Welcome to the Hensen Lab

Welcome to the Hensen Lab! We are a young dynamic experimental research group starting at the Leiden Institute of Physics.

Our lab addresses one of the key challenges of modern physics: understanding the interface between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Recently, an experimental test was proposed that can directly witness the need to unify the two theories: observing quantum entanglement between objects that only interact through the gravitational field. A successful test would prove the existence of superpositions of space-time and have far-reaching implications on how we understand our world.

We aim to develop and characterise an experimental platform that is compatible with the requirements for such a ‘entanglement through gravity’ experiment. The objectives of the research are to trap and levitate a picogram mass, cool its centre-of-mass motion to the quantum ground state, couple its motion to a controllable qubit system and produce and measure a spatial superpositions of the mass

We are looking for passionate new PhD students, Postdocs, and Master students to join the team (more info) !

We are grateful for funding from Leiden University, ERC starting grant, Quantum Delta NL, and the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research, NWO.

News

1. Oct 2024

Welcome to our new PhD student Eli van der Bent!

1. Sep 2024

Welcome to our new PhD student Richard Wagner & MSc student Julian van Doorn!

13. Aug 2024

Check out our first experimental preprint!

24. May 2024

Very proud our joint Leiden - Delft Summit proposal to investigate the boundaries of quantum mechanics was granted! More here.

13. Mar 2024

Check out our review of current experimental evidence for/against spacetime diffusion!

6. Mar 2024

Congratulations to Eli and Richard for finishing a fantastic MSc thesis!

1. Mar 2024

Very excited to have Robert Smit joining as a post-doc in our team!

25. Jan 2024

Looking for highly motivated phd students!

8. Jan 2024

We got a NGF Quantum Technology grant! More here

... see all News