What do you work on at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory?
I am with the Fermilab Quantum Institute. I work on various aspects of high-energy physics and quantum information science. I work on what we call quantum communication systems; that’s using the properties of quantum entanglement to distribute information.
On the other side, I also work for the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment. In CMS, I work on precision-timing detectors, and I also look for new physics in what we call long-lived particles.
How did Fermilab become part of your career path?
I was an electrical engineer as an undergrad in Chile until I switched to physics at some point close to finishing my undergrad degree. Then I came to Fermilab as an undergrad from Chile to work on neutrino physics.
In the U.S., I applied to graduate school and got into Caltech. There, I did my Ph.D. in particle physics with the CMS experiment. I applied for a postdoc at many places and decided to join Fermilab as a Lederman Fellow.
As a Lederman Fellow, you have the freedom to choose what you do, which is great. I decided to work partly on the CMS, and in parallel, develop a new program to perform quantum communication experiments, which at the time was quantum teleportation. Now, the novel experiment that we are running at the Fermi Quantum Institute is called entanglement swapping.
How does your work overlap between the Fermi Quantum Institute and CMS?
I tend to think of ways to connect the dots. For example, ultra-precision timing is something that we’ve worked on extensively in CMS, and it also turns out that it underpins our quantum communications projects. Ultra-precision timing detectors are key to achieving our ambitions scientific goals, as well as electronics systems that can read out timing information with high accuracy. These are all aspects in which Fermilab is a leader in the field, which makes it very rewarding to be involved in such a vibrant community.
For example, recording the time of arrival of a long-lived particle in the CMS detector and the time of arrival of a photon in quantum teleportation or entanglement swapping experiments both need very precise time measurements. It’s not the same detector that we use, but it is the same concept. There’s a lot of information encoded in the time of arrival of a particle, and measuring it as accurately as possible enables us to conduct our experiments. By working at the frontier of time-precision detectors, I can transfer knowledge from one community to the other and run experiments seamlessly between the two.
How do outside collaborations play a role in your experience as a Fermilab scientist?
As a Fermilab scientist, I have the opportunity to interact with experts from different fields who come here to use our expertise. We have very fruitful and active collaborations that are really pushing the envelope.
People from all backgrounds come here. We have students, postdoctoral fellows and professors who set up their experiments at Fermilab. We have a very fluid collaboration with them so that’s something that I enjoy a lot.
It also feels like you’re not always grinding the same thing over and over again. There’s always something new, something unique, and there’s always a new challenge. It’s refreshing to have new students, to train new people, and to learn from them as well. So it’s very, very unique.