Nir Navon
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| Nir Navon | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Université libre de Bruxelles (BSc) École Polytechnique (MSc) École Normale Supérieure (PhD) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Quantum turbulence in ultracold gases Optical box traps for quantum gases Thermodynamics of strongly interacting Fermi gases |
| 🏅 Awards | Packard Fellowship (2017) Sloan Research Fellowship (2019) NSF CAREER Award (2020) |
| 🌐 Website | uqm |
Nir Navon is an experimental physicist and Associate Professor of Physics at Yale University, where he leads the Ultracold Quantum Matter (UQM) laboratory.[1] His research focuses on the quantum many-body problem using ultracold atomic gases as a platform for quantum simulation, with particular emphasis on quantum turbulence and the emergence of collective phenomena in homogeneous quantum matter.[2] He is a member of the Yale Quantum Institute.[3]
Education and early career
Navon received his undergraduate degree from the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and a Master's degree from the École Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France. In 2011, he obtained his PhD from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris under the supervision of Christophe Salomon at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, where he developed methods to probe the thermodynamics of ultracold strongly correlated gases.[4] His doctoral work included precision measurements of the equation of state of strongly interacting Fermi gases across the BEC-BCS crossover, published in Nature and Science.[5][6]
Following his PhD, Navon held a visiting position at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, where he worked with Roee Ozeri on developing high-fidelity entangling gates between trapped ions for quantum information processing.[7][8]
In 2012, Navon was elected a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where he worked with Zoran Hadzibabic and Robert P. Smith.[1] During this period, he investigated the equilibrium and non-equilibrium behavior of homogeneous Bose gases using optical box traps—a technique that confines atoms in uniform-density potentials rather than conventional harmonic traps.[9]
He joined the Department of Physics at Yale University in 2017.[10]
Research
Thermodynamics of ultracold gases
During his doctoral work at the École Normale Supérieure, Navon and collaborators developed a general method to measure the equation of state of locally homogeneous ultracold gases from in situ imaging of harmonically trapped samples. Applying this technique to two-component lithium-6 Fermi gases, they performed the first precision measurement of the thermodynamics of the unitary Fermi gas—a universal strongly interacting quantum system relevant to neutron stars, nuclear matter, and the quark–gluon plasma.[5] They also mapped the equation of state across the full BEC-BCS crossover at low temperature, enabling stringent tests of quantum Monte Carlo calculations.[6]
Quantum turbulence
Navon is known for pioneering the study of turbulence in quantum gases. In 2016, working at the Cavendish Laboratory, he and collaborators observed the emergence of a turbulent cascade in a weakly interacting homogeneous Bose–Einstein condensate—the first observation of a full turbulent cascade in a quantum system amenable to a complete theoretical description on all relevant length scales. By trapping rubidium-87 atoms in a cylindrical optical box and applying a periodic driving force, they observed the gradual development of a Kolmogorov-type cascade of excitations from large to small length scales.[11] This work was highlighted in a Nature News & Views article.[12]
In 2019, Navon and collaborators performed the first direct measurement of energy cascade fluxes in a turbulent quantum gas, providing a direct demonstration of the zeroth law of turbulence—that the energy flux through a cascade is independent of the dissipation mechanism. They achieved this by using the adjustable depth of the optical box trap as a synthetic dissipation scale.[13]
Optical box traps
Navon has been a leading figure in the development and application of optical box traps for ultracold atomic gases. These traps produce spatially uniform quantum gases, enabling more direct comparisons between experiment and many-body theory, which typically assumes translational invariance. His work at Cambridge using box-trapped Bose gases led to the first observation of the Kibble–Zurek mechanism in a homogeneous system, studying the critical dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking across the Bose–Einstein condensation phase transition.[14] He co-authored a widely cited review article on quantum gases in optical boxes in Nature Physics.[9]
Ultracold Fermi gases at Yale
At Yale, Navon's group has performed a series of experiments with ultracold fermions in box traps. These include the first observation of the fermionic Joule–Thomson effect, a direct consequence of Pauli blocking,[15] a study of the stability of the repulsive Fermi gas with contact interactions,[16] and the observation of the emergence of first sound in a tunable Fermi fluid across the collisionless-to-hydrodynamic crossover.[17]
His group also demonstrated a new method for manipulating quasiparticle properties using an external driving field, showing that the energy and lifetime of Fermi polarons can be continuously tuned with a radio-frequency drive.[18]
Awards and honors
- 2012 – Elected Junior Research Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge[1]
- 2017 – David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering[19]
- 2019 – Sloan Research Fellowship[20]
- 2020 – National Science Foundation CAREER Award[21]
Selected publications
- Nascimbène, S.; Navon, N.; Jiang, K.; Chevy, F.; Salomon, C. (2010). "Exploring the thermodynamics of a universal Fermi gas". Nature. 463: 1057–1060. doi:10.1038/nature08814.
- Navon, N.; Nascimbène, S.; Chevy, F.; Salomon, C. (2010). "The equation of state of a low-temperature Fermi gas with tunable interactions". Science. 328: 729–732. doi:10.1126/science.1187582.
- Navon, N.; Gaunt, A. L.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2015). "Critical dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a homogeneous Bose gas". Science. 347: 167–170. doi:10.1126/science.1258676.
- Navon, N.; Gaunt, A. L.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2016). "Emergence of a turbulent cascade in a quantum gas". Nature. 539: 72–75. doi:10.1038/nature20114.
- Navon, N.; Eigen, C.; Zhang, J.; Lopes, R.; Gaunt, A. L.; Fujimoto, K.; Tsubota, M.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2019). "Synthetic dissipation and cascade fluxes in a turbulent quantum gas". Science. 366: 382–385. doi:10.1126/science.aau6103.
- Navon, N.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2021). "Quantum gases in optical boxes". Nature Physics. 17: 1334–1341. doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01403-z.
- Vivanco, F. J.; Schuckert, A.; Huang, S.; et al. (2025). "The strongly driven Fermi polaron". Nature Physics. 21: 564. doi:10.1038/s41567-025-02799-8.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Nir Navon". Yale University Department of Physics. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
- ↑ "Ultracold Quantum Matter". Yale University. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
- ↑ "Nir Navon". Yale Quantum Institute. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
- ↑ Navon, Nir (2011). Thermodynamics of ultracold Bose and Fermi gases (PhD). École Normale Supérieure / Université Pierre et Marie Curie.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Nascimbène, S.; Navon, N.; Jiang, K.; Chevy, F.; Salomon, C. (2010). "Exploring the thermodynamics of a universal Fermi gas". Nature. 463: 1057–1060. doi:10.1038/nature08814.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Navon, N.; Nascimbène, S.; Chevy, F.; Salomon, C. (2010). "The equation of state of a low-temperature Fermi gas with tunable interactions". Science. 328: 729–732. doi:10.1126/science.1187582.
- ↑ Akerman, N.; Navon, N.; Kotler, S.; Glickman, Y.; Ozeri, R. (2015). "Universal gate-set for trapped-ion qubits using a narrow linewidth diode laser". New Journal of Physics. 17: 113060. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/17/11/113060.
- ↑ Navon, N.; Akerman, N.; Kotler, S.; Glickman, Y.; Ozeri, R. (2014). "Quantum process tomography of a Mølmer-Sørensen interaction". Physical Review A. 90: 010103(R). doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.90.010103.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Navon, N.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2021). "Quantum gases in optical boxes". Nature Physics. 17: 1334–1341. doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01403-z.
- ↑ "Four faculty hires!". Yale University Department of Physics. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
- ↑ Navon, N.; Gaunt, A. L.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2016). "Emergence of a turbulent cascade in a quantum gas". Nature. 539: 72–75. doi:10.1038/nature20114.
- ↑ Anderson, B. P. (2016). "Fluid dynamics: Turbulence in a quantum gas". Nature. 539: 36–37. doi:10.1038/539036a.
- ↑ Navon, N.; Eigen, C.; Zhang, J.; Lopes, R.; Gaunt, A. L.; Fujimoto, K.; Tsubota, M.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2019). "Synthetic dissipation and cascade fluxes in a turbulent quantum gas". Science. 366: 382–385. doi:10.1126/science.aau6103.
- ↑ Navon, N.; Gaunt, A. L.; Smith, R. P.; Hadzibabic, Z. (2015). "Critical dynamics of spontaneous symmetry breaking in a homogeneous Bose gas". Science. 347: 167–170. doi:10.1126/science.1258676.
- ↑ Ji, Y.; Chen, J.; Schumacher, G. L.; Assumpção, G. G. T.; Huang, S.; Vivanco, F. J.; Navon, N. (2024). "Observation of the fermionic Joule-Thomson effect". Physical Review Letters. 132: 153402. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.153402.
- ↑ Ji, Y.; Schumacher, G. L.; Assumpção, G. G. T.; Chen, J.; Mäkinen, J. T.; Vivanco, F. J.; Navon, N. (2022). "Stability of the repulsive Fermi gas with contact interactions". Physical Review Letters. 129: 203402. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.203402.
- ↑ Huang, S.; Ji, Y.; Repplinger, T.; Assumpção, G. G. T.; Chen, J.; Schumacher, G. L.; Vivanco, F. J.; Kurkjian, H.; Navon, N. (2025). "Emergence of sound in a tunable Fermi fluid". Physical Review X. 15: 011074.
- ↑ Vivanco, F. J.; Schuckert, A.; Huang, S.; Schumacher, G. L.; Assumpção, G. G. T.; Ji, Y.; Chen, J.; Knap, M.; Navon, N. (2025). "The strongly driven Fermi polaron". Nature Physics. 21: 564. doi:10.1038/s41567-025-02799-8.
- ↑ "Navon wins 2017 Packard Fellowship for research on turbulence". YaleNews. 2017-10-17. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
- ↑ "YQI Member Nir Navon awarded prestigious 2019 Sloan Research Fellowship". Yale Quantum Institute. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
- ↑ "Nir Navon has won an NSF CAREER award". Yale University Department of Physics. Retrieved 2026-02-22.
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