If you rotate a bucket full of water, the water moves with the same angular velocity as the bucket. A phenomenon that we know as inertia. In the regime of ultralow temperatures, the effects of quantum physics become dominant. One of those effects is known as the frictionless flow in superfluids. When we rotate a bucket filled with a superfluid, the superfluid stays at rest, because the friction in the bucket is suppressed. Thus, in a superfluid, there exists no rigidity.

My research focuses on the frictionless flow and other quantum mechanical effects of atomic and molecular gases close to zero temperature. Another of those effects is supersolidity. In a classical analogy, a supersolid is a periodic structure in a bucket filled with water - in its equilibrium state. Supersolids have features of both a solid and a fluid.

The goal of my thesis is to understand the effects in superfluid systems better. This is not only fundamental research. Superfluids are also a promising candidate for novel devices in quantum computing. Ultracold Rydberg atoms are already used for utilizing qubits. There are a lot of untouched phenomena regarding the behavior of those atoms in lattice configurations, which can potentially improve the existing quantum devices. I am especially interested in the study of long range interactions and moving superfluids and the different topological defects that can occur in such systems.