• Tommaso Calarco (U. Ulm, Germany)

Optimal control theory – the set of methods developed to design systems that can achieve a desired behavior with limited resources and the biggest possible probability of success. Its applications cover such diverse fields as aerodynamics and ultrafast laser-assisted chemical reactions.

• Aash Clerk (McGill University, Canada)

Quantum nanoscience – the detection and manipulation of quantum mechanical behavior in small mechanical structures.

• Andrew Geraci (U. Nevada Reno)

Mechanical oscillators for precision measurements –

i. Precision force measurements using mechanical oscilllators

ii. Laser cooling and trapping of dielectric objects

iii. Applications: Casimir effect and tests for non-Newtonian gravity

• Steven Girvin (Yale)

Quantum mechanics of mesoscopic systems –

Lecture 1. Quantizing superconducting electrical circuits: photons and Josephson junctions -what is a photon?  What is the electric field of a superposition of 0 and 1 photon?

Lecture 2. Strong dispersive coupling: recent Yale experiments on making giant photon cat states - I will explain what a Wigner function is and show recent remarkable data.

Lecture 3. Quantum reservoir engineering – how to manipulate the spectral density of shot noise in a cavity for useful purposes such as optomechanical cooling or autonomous feedback to stabilize a coherent superposition state of a quit (our recent expt/theory paper with the Siddiqi group at Berkeley) --I would introduce the concepts of quantum noise spectral density, shot noise, parametric coupling, etc.

• H. Jeff Kimble (Caltech)

Quantum information and quantum optics–

Bell inequalities, ii) flavors of entanglement in QIS, iii) quantum teleportation

• Pierre Meystre/Steve Steinke (U. Arizona)

Theoretical background – 2 lectures meant to bring the participants to a common level in preparation of the school lectures.

• Herschel Rabitz (Princeton)

Quantum control – the active control of chemical and physical events. The theme of controlling events at the molecular scale also extends to research in systems biology. Studies in this area involve the development of analysis tools to identify the key linkages in complex bionetworks to reveal how they function as well as how to control them through the introduction of tailored chemicals.

• Peter Rabl (TU Vienna, Austria)

Hybrid systems in quantum optomechanics –

brief introduction on coupling nanomechanical to different types of qubits. I will then focus on the system of an NV center coupled magnetically as an example to discuss  the basics of laser cooling, state preparation and the coupling of  qubits via a phonon quantum bus. For the cooling I will present in more detail the general theory of laser cooling in the  Lamb-Dicke regime and say a little bit about semiclassical laser  cooling for this system. For coupling of spins I will discuss how to  obtain effective Ising models by eliminating the phonon modes and make  the connection to trapped ion quantum computing. If time permits, I  will conclude with a few basics aspects of strong coupling OM.

• Oriol Romero-Isart (MPI for Quantum Optics, Germany)

Quantum mechanics at the limit –

-- Discussion of the motivation of testing quantum mechanics (including the measurement problem, collapse models, the role of gravity in quantum mechanics, side applications, etc.)

-- Protocol to prepare large quantum superpositions of massive objects, based on freely expanding the ground-state cooled center-of-mass of a massive object (in a very general framework where the limits on the mass of the object and the

superpositions size are only given by unavoidable sources of decoherence.)

-- Bounds that this protocol poses to collapse models and comparison to other experiments and proposals.

-- Implementation by either optical levitation of dielectric nanospheres in a high-finesse optical cavity or magnetic levitation of superconducting microspheres near a quantum circuit.

• Keith Schwab (Caltech)

Quantum properties of nanoscale devices – probing the fundamental quantum nature of the physical world, applications in atomic and quantum optics experiments, furthering nanoscience and technology.

• Dan Stamper-Kurn (UC Berkeley)

Ultracold atoms and mesoscopic physics – exploiting ultracold atoms as a resource for studying aspects of condensed-matter and many-body physics, quantum and precision measurement, quantum optics and quantum atom optics. 

• John Teufel (NIST Boulder)

Microwave optomechanics –

I.    Introduction to Microwave Optomechanics

            II.   Sideband Cooling and Optomechanically Induced Transparency 

III.  Quantum Limits of Measurement in Mechanical Systems