Maciej Lewenstein

Institut de Ciències Fotòniques

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Maciej Lewenstein (Warsaw 1955) graduated at Warsaw University in 1978. He joined the Centre for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where he remained for 15 years, becoming a professor in 1993. He finished his PhD in Essen in 1983 and habilitated in 1986 in Warsaw. He has spent several long term visits at Universitaet Essen, at Harvard University with Roy J. Glauber (Nobel 2005), at Commisariat a l'Énergie Atomique in Saclay and at Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at Boulder. He was on faculty of CEA in Saclay (1995-1998), of the Leibniz University Hannover (1998-2005). In 2005 he moved to Catalonia as ICREA Research Professor to lead the quantum optics theory at the Institut de Ciències Fotòniques in Castelldefels. His interests include quantum optics, quantum physics, quantum information, attosecond science, and statistical physics. His other passion is jazz and avant-garde music - he is an acclaimed jazz writer and critic.


Research interests

Maciej Lewenstein is a theoretical physicist per se. His research interests are extremely diverse. He works on and contributes successfully to different branches of physics and other sciences. On one side he deals with purely mathematical questions related to foundations of physics, such as the nature of correlations in quantum systems. On the other extreme, Lewenstein has worked on models of human cognition and human voting behavior. Recently his interests mainly focus on quantum many body physics, quantum information theory, quantum optics, atomic physics, atto-nanophysics, quantum simulators, quantum open systems, statistical physics, Brownian motion theory and its applications to quantum physics, nano- and bio-photonics, or applicati0ons of theoretical quantum chemistry to quantum many body physics. In his research he uses extensively methods of the contemporary theoretical physics. At ICFO Maciej Lewenstein leads a 25 people team working on the mentioned subjects.

Selected publications

– Ciappina MF, Perez-Hernandez JA, Landsman AS, Okell WA, Zherebtsov S, Foerg B, Schoetz J, Seiffert L, Fennel T, Shaaran T, Zimmermann T, Chacon A, Guichard R, Zaier A, Tisch JWG, Marangos JP, Witting T, Braun A, Maier SA,  Roso L, Krueger M, Hommelhoff P, Kling MF, Krausz F & Lewenstein M 2017, ‘Attosecond physics at the nanoscale’, Reports On Progress In Physics, 80, 5, 054401.

– Juenemann J, Piga A, Ran S-J, Lewenstein M, Rizzi M & Bermudez A 2017, ‘Exploring Interacting Topological Insulators with Ultracold Atoms: The Synthetic Creutz-Hubbard Model’, Physical Review X, 7, 3, 031057.

– Mugel S, Dauphin A, Massignan P, Tarruell L, Lewenstein M, Lobo C & Celi A 2017, ‘Measuring Chern numbers in Hofstadter strips’, Scipost Physics, 3, 2, UNSP 012.

– Tura J, De las Cuevas G, Augusiak R, Lewenstein M, Acin A & Cirac JI 2017, ‘Energy as a Detector of Nonlocality of Many-Body Spin Systems’, Physical Review X, 7, 2, 021005.

– Bera MN, Acín A, Kus M, Mitchell MWLewenstein M 2017, ‘Randomness in quantum mechanics: philosophy, physics and technology‘, Reports on Progress in Physics 80, 124001.

– Streltsov A, Rana S, Bera MN & Lewenstein M 2017, ‘Towards Resource Theory of Coherence in Distributed Scenarios’, Physical Review X, 7, 1, 011024.

– Osika E, Chacon A, Ortmann L, Suarez N, Perez-Hernandez JA, Szafran B, Ciappina MF, Sols F, Landsman AS & Lewenstein M 2017, ‘Wannier-Bloch Approach to Localization in High-Harmonics Generation in Solids’, Physical Review X, 7, 2, 021017.

– Bera MN, Riera A, Lewenstein M & Winter A 2017, ‘Generalized laws of thermodynamics in the presence of correlations’, Nature Communications, 8, 2180.


Selected research activities

– Jazz Concert of the Catalan-Polish Agustí Fernández Liquid Quintet at the Voll-Damm Jazz Festival in Vic (fundrasing and organisation)

75th ICREA Colloquium followed by the jazz concert: Abstraction in Science and Art: From Quantum Simulators to Free Improvised Jazz, Maciej Lewenstein with Vasco Trilla and El Pricto.