The department of physics at the University of Stuttgart awards this 4.000 Euro prize, which is financed by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation, every year as a special recognition to doctoral students in physics who have carried out outstanding research in their PhD thesis.
The award ceremony will take place on January 22, 2021 as part of the graduation ceremony of the faculty of mathematics and physics.
A supersolid is a state of matter that can be described in simplified terms as being solid and liquid at the same time. In recent years, extensive efforts have been devoted to the detection of this exotic quantum matter. The research team led by Tilman Pfau and Tim Langen at the 5th Institute of Physics of the University of Stuttgart succeeded 2019 in proving experimentally that the long-sought supersolid state of matter exists. Fabian Böttcher's measurements of two types of sound modes brought the breakthrough, and for the first time the existence of a supersold state of matter was completely proven. Fabian Böttcher published his results on the so-called Goldstone mode in Nature magazine together with postdoc Mingyang Guo, and master student Jens Hertkorn as three equal first authors.
- Movie "Supersolid made in Stuttgart"
Duration: 3:08 | © University of Stuttgart | YouTube
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F. Böttcher, J.-N. Schmidt, M. Wenzel, J. Hertkorn, M. Guo, T. Langen, T. Pfau, Transient Supersolid Properties in an Array of Dipolar Quantum Droplets, Phys. Rev. X 9, 011051 (2019)
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M. Guo, F. Böttcher, J. Hertkorn, J.-N. Schmidt, M. Wenzel, H. P. Büchler, T. Langen, T. Pfau, The low-energy Goldstone mode in a trapped dipolar supersolid, Nature 574, 386--389 (2019) (arxiv)
- Fabian Böttcher "Supersolid Arrays of Dipolar Quantum Droplets", Dissertation Universität Stuttgart (2020), Publisher Dr. Hut