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Anna Sanpera

Anna Sanpera

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

I graduated from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1986. From 1988 to 1992 I was a doctoral fellow (FPI) of the Ministry of Education and Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. In 1993, I moved to Oxford University, first as a research fellow and then as a Fleming Fellow. In 1996, I moved to Saclay (Paris) as a European postdoctoral research fellow. In 1998, I was appointed research fellow at Leibninz University, Hannover (Germany), where I completed my habilitation and became an assistant professor. Since 2005 I have been an ICREA research professor. My research interests are quite interdisciplinary and range from quantum information theory, in particular entanglement theory, to quantum gases, condensed matter and out-of-equilibrium open quantum systems.  I am also interested and involved in education and the popularization of science to society.  Otherwise, I am fond of  literature, sports and children.


Research interests

My research interest cover quantum information, atomic physics, condensed matter and statistical  physics. I study the properties that atoms frozen to very low temperatures display. Ultracold atomic gases permit to study, in a very clean way, a rich variety of systems which appear in Nature but whose exotic properties are difficult to understand. I am also involved in the mathematical description of entanglement, arguably the most distinct feature of quantum physics. Taking advantage of the quantum properties of matter, we engineer more powerful ways to process and distribute information and build, in a near future, a quantum computers and simulators able to perform tasks that classical computers cannot. I am also working in quantum thermodynamics, quantum learning and quantum metrology to exploit the advantatges quantum physics offers us to improve machine learning tasks as well as the determination of unknown parameters with a precission that classical physics cannot achieve.

Selected publications

– Riera-Campeny A, Sanpera A, Strassberg P, 2021, ‘Quantum systems correlated with a finite bath: Nonequilibrium dynamics and thermodynamics’, PRX-Quantum, 2, 010340.

Lewenstein, Maciej; Gratsea, Aikaterini; Riera-Campeny, Andreu; Aloy, Albert; Kasper, Valentin; Sanpera, Anna 2021, ‘Storage capacity and learning capability of quantum neural networks’, Quantum Science And Technology, 6, 4, 045002.

– Marconi, Carlo; Aloy, Albert; Tura, Jordi; Sanpera, Anna 2021, ‘Entangled symmetric states and copositive matrices’, Quantum, 5.


Selected research activities

Academic direction of the Postgraduate Program in Quantum Engineering at the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya.

ICREA Memoir 2021