People


Principal Investigator

  1. Ana Maria Rey

    1. JILA address:
    2. JILA, 440 UCB
    3. Boulder, CO 80309-0440

    1. Office: S326
    2. Office Phone: 303-492-8089
    3. Fax: 303-492-5235
    4. Email: arey@jilau1.colorado.edu


Research Associate

  1. Kaden Hazzard

  2. Email: kaden.hazzard@gmail.com
  3. Phone: (303) 492-8089
  4. About Kaden I spend most of my time thinking about how we can utilize cold atoms to learn about many-body physics, especially that which is relevant for condensed matter systems. Cold atom experiments have over the past few years established their ability to emulate strongly correlated models of interest from solid state physics. This has opened the door to study exotic, ill-understood states of matter (e.g., topological phases, spin liquids) and the transitions between them in a highly controlled, tunable, and clean environment. I am interested in the physics of such matter, as well as the questions of how to engineer it in cold atoms: firstly, how can one create exotic physics and secondly, how can one probe it's behavior?



  1. Gang Chen

  2. Email: gach8295@jilau1.colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-8089
  4. About Gang I attended graduate school in Univ of California Santa Barbara under the advise of Prof. Leon Balents at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. I attended University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) from 2000 to 2004 where I earned a B.Sc. in physics and graduated with the highest honor of university. I am interested in condensed matter theory on strongly correlated systems. (https://sites.google.com/site/chggst/)


Graduate Students

  1. Shuming Li

  2. Email: Shuming.Li@colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-4970
  4. About Shuming I received my B.S. from Nanjing University in China, and M.S from Institute of theoretical physics, Chinese Academy of Science. I joined Ana's group as a graduate student in the Fall of 2008. My research interest now are the behavior of atoms in optical lattice potentials, for example, new phases and exotic fractal behavior of polarized fermions in bichromatic optical lattices. I am also interested in quantum optics issues, like, the interaction between atoms and quantized laser field.
  5. Video: Random and Nonrandom (Real Space, Momentum Space, Phiofkz)
    tube3 and tube5


  1. Bihui Zhu

  2. Email: bihui.zhu@colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-4970


  1. Andrew Koller

  2. Email: andrew.p.koller@colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-4970


Prior Members


  1. Javier Von Stecher

  2. Email: javier.vonstecher@colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-8089
  4. About Javier Javier von Stecher was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and attended the University of Buenos Aires as an undergraduate where he worked on Casimir effect under Prof. F. D. Mazzitelli of the Physics Department. In 2002 he earned his Licenciatura degree in physics and in 2003 he moved to Boulder, Colorado to start his graduate studies at the University of Colorado. In 2004, he joined Chris Greene group at JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research focused on the study of ultracold few-body system with tunable interactions. Through the application of powerful numerical techniques, he was able to improve the general understanding of few-body phenomena, in particular of four-body processes. His research was recognized with the 2009 Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Prize in AMO Physics. Since defending his dissertation in 2008, he has joined Dr. Ana Maria Rey group at JILA as a postdoctoral research associate, where he is studying ways to control and manipulate quantum mechanical interactions in many-body quantum systems at nano and mesoscopic scales. His current research focuses on the strongly correlated phenomena in ultracold gases.
  5. Video: Auxiliary material for ``Lattice Induced Resonances in One Dimensional Bosonic Systems''



  1. Salvatore Manmana

  2. Email: salvatore.manmana@jila.colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-8089
  4. About Salvatore I am a research associate at JILA mainly working with Ana Maria Rey, Victor Gurarie and Mike Hermele. I am Italian from origin, but did my studies and PhD in Germany (Universities of Stuttgart and Marburg). After my PhD, I went to EPF Lausanne (located at lake Geneva in Switzerland) to do a postdoc with Frederic Mila. After this stay, I joined JILA in July 2010. In my research, I deal with many-body effects in quantum systems. These can be realized in condensed matter systems (e.g. in frustrated quantum magnetic materials) or in systems of ultracold atomic and molecular gases. The key aspect is that the interaction between the particles can stabilize new, interesting quantum phases of matter. When pushing the system out-of-equilibrium, they can lead to unexpected and sometimes counterintuitive behavior. The approach I use for treating these systems is mainly numerical. The main tool applied is the 'Density Matrix Renormalization Group' (DMRG) and its extension for nonequilibrium situations, the adaptive time-dependent DMRG. At the present, I am working on a broad range of interesting questions. These include: - 'quasi-2D' frustrated spin systems on a Shastry-Sutherland geometry, relevant for the quantum magnetic material SrCu2(BO3)2 and in which we have recently identified a new type of Wigner crystal of bound states of 'triplon' excitations - systems realized in ultracold rare-earth alkaline atoms on optical lattices which possess SU(N) symmetry and might host a bouquet of yet unexplored phenomena - systems with long-range dipolar interactions as realized by ultracold molecules and which can be used for the quantum simulation of spin systems - transport phenomena at metal-superconductor interfaces as they may be realized in meso- and nanoscopic systems. In case you are interested in these topics and would like to contact me, please send me an email.



  1. Michael Foss-Feig

  2. Email: michael.foss-feig@colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-8089
  4. About Michael: I am a fourth year graduate student at the University of Colorado in Boulder. My research has been focused in the field of "Quantum Simulation", which for us means the simulation of electrons in crystals using ultracold atoms (in place of the electrons) in optical lattices (in place of the crystal). I am particularly interested in theoretical aspects of simulating solid state models in which electrons in different energy bands influence each other via the exchange interaction. Such interactions are responsible for a variety of beautiful but poorly understood material properties, including Colossal Magnetoresistance and heavy fermion superconductivit.
  5. Thesis: Quantum simulation of many-body physics with neutral atoms, molecules, and ions



  1. Chester Rubbo

  2. Email: Chester.Rubbo@colorado.edu
  3. Phone: (303) 492-4970
  4. Thesis: Resonant and Soliton Transport of Ultracold Atoms on Optical Lattices