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Are the proton and electron in a Hydrogen atom entangled? I recently conducted a poll during an online poster session to see if any of the attendees had previously considered this question. To my surprise, not a single physicist answered “Yes”. But in fact, neither had I, until the summer of 2017. Three years later, I’m happy to say that the answer is a resounding yes! In a paper published in New Journal of Physics

I’m very excited that our paper on Optimal estimation with quantum optomechanical systems in the nonlinear regime has finally been published in Physical Review A. The main result is a general expression for the sensitivity that can be achieved with a system that evolves with the nonlinear optomechanical Hamiltonian. Most importantly, this expression takes into account time-dependent effects, which means that we can finally tackle questions such as the effect of gravitational waves on an

On the 6th of March, I attended the first Postgraduate Women in Physics workshop, held in Nottingham and brilliantly organised by Lizzie Elmer, Amy Whitney, Emily Tyler, and Hannah Coleman, with support from Dr Clare Burrage. Huge thanks to them and to everyone who made it happen, and I look forwards to future conferences. Oh and I brought a poster with me on the topic of Hydrogenic entanglement, which is the theme of our recent

There are always exciting things happening around UCL. This time around, a bunch of lovely people decided to organise a departmental festival, which they christened PandA (Physics and Astronomy). They day was full of fun science displays, music, talks, and even a play written and performed by the students! My contribution was a 10-minute talk titled “A trip through causality in physical theories”. The talk stems from my interest in the research on indefinite causal

Between the 6-10th of January 2020, I attended the first workshop on Quantum Sensors for Fundamental Physics in Durham, UK. It is part of a wider UK-based effort to use the recent advances in quantum technologies for use in fundamental physics. The conference basically encapsulated some of the reasons for why I am interested in studying quantum sensing: The powerful enhancements that we can potentially achieve with quantum sensors are key to searches for new

Our paper titled “Time-evolution of nonlinear optomechanical systems: Interplay of mechanical squeezing and non-Gaussianity” has just been accepted for publication in Journal of Physics A: Theoretical and Mathematical. Here’s a short (technical) summary of the main results. The main result in this paper is the solution of a nonlinear optomechanical system with time-dependent interaction terms and time-dependent mechanical displacement and squeezing terms. With this solution, it is possible to model all kinds of different effects,

In the UK, the process of obtaining a PhD includes submitting a thesis and then passing a viva (an oral examination), where the thesis is defended. This is a private event, as opposed to many other European countries where the defence is public. In the UK, the PhD candidate spends 2-4 hours together with one internal and one external examiner discussing their work, after which they might pass with minor or major corrections (passing without

Between the 15th-17th of November, I joined the undergraduate physics retreat at Cumberland Lodge. The lodge is a stately home that hosts conferences in the beautiful surroundings of Windsor Palace.  The retreat featured talks by undergraduate students, PhD student and lecturers, spanning everything from the thermodynamics of chickens to the distillation procedure of tonic water.  My task for the retreat was to, together with other students and PhD students, provide some evening entertainment. I wrote

In 2018, I organised the first joint event with the charity TechGirls, which organises workshops and competitions where young girls can explore topics in STEM. We hosted 25 girls at an open day at UCL as winners of an app design competition arranged by TechGirls. We arranged presentations by Prof Andrew Fisher, Prof Carla Faria and Prof Marzena Szymanska, as well as talks by PhD students on quantum technologies. The day was concluded by a