PIs

Status: unreviewed revisit date: None Application status: none LOR status: not_needed
Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Berengut Atomic Structure and Clocks Theory Group @ UNSW
Summary:

Berengut works on the atomic structure theory underpinning next-generation clocks: highly charged ions, whose optical transitions are both extremely narrow and exceptionally sensitive to variation of fundamental constants and to new physics, and the thorium-229 nuclear clock. He identifies which ionic species and transitions maximise sensitivity to the physics of interest while remaining experimentally accessible, and computes the many-body structure needed to interpret them — work that has directly guided the experimental HCI clock programmes at PTB, MPIK and NIST. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — clocks and magnetometers are the two great classes of quantum sensor; his work is on the frequency side of the same estimation problem that fixes pT/sqrt(Hz) performance on the magnetic side. Theory PI with close experimental collaborations.

Created at: July 12, 2026, 1:03 a.m. Updated at: July 12, 2026, 1:03 a.m. Metadata: Fresh 2026-07-11. Primary lab: atomic structure and clocks theory, School of Physics. Theory; long-running collaborations with European and US HCI clock experiments.