomena, such as the web or metabolic processes, which share the same type of statistical distribution of connections between the elements that form them. We also know that the individual elements of natural systems, such as atoms and electrons, are quantum objects.

Being able to replicate complex networks in the laboratory using a large-scale quantum platform is a fantastic opportunity to study the intrinsic quantum structure of the real world and also to understand how to use structures that are both quantum and complex in future quantum technologies.

With both theoretical and experimental dimensions, the COQCOoN project will implement complex optical quantum networks using multimode parametric processes and photonic excitations.