Hengstberger Award Prize Winner 2026

Over the past two decades, highly controllable condensed matter and atomic, molecular, and optical systems have emerged as powerful platforms for synthesizing artificial spacetimes and gauge fields in the laboratory. Phenomena once confined to theoretical speculation or extreme astrophysical environments, such as Hawking radiation, cosmological particle production, and symmetry-breaking dynamics in gauge theories, are becoming experimentally accessible under controlled conditions. Yet the researchers driving this progress are scattered across quantum gravity, condensed matter, ultracold quantum gases, and photonics, communities that rarely meet, let alone sustain a common conversation.

This symposium addresses that gap. It is structured around three interlocking questions: Which theoretical limitations can tabletop experiments now help overcome? Which experimental frontiers must be pushed next? Which unexplored synergies between theoretical branches can be developed into concrete programs? Each day pairs theoretical, experimental, and bridging perspectives on a shared theme, with generous protected time for moderated discussion and cumulative synthesis. The intended outcome is to move the field from the language of analogy to the language of precision. The overarching goal is the development of new experimental proposals, a shared theoretical framework connecting the participating disciplines, and a roadmap of benchmark experiments for quantum field simulation.

Event dates: 31 May –4 June 2027